Stellar fusion, p.6
Stellar Fusion, page 6
part #1 of Infinite Spark Series
Several flaming streaks whizzed by the team. Hurriedly patting down Bennett’s chest and stomach, Atana found no burns. Relieved, she released an SI from one of the thigh holsters and, leaning out with vengeful alacrity, fired two shots at their attackers.
The beasts collapsed, wounded, their dark, plum blood seeping from the smoldering holes she’d created. Atana reached down, drawing out her other Standard Issue, turning up the intensity of her weapons. Walking without fear toward the writhing bodies at the end of the hall, she stepped up on top of the Warruks, the rigid tread of her boots grinding into them.
Bennett peered around the corner to where she headed, shame clawing at the back of his brain for having been saved by her when it was supposed to be the other way around.
Their thick, stubby-fingered hands wrapped around her feet but made no progress in defending themselves against her onslaught. Gnarled knots of blue and green flames left the barrels she held, impacting both in the face simultaneously, painting the floor beneath.
Atana spun around to check on her team. “Dial up your weapons for these ones. They take an extra punch.” She paused in her tracks and dropped her SIs in their holsters. “Goss.”
Running to where he lay on the ground, she knelt next to him, slipping her fingers in his.
His stomach was covered in blood. He wasn’t moving, and his wristband wasn’t reading a pulse. It signaled significant blood loss then quieted, recognizing an irreversible state of damage: death.
Her heart rate spiked in anguish, sending her silenced wristband flashing furiously, catching Bennett’s eye. She whipped her head at it. Shut up, you. The light softened in sync with the realization of her growing sentiment toward the older shepherd. I should’ve protected him. He was a tech, a pilot, not a guard.
Atana’s head drooped, her free hand balling up into a tight fist, concealed opposite the group. Letting Goss’s hand rest gently on his thigh, she unclipped his wristband and shut down the computer, handing it to Cutter.
“I can take him back to the 501.” Panton solemnly suggested.
Bennett pointed loosely at Cutter and Josie, giving them a swift tilt of his head. Panton slung the older shepherd over a shoulder as Tanner gestured the direction they were headed. The three acknowledged and headed down the stairs. Bennett corralled Atana away, a hand tenderly to her back. Her blue eyes looked to him for only a second, but their colors were so flat and lifeless that he felt his own grow cold.
Proceeding up to the terminal chosen by Tanner, Bennett kicked in the large panel, flaring the edges out. With a knife, each uncovered from their own hiding place, the three sergeants pried it off. Tanner sorted through the grids of illuminated cables. Atana hovered over him, helping him navigate. Bennett stood with his back to them with SIs drawn, constantly switching his focus each direction. They hadn’t been on the ship for ten minutes, and one of the team was already gone.
When the others reappeared, Bennett directed Josie and Panton on setting up a post at the intersection they had come from. He called Cutter to stand guard with him at the opposite end.
They took a few paces farther away from Atana and Tanner so they could talk.
“Is she a tech too?” Cutter whispered. Not even a profile in the database for psych evals; otherwise I’d know. Screw. It’s probably in Rio’s office.
Bennett shrugged, checking the far post. Josie had her e-rifle crammed on her shoulder, the muzzle just low enough that she could scan over the top of the scope. Panton’s SIs glowed at the end of the hall.
Cutter caught Bennett examining Atana’s frame at length before returning his focus to the task at hand. “You need to talk to me about something?”
Atana broke up their conversation. “Oxygen is sufficient. We can un-suit.”
The team pulled their masks off.
“Company!” Panton yelled.
Two more large guards found the first set down. One rather clumsily unclipped a device from its belt and yelled some gargled sounds into it. Josie laid down fire from her e-rifle, taking out her intended targets. Atana frantically helped Tanner grab cables and cram them inside the pouch beneath the laptop, not wanting to lose another member of her team.
Two sets of thundering feet approached on Cutter and Bennett’s end. The creatures promptly backtracked, vanishing into the shadows.
