Gateway (Gateway Series Book 1) (28 page)

“He will never know,” replied Mori as she slowly raised her pistol.

“Do it!” yelled Orion.

Mori fired.

Astra’s body slumped limply onto the ground and blood began to pool from the back of her head. Mori, still holding her pistol at Astra’s motionless body, looked over toward Orion.

“You probably did more good for the Terillian race and humanoids in general with that one bullet than the millions already fired.”

“What happened?” asked Stone, who had turned the corner into the room seconds after Mori’s shot rang out.

“Ty…I…”

“She grabbed a weapon,” interrupted Orion. “I had to shoot her.”

Surprised, Mori looked over to Orion.

Orion returned a glance of acknowledgment.

Stone stood silent.

Mori turned back toward Stone. “I—”

“You had no choice,” interrupted Stone. “We have to get out of here.” 

***

The group quickly made their way back to
Hydra
. As the hovercraft came to an abrupt stop, they jumped off and ran toward the ship. Rickover stood at the entrance as Orion and TC raced past him.

“What the hell?” he said. “That took long enough.”

“Shut up, Rickover,” ordered Orion. “Get below deck and make sure we have full power until we can jump.”

“Aye, Captain. I’ll make sure you’ve got what you need,” recognizing the urgency in Orion’s voice.

Orion and TC jumped into their seats and started bringing the ship to life while Mori and Stone took their places behind them and buckled their straps. Orion’s and TC’s hands were a blur as they worked the controls. In a few seconds
Hydra
was free of the magnetic mooring and rapidly accelerating upwards toward orbit.

“TC, have us ready to jump as soon as we get out of the atmosphere.”

“Roger, where to?” he asked.

“Navato system,” replied Orion.

“Roger.”

“You don’t have to do that,” said Stone. “I don’t have enough money left to cover you taking us that far.”

“Consider this one on the house. After what I heard back there, I’m all in on this one.”

“Captain, two condors closing fast. Fire control radar is tracking,” warned TC.

“Son of a bitch,” replied Orion. “Engineering, remove all safeties.”

“Remove safeties, Aye.”

Hydra
shuddered as Orion took her to full throttle.

“Arilius,” said Stone. “He must have had an alternate communication suite installed. I should have thought of that.”

“They’re firing!” shouted TC.

“Hold on,” ordered Orion as she rolled the ship and pulled into a full vertical accent. Explosions rocked the ship as the first salvo barely missed them. “Nav, are the coordinates ready?”

“Thirty seconds. Firing again.”

“Release countermeasures. I’m gonna try to get behind one of them.”

Before he met Cassandra Orion, Stone would have thought it was suicide for a pilot to engage condors with a thirty-year-old falcon. Ten seconds and a stomach-wrenching maneuver later, she was behind the condors.

“Engaging fire control. Tracking.”

The first condor engaged after thrusters and started to pull away, but the second thought himself a worthy opponent. He was not.

“Fire control locked. Firing.”

Two plasma pulses traced a line from the falcon to the condor. Both found their mark. The condor disappeared in a white hot explosion as
Hydra
accelerated through the debris.

Passing through the explosion, the bluish sky turned dark as the ship sped out of the atmosphere into space.

“Ten condors approaching from Alpha Humana. Picking up a frigate accelerating toward us off the starboard quarter,” warned TC. “Jump coordinates locked. The frigate is opening fire.”

“Engage jump, now,” ordered Orion.

In a bright blue flash,
Hydra
accelerated and then disappeared into the vastness of space.

Chapter 18

A few minutes out of
Hydra’s
jump and the massive asteroid belt came into view. Beyond lay Venato and possibly the fate of two civilizations.

“Damn,” said Orion as she peered out of the cockpit. “That is a lot of asteroids.”

“How are we going to navigate through that?” asked Stone, amazed by the vastness of the field.

“Looks like it’s not going to be easy,” answered Orion.

“Magnetic fields are disrupting my short range navigation systems,” reported TC.

“Not easy at all.” Orion reached over to reduce the gain on short range navigation plot, which was clouding due to the field. “We’re gonna have to do this manually, TC,” Orion added as she continued to adjust the navigation plot.

“Is that possible?” asked Mori.

“I don’t know,” Orion replied, “but there’s not really any other choice but to go back.”

“Captain,” said TC, “picking up comms on Xen frequencies.”

“So there is something out here,” said Stone.

“Put it through,” Orion said to TC, still adjusting the gains.

‘
Falcon vessel, this is Venato Control. Pass identification codes or you will be engaged
.’

“What codes?” asked Stone. “Aren’t we already emitting Xen idents?”

“We are but I have a feeling they want something else.”

“Captain,” informed TC, “picking up craft off our bow, coming in…really fast.”

