Last Flight of the Ark (23 page)

One of the soldiers stepped closer to Melissa. He lifted his nose into the air and sniffed.

“Negotiate?” He tipped his head and listened. “You’ve brought others. You’re not here to negotiate.”

“Yes. You need to let the hostages go.”

“Not until you let our families go. What’s to stop me from taking you, too?” He stepped closer and Kaleb pulled the trigger, dropping him where he stood. Shots began to fly and when the smoke cleared, five stunned males lay on the ground.

Melissa looked up and smiled. “I told you it would work.”

He’d not doubted for a second it wouldn’t work. What he didn’t like was the choice of bait. “We’re going to have a conversation about this later.”

The corner of Melissa’s mouth curled. “A conversation?”

“An intensive discussion.” He glanced over his shoulder and discovered many of his squad watched her exactly the way he did. Their mouths hung open. He growled again, and they all immediately looked down, submissive to their alpha. She was making them crazy. Hell, she was making him crazy. “Put on your clothes on before I have to shoot someone else.” He tossed her uniform to her.

“I look forward to that discussion.” Melissa smiled and began to pull it on. His cock twitched and he smiled back. It was hard to stay mad at her when all he could think about was the multitude of positions he was going to twist her into during their
discussion
.

***

The renegades had infected fifteen crew members who’d been on the shuttle. The renegades had been detained and would be dealt with after the ship left orbit. For now, he had a lot of explaining to do. Starting with the frightened crew, huddled together in the room where they’d been held hostage.

“My name is Colonel Kaleb Titan, commander of the Terra II settlements. I won’t hurt you.”

“Are you one of them?”

He nodded. “Unfortunately, you are now, too.”

“We want to go back to our ship.”

“That isn’t going to happen. You’ve been infected with a mutation.”

A woman to the front lifted her chin and locked gazes with him. “I’m a doctor. There has to be a treatment, a cure?”

“Not one you want to use.”

“Have you tried?”

“No, but the previous residents of this world did. Trust me when I say this, it could be worse.”

She nodded. “What do you propose to do? I have to file a report of this incident.”

He glanced around the ruins. “I’m going to give your commander a little tour.” One look at the murals, the records of the hives they’d destroyed, the piles of bones, ought to convince the commander to think twice about letting anyone off the planet with the infection. He glanced over at Melissa. “Get a crew over here and clean out the big building on the west side. Earth’s about to get a lesson in what’s out there.”

Kaleb shifted his gaze to the medical officer. “Now I’ve got a couple questions for you, Captain. Starting with, what you were looking for?”

***

The armada in orbit was huge. After Earth Command found the aliens on Ursus Station, they sent for more ships. Ships with engineers, scientists, and people capable of dissecting foreign technologies. A sinking feeling in Kaleb’s gut told him not only had they brought troops to help them, but they’d brought people to study the hijackers’ technology to use for themselves. Playing with anything belonging to the hijackers wouldn’t be good.

He grabbed the com and slipped the headset on. “
Genesis III
command, this is Colonel Kaleb Titan of Terra II command base.”

“This is
Genesis III
Command.”

“Requesting your command crew’s presence only. Hold all other trips to the planet. We’re dealing with a plague.” Technically it wasn’t a plague, but he needed to get their attention and stop any more unannounced shuttles from coming to the planet.

“Excuse me, commander—did you say plague?”

“Affirmative. It’s not airborne, but it can be spread and I need to discuss our situation with the admiral in private.”

“We have a crew on the ground.”

“Terra II base is aware of the crew on the ground. They’re here at the center and grounded to the planet. I repeat, do not send anyone but the command crew.”

“Relaying your request, sir.”

“Roger, we’ll wait for your arrival. My nav will forward the coordinates of the landing zone. The LZ is secure and I have forces in place to escort them safely to my location.”

“It sounds like you expect hostilities.”

“Being cautious. Out.” He handed the headset to Melissa. He never understood why it had taken the admiral so long to get here, but now he’d a good idea. They wanted the alien technology and he’d handed it to them. He had to show them how dangerous it was. They had no clue what they were getting into.