Dropping her helmet to the floor and drawing her SIs, Atana took off down an adjacent hall without a word. Bennett signaled the rest of the team to follow the last pair, before racing to catch up with their leader.
Where’s she going? We shouldn’t be splitting up like this.
Taking a deep breath, he tried not to worry about his team. They were trained for this.
Sprinting down a long hall, Atana came to an abrupt stop in the center of a blackened opening. Lifting one SI, her arm outstretched and directed into the shadows, she fired two shots. Two thuds and she disappeared into the passageway.
Bennett clicked on his pocket flashlight, the bright beam flooding two decommissioned guards on the floor, shot through the head, with Atana hunkered over them. Her irises reflected silver when she looked back at him.
He flinched, clumsily holstering his SI. “How did you…”
At the sound of footsteps, he spun to meet another pair of guards face-to-face.
With no time to think or draw his weapon, he elbowed one in the gut and kicked the other in the stomach, throwing it against the wall. The flashlight tumbled from his grasp, hitting the hard floor. Skidding away, the light went out.
The first one grabbed him from behind. Bennett dropped out of the hold and rolled, standing into a roundhouse kick to the guard’s knee.
It went down. The second picked Bennett up by the throat, slamming him into the wall. It snarled. Strings of saliva dripped from its gaping mouth, exposing several rows of long, black, spiny teeth. Its breath like raw steak, Bennett choked with a gag and grabbed its wrist.
Bracing himself, he threw a punch straight into its throat, causing instant suffocation. It dropped him, slumping to the ground.
Atana tried to follow with her SI, impatient for an opportunity to shoot without risking a shepherd’s life too. Her plan had already led to one K.I.A., and she was making Hope’s Commander out to be a liar. She’d be damned if she let that number grow.
The first one had stood, wobbling and angrily reaching for Bennett. He ducked, spinning out of the way, providing ample room for the killing.
Bennett lunged off the wall, grabbing its head with his legs and swinging into a somersault, using his bodyweight to throw the larger assailant to the ground. Jumping up, Bennett took both by their heads, and in one snap, broke both of their necks. Just to be sure.
Atana’s brows lifted. He looked up to check on her and soaked in the surprise on her face. His opportunity to prove himself effective despite her doubts had occurred.
And he dominated.
The team rushed into the far intersection, weapons up, and flinched at the sight of their leaders. Josie nearly tripped on the piled up bodies.
Bennett twisted his neck with a snort, trying to get the beast’s malodor out of his brain. “We need to find a secure location to discuss our next steps.”
Josie yelled from down the hall, “Hey, uh, guys?”
“Report.” He quickly had his SIs squeezed tight in his palms, concerned by her hesitation.
“I… I don’t know, sir. I don’t know what to make of it, honestly.”
A warm, sweet-scented breeze escaped through a crack. Panton slid open the heavy door, and glittering light burst out into the hallway bathed in blood. Atana and Bennett cautiously slipped inside, the team at their heels. Panton quietly closed the door behind them.
Millions of tiny lights, above a synthetic, gaseous atmosphere, radiated down from 150 meters above the land. Tall, flaxen grains, with long awn strands like wild emmer, waved in the generated breeze. In the far distance, a small, rocky peak and grouping of bushy indigo trees appeared. A narrow, dirt path lay before them, leading out into the large facility. Dazed by the similarities to their home planet, they meandered, awestruck, through the fields.
Excruciating twinges suddenly ricocheted through Atana’s brain. Taking in a startled breath, her vocal chords released an aching groan. She collapsed, unable to focus enough to stand. Her fingers dug into the olive-brown clay beneath her weakened knees. Her eyes squeezed shut as a thousand voices sent her consciousness spinning.
Not now, please.
Bennett and the team held up. He knelt beside her. “You all right?”