Two fast-moving craft rapidly approached
Hydra
. A few kilometers from the ship, they slowed and took up escort positions. Their silver metallic coating shimmered against the backdrop of space.

“I think those are condors,” said Stone. “But none like I have ever seen.”

“Daaammn,” declared Orion. “That’s the sexiest ship I’ve ever seen.”

“I hate to break up the love-fest, but if we don’t give them whatever code they want that sexy ship is going to vaporize us,” warned Mori.

The group stared at one another, not sure of their next move.

“Might as well give it a shot,” said Orion, breaking the silence. “TC, upload that code we purchased on Port Royal…the one you said was a waste of Humani.”

“What code?” asked Stone.

“I came across a Xen code in the market polis a few months back. The dealer said it was a code for slaver vessels allowing access to special territory. They were asking a fortune for it but the dealer was reputable and had some connections with the Association so I figured it might come in handy someday…Let’s hope today is that day.”

“Sending the code,” reported TC. “Hopefully it was worth the money.”

A few seconds elapsed.

‘
Confirmed
,’ came through the comms circuit.

“Damn, that was close,” exclaimed Orion.

The two advanced condors cut in front of
Hydra
and were gone with a flash of silver, accelerating to near-jump levels in seconds.

“Those condors were something,” said Orion, still impressed. “But I don’t think we’re gonna get through the field as easily as they are.”

‘
Falcon vessel vector to 320 relative, maintain current Z position
.’

“Roger?” answered Orion as she looked toward TC and shrugged.

Following the ordered course,
Hydra
continued on toward the asteroid belt. Soon, two large orbital stations came into view in the distance. Slowly an opening began to materialize in the field between the stations. Eventually, a void large enough for
Hydra
to pass was created.

“Those stations are putting out a massive magnetic field,” said TC. “It must be acting on the metals in the asteroids.”

“I guess they’re opening up the doors for us,” said Mori. “Better get through before they change their mind.”

Hydra
drifted through the corridor created by the stations. Massive floating boulders floated in all directions—held back by electro-magnetic force.

Those same magnetic fields were also wreaking havoc with ship.

“Thrusters to port,” ordered Orion as she struggled against the forces pulling the ship off course. “It might have been easier to navigate the field.”

Stone looked over toward Mori and smiled.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Your hair.”

Mori’s hair had returned to its normal length, and the static electricity created inside the ship caused it to expand in all directions.

Mori’s cheeks grew flush as she felt her hair. “Shut up, Ty,” she replied with a quick jab to Stone’s shoulder.

A quick jolt of electricity passed from her hand, giving Stone a little shock and giving Mori obvious satisfaction.

“Looks like we’re almost through,” said TC. “Systems are returning to normal.”

“There it is,” said Orion. 

Venato lay dead ahead of them.

“Shit!” uttered Orion as an enormous Royal Xen battle cruiser drifted along in high orbit. Noticeably larger than the Humani or Doran versions, the gigantic ship orbited Venato like a small moon, keeping watch on the secret project and ensuring the Directive was being carried out. Several smaller crafts made their way toward the planet—undoubtedly slavers with more specimens for the Xen.

“All right, Tyler,” asked Orion, “where do we go from here?”

Stone froze. He didn’t have a plan. He was actually surprised they had made it as far as they had.

“Stone?” asked Orion again.

“I’m thinking.”

“You need to come up with something fast. We’re entering the atmosphere, and a slaver ship without a cargo of slaves is going to cause some problems.”

“We need a way to get on the planet and not have them come after us,” said Stone, thinking out loud.

“Oh, that’s all,” said Orion sarcastically. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“Just give me a couple minutes.”

“Another couple minutes and we’re either gonna be face to face with those reptiles or shot out of the sky.”

“Wait,” interrupted Mori. “You’ve got it.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” asked Orion.

“We need to crash.”

“What?” said Orion as she turned in her cockpit to look at Mori.

“You can do a dead stick entry, right?”

“Like a silent insertion mission?” added Stone, starting to understand Mori’s plan.

“Yeah…but…” Orion mouthed the word “Oh” as she grasped Mori’s plan.

“TC, kill the sensors…Engineering, standby for deadstick landing. TC, patch in our comms.”

“Engineering, standing by,” reported Rickover.

“Securing thrusters and stabilizers,” warned Orion. “Hold on.”

Hydra
pitched downward as all electronic power was lost. The familiar floating stomach sensation came to Stone as the ship plunged downward.

“Time to give ‘em a show,” said Orion as she activated the comm link. “Venato Control, this is falcon vessel, captives have escaped hold. Electronics damaged, flight control inoperable, losing altitude.”

‘
Falcon vessel, this is Venato control. Per Directive instructions, assistance is not authorized
.’