“Get them on the ground outside the old city. I’ve got the LZ covered. Have the floor of the main building with the mosaics cleaned off. It’s time to let the proverbial cat out of the bag and I’m not sure how they’re going to react to what I show them.”

“How did you react, sir?” Melissa raised a brow.

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

***

Kaleb stared at the floor from the balcony. Stunned. He’d expected more of the storyboards of Atlantis, not a full map of the galaxy. He’d only seen a small fraction of the floor before, when he’d first found the city. Now that all the murals were cleaned off and completely visible, he had a hard time processing everything before him. There were hundreds of living worlds. If what he was seeing was correct, the galaxy had just gotten a little more crowded. When he scanned outward, to neighboring galaxies, he felt even more insignificant.

After he’d shown the story panels to the admiral, he wandered upstairs to get a view of the bigger picture. Some was curiosity and the rest was to get his mind and nerves under control. The admiral went straight to the com to contact Earth Command. It had been over eight hours since he’d left. Who knew how long it would take Earth to get the transmission and respond. Thousands of lives hung in the balance.

He studied the details, every planet and star. All plotted out with precision. He couldn’t read the language, but he had a good idea of the distance by studying the figures written between Earth and Terra II, and comparing them to others. Basic algebra had actually come in useful, for once. One other thing surprised him. Terra II wasn’t the closest life-bearing planet to Earth. A wormhole provided a gate to Terra II, a means to reach it from the distance, but even so, it wasn’t the closest, only the most accessible with Earth’s technology.

The
Genesis III’s
commander came up behind him. Without looking, he knew who could hear him and smell him before a word was spoken.

“Sir.” Kaleb spun around and saluted.

Admiral Johnson saluted back and then nodded to the floor below. “What do you make of that, Colonel?”

“We’re not alone out here,” he said, staring at the sea of colorful tiles. But he’d known that, well at least some of it.

“I never assumed we were,” the admiral said. “In fact, that’s why I brought extra research vessels. We decoded your cleverly encrypted message about Ursus Station and I pulled satellite imagery from our backup remote and decided I needed to bring more scientists. I’m glad I did. Even though we’ve searched the rest of the planet and the city appears to be the only settlement our ‘friends’ had, they could have others on other planets. We need to secure this world.

“The alien species really wasn’t a surprise, I knew somewhere out there life existed outside our sphere of existance, but you surprised me with the mutation. You are aware I could have you all rounded up and locked down.”

“We have every right to live—to evolve. Earth can’t punish us for not being the same. How many different species and creatures do you suppose the universe contains, if this alone is what our galaxy holds?”

“Easy, Colonel. I have no intention of punishing you. You did what was necessary to save lives.”

“Why do I feel there’s more?”

“Because you’re perceptive. Terra II looks like a central hub for many of the locations. Perhaps we can become a galactic embassy, a place for all races and species to meet?”

“What if the others were like the last? We can’t hope to fight them with our primitive technology. We barely survived our first encounter and look at the result.”

“What if they’re not? This planet could become a launching point for exploration. I feel we owe it to our worlds to try. I’m going to contact Earth Command later about this map, but I’d like a moment of your time now to discuss the mutation.”

“Go ahead, sir.”

“Can you keep them under control?”

“Yes, sir. I believe I can. The incident with your shuttle was the first occurrence since we landed on the planet eight months ago. They want their families.”

“That’s not going to happen, and those involved with spreading the infection will be punished. I have to make an example. If you think you can keep the rest of them under control, I’ll recommend that they leave the hybrids alone. Those murals have convinced me you’re doing the best thing in this situation. You’re the expert, Colonel. I’m no geneticist, but I can see the story behind those mosaics and I don’t think we need to repeat the mistake. Earth Command agrees.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Kaleb relaxed. He could sense there was more, but the biggest hurdle had been overcome. They’d live.