It was a pain she’d only felt once before, one that had put her out of commission for two days. The memory-vision she’d had that day was of her and the boy, their brains harnessed to a machine shooting sparks that tunneled venomous needles through their neurons.
Go away!
Inhaling painfully slow and deep, she cleared her head enough to see through the haze and waved Bennett off. When the echoing noises faded, she pushed herself upright. The team followed when she continued down the trail.
A rustling in the fields surrounding them pulled the sergeants’ feet back to the ground. Crouching with weapons up, they scanned through the tops of the grasses, watching, waiting.
Afflicted
Chapter 16
THE WAVING GOLDEN SEA concealed all but the shepherds’ jutting eyes. Gripping their weapons with confidence, they held steady, primed for the signal. Creeping soundlessly along the path, they dared venture deeper into the vault.
Ambush.
Atana swirled in the aftermath of the drift. Who belonged to those voices, and why did she hear them when no one else on her team appeared affected? She needed to focus. She could question things later.
As if on cue, sparkling, gray mist wafted in, hugging her brain with sedative strength.
Approaching a part in the slender stalks, she caught sight of a small structure. Weathered, wooden poles held up a tightly tied twig-and-straw roof. Strips of tattered fabric hung from the top side of the windows and internal door frames, dancing and twirling in the subtle winds. The walls stood, supported by only a few crooked, terra cotta logs. Ochre branches had been woven together, creating a barrier between rooms, barely protecting its inhabitants from the oddly Earth-like landscape.
A tall figure shifted in the doorway of the humble home. A woman with long, black, twisted hair and dark brown robes stepped out into the open. A stole of bold hues wrapped over her shoulders, in contrast to the muted wash surrounding them.
Atana wasn’t sure if it was the serum, the lowered gravity, the higher oxygen, the voices, or the apparent woman she was staring at, but she was having trouble solidifying the connection between her mind and body.
The woman’s voice came out strong, flowing like a deep ocean current, carrying out across the grasses. “Welcome newcomers. Our intent is not to harm. We are not the ones on the surface of your planet. We are their slaves.”
“English?” Panton whispered.
Josie lurched at him with a glare. Shut up!
The team remained in their tactical defense formation, awaiting a command. Atana tried to stand, until a fistful of her jacket yanked her down.
What are you doing? Bennett mouthed.
Drawing a loop in the air with a finger, she mouthed back, We’re surrounded. Flattening out her hand, palm to the ceiling, she scoured his face. What else are we supposed to do?
“You have no idea who she is,” he whispered hoarsely with a shake of his head.
“Keep them low.” She spun to face the hut. We should not have come in here. Goss’s last wink up at her flashed its painful reality in her memory. If anyone is taking this risk, it’s me. Like a cowboy in a western duel, she rose warily above the awn, SIs prepped in hand, ready to fire from the holster at the slightest aggressive twitch of her opponent or the crowd. “I’m coming out.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, trying to get a better visual of the new arrival. When Atana’s figure appeared in the fields, the stranger stumbled, in shock.
“Is it really you?” She hurried several paces the team’s direction. “Please come, and your companions. Come into our home!” She bowed, grandly welcoming the sergeant with an open arm toward the humble structure.
Atana followed as if she were being hypnotized, honed in, not scanning her surroundings.
Bennett stood in alarmed disbelief, exposing his head and chest above the fields to object. “Atana…”
Tanner flinched at his side, his SI up and ready. Other life forms peeked through the budded grasses around the team, curious what had the attention of the woman in the robes. Raising their weapons, the team was prepared to defend their position. They spun out, covering their leaders 360 degrees.
“The workers will not harm you. Please, come!” The woman turned and walked inside.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Bennett contended.
It’s got to be a trap. His answer came in Atana’s glance before she headed into the hut. He signaled for the team to follow. Where she went, he had to go, and he wasn’t leaving his team. To the last drop.