“I knew they wouldn’t give a damn about a single load of captives or the crew,” shouted Mori, breathing heavily against the gravitational force exerted during the free fall.

“Venato, falcon vessel, approaching too fast…can’t maintain control…” Orion looked over toward TC. “I hope they bought it.”

‘
Condor CAP 7, this is Venato Control, incoming track 32 experienced power failure, crash imminent, perform visual
.’

“Are they going to buy this with a flyby?” said Stone as he struggled against the force of the dive.

“They will now,” said Orion as she yanked back on the controls.

Stone felt dizzy as the ship tumbled end over end, spinning as it fell. The condors were looking for a ship out of control—Orion would give them one.

‘
Venato control this is CAP 7, verified falcon control and power failure. Returning to orbit
.’

Stone tried to focus on the horizon but had to close his eyes as the spinning a rattling of the ship took its toll on his senses.

“They bought it,” huffed Orion. “TC…mark…altitude…”

“One…five…zero…zero…meters.”

“Give…me…hydraulics and weapons control,” ordered Orion.

“Come on
Hydra
, you bitch!” she yelled. “Work with me!”

Hydra
complied and slowly righted itself with a little help from Orion.

“TC, release debris storage. Reverse thrusters, full rudder. Standby to release explosive inventory.”

“What kind of explosives are you carrying onboard?” asked Stone.

“I had Rickover make a mod to carry six carriage bombs…never know when you might need to make your own landing zone, or in this case, fake your own crash,” smiled Orion.

TC reported he was ready. “Debris hatch open, standing by to release…”

“Release.”

With Orion’s order, the ship bounced as the weight of the debris and the bombs were released and the thrusters engaged. As
Hydra’s
descent slowed, Orion fired the main engine to get forward momentum before the bombs impacted. The explosion pitched
Hydra
forward, but it was nothing Orion could not control. Bringing
Hydra
to the treetops, Orion turned to view the impact area.

“Hopefully this scattered debris and scorch patterns should provide enough evidence to satisfy any follow-up Xen patrols. TC, secure everything except passive search, hydraulics, and weapons. Let’s keep as quiet as possible.”

She turned back to Stone and Mori. “We’re about ten or fifteen kilometers from their main base. Sorry I couldn’t get it closer. We’ll move parallel until we find a place to put down and figure out our next move. That should give you more than a ‘couple minutes’ to get a plan together,” she smiled.

“Orion,” said Mori. “If the Terillian Confederation had more pilots like you, we could deal with the Xen easily.”

“I’m not sure about that,” answered Orion, “but consider me in the service of the Confederation once again. I can’t sit this one out. It’s too big…and way too exciting.”

In a few minutes, Orion found a small clearing that Stone would never have thought a falcon could land in, until he met Orion.

Once on the ground, Orion unbuckled herself from her seat and turned TC. “You and Rickover find some camouflage to hide the ship from overhead patrols.” She turned toward Stone and Mori. “Let’s get some fresh air and figure out our next move.”

Stone felt the warmth of the sun and the cool breeze on his face; he breathed deeply. The smell of wildflowers, trees, and a nearby stream filled his senses.

“Now that’s refreshing after all that time on recycled air,” said Orion as she stepped out of
Hydra
and onto the soft ground below.

“It’s actually kind of beautiful,” said Mori as she looked into the forest surrounding their ship.

“It’s hard to believe that amidst all this beauty, such evil is taking place,” added Stone, remembering what had brought them to the planet.

“Well, what do we do from here?” asked Orion.

“At first I just wanted to find out what was going on out here, but now we have to find a way to shut down the operation,” said Stone.

“Maybe we should just try to get out of here and inform the Terillian military,” proposed Orion. “Let them take out the base.”

“First,” added Mori, “we would have to get out of here without getting killed. Then we would have to get through the asteroid belt, no doubt chased by those badass condors. If we somehow make it past them and get through the Dark Zone to Terillian territory, they would have to redirect at least an entire national or even Confederation fleet and fight their way here. By then they could have the virus weaponized.”

“Looks like we will have to do it from here,” replied Stone. “Now we just have to figure out how to destroy an entire base with a thirty-year-old falcon and five people.”

A report from Rickover came through the short-range comms link.

‘
Captain, we’ve got something over here you should see. We’re about half a kilometer forward of the ship
.’

“Roger. We’ll be there in a minute,” replied Orion.

Thick layers of decomposing plant life, moss, and fallen trees covered the ground in the dense deciduous forest as the group headed toward Rickover and TC. A few yards into the forest, Stone began to feel uneasy; something was not right. He brought his rifle to the ready and motioned to Mori, who had already done the same.

Stone quickly and quietly moved to take a flanking position and faded into the wilderness.

***

“What is it?” asked Orion as she caught her breath after reaching TC and Rickover.