“Don’t relax yet. They’ll want weekly reports on the status of the mutants. I’m also going to suggest we build a starbase here. If this map is accurate, it’s only a matter of time before Terra II has visitors. We’ll want a force in place in case it’s needed. The base can double as security for the colonies and police the hybrids if they get out of order.”

Babysitters. Great, just what they needed. “Where would you like to place this installation?”

The admiral smiled. “You’re standing on it.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea? We have no idea the technology they used to power this city. It could be faulty and dangerous. The place is in ruins.”

“I’m bringing in a team of archeologists, engineers, and scientists—experts in every field. If my instincts are on target, technologies could be hidden everywhere. We cannot ignore the possibility of expanding our knowledge about these aliens. If the people who built this city traveled to these other worlds, this place could be the key to Earth doing likewise and the technologies might be needed if we have to defend ourselves from them again. After all, if those storyboards are true, this city really is a ship and a wonder in itself. We would be foolish not to study it.”

“Sir, with all due respect, those technologies could also be deadly.”

“The city is officially under my jurisdiction and you don’t need to worry about that further, Colonel. I’m putting you to command of the hybrids, and relieving you of your duties involving the colonists. I will forward a copy of the laws Earth Command wants put immediately in place and enforced. If you can’t keep control of the hybrids, Earth Command will have no choice but to quarantine all infected. If you want to keep your people out of cages, you need to focus more on what they’re doing and less on what’s going on over here. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” For now they were free, but that could change at any moment. Earth Command wanted to set up an installation and bring troops onto the planet. It was more than he could hope for. Kaleb had expected worse, much worse, but something felt really wrong about it. What if they decided to study the mutation too, or use it in some manner?

***

“This is as good as sterilization, sir. They’re forcing us to take long-term birth control. What’s next?” Jessica crumpled the paper and threw it across the room. “Who are they to tell us if we can have children or not?”

He didn’t want to say it, but it made sense. The ecosystem of the planet was delicate. An imbalance in a population could bring down a chain of events that led to the destruction of their world. Plus the females, when they went into heat, caused a lot of trouble they couldn’t afford right now. The admiral had made himself perfectly clear about that.

He scooped up the ball of laws. “Calm down, Jessica. They didn’t say you’d have to abort your children. All
nonpregnant
females are being ordered to medical for implants. They’ll document your pregnancy and give you an implant after you have the babies.”

She snorted and crossed her arms.

“We either do this or we die. They aren’t giving us a choice.”

Kaleb smoothed the crumpled paper and stared down at the laws. He knew them by heart now, but couldn’t help going over them again, hoping for loopholes, anything to make it easier to take.

No socialization between humans and hybrids.

No hunting, except with weapons at an acceptable distance from prey.

No travel off the planet
. That was a given.

Travel on the planet is to be restricted to hybrid colonies.

Contact with human colonies is forbidden unless the hybrid carries an Earth Command signed passport and is escorted by military personnel
. That should keep the hybrids off Earth’s fancy new base. Convenient.

Any hybrid that willfully infects a human will be condemned to death by the Terra II and Earth courts of law.

All unauthorized transmissions of the infection will be deemed a capital offense
.

 His guts churned. He’d infected over two thousand. Kaleb was certain they’d all be dead if he hadn’t. Everything they suffered was because of him. His fault, the choice he’d made for them. Even if it had been the right choice, it still bothered him.

He didn’t like the sound of that last bit. What did they consider authorized? It seemed as though they were considering experiments. He’d thought the murals made it clear the danger they faced. Didn’t they see what already had come from playing with nature? Apparently not.

Curfews will go into effect at star-set and will be released at star-rise. Any hybrids caught outside their quarters after dark will be punished to the full extent of the law
. What? Did they really buy into all that Hollywood nonsense about the full moon? They had three satellite moons, nicknamed the three sisters, and though they affected moods and tides, they’d nothing to do with the ability of the hybrids to shift their shapes. There was more, but he was too angry to read any of it. Kaleb crumpled the document and tossed it back on the floor where Jessica had originally thrown it. Why didn’t they insert a clause in there about any hybrid having a life? They were still human.