Multiple sets of eyes tracked the team when they stepped into the clearing in front of the comforting structure. Unnerved and reluctant, they backed in through the wooden arch. The woman took her seat in the corner. The center of the front room had five vacant straw bale stools with loosely woven fabric coverings on top. They were placed in a circle around a single wider bale, with several small, misshapen clay containers holding substances of various tertiary colors on its top.
“I am Saema Chamarel. The workers of the Hatoga fields call me Saema. Please, sit.” The team rested on the stools, all except Bennett. She tracked him, pacing the doorway of the hut. “You are safe with us.”
His disgruntled look was mere confirmation of what she had detected.
“The Suanoa are the ones responsible for the invasion, not us, Sergeant Bennett. Please, sit, so you do not concern my workers. They have much labor left to render the harvest to the Suanoa’s demands.”
Bennett stopped in his tracks. “How do you know my name?”
He observed the many shades of human skin tones on her face when she slowly tilted it his direction. Covered with a hint of a metallic sheen, her cheeks blended and caramelized to match his darker complexion. Saema motioned casually at his chest.
The nametape, Jameson. She can read English too.
Bennett grunted out of irritation and discomfort with the situation. It pinged off every instinctive cell in his body. They were ready, waiting for the moment the skies would darken and his gut feeling to run would be justified. The serum kept them all stable enough. But Atana… He worried about her. Command’s most effective assassin had been taken down by a force he couldn’t see to fight.
“I am the Sacred Mother here,” Saema continued. “They come to me for food and healing. These life forms are from many different planets and galaxies, taken from their homes.”
Panton blurted out his question. “So the flash we see is transporting our people to one of these containers?”
Saema dipped her head. “Yes, by Linoan collectors. The initial processing occurs in what we call ‘the sway,’ an area in between gravitational control systems. Initial retrieval always designates the first groups go to testing. After the life forms are considered useable, they sort the healthy ones for their abilities. Some go to Maintenance; some come to Production, which is one of the many locations, as this one, where we are. The weak ones are eliminated.” She cleared her throat. “Dumped out the airlock, usually while alive.” She stilled at the team’s abnormally calm yet displeased appearance. “Does that not bother you?”
Atana opened her mouth to explain when a thin teenager with scraggly clothes and dirty, light-gray skin peeked in from behind a curtain. She studied the tufted ears near the back of his head.
“Ma, you want me bring tea?” His abnormally large, sunshine-yellow eyes focused directly on the woman in the long robes.
Saema directed toward the youngster. “This is Teek. He is my most recent helper.”
“Giyam!” Teek lifted his long, curved fingers with a smile.
“Let’s hold off for a few moments. It’s almost meal time.”
“Tsu, Ma,” he replied with a bow and disappeared.
Panton held in a laugh. “More like geek than Teek, huh?”
Josie elbowed him in the gut.
He barely flinched. “You’re right, bad timing.”
She shot him a condescending glare. Really? That’s what was wrong with that statement? She caught Saema smiling at her.
Bennett gave him a speculative glower. “We know it to be wrong. But, it does not ‘bother’ us in the normal human sense of the word.” His palms rested over the handles of his SIs, twitching at every odd sound. “Why our world?”
Saema lingered for a moment over his frustrated face. “You have what they need to survive.”
“So this land we’re on is from another planet?” Tanner glanced down.
“Yes, Lizra. My home.” Her robes shifted near the floor. “The Suanoa force those they select to do the labor, with the threat of death to us, our families, and our sectors, if we do not obey. For now, you are safe. And you will be here a while.” If not forever.
Pangs of unsettling noise erupted in Atana’s mind. She flinched, straining her neck, her brows pressed together. Releasing a slow, deep breath from her nose, she attempted to calm the re-emerging ache in her brain.
“We must relay information to our Command so they are aware of this and can find a solution.” Bennett shifted beside their leader, her face darkened from pain. I need to get her back to Station so she can take some R and R.
Saema shook her head. “Individuals attempting to make contact are dumped. The vessel you arrived in has likely been discarded by the survey crews.”
