phil jones2 (46 page)

'What changes? I've got a few new crew members but we're still one good shot away from all dying.'

The Admiral waved that assessment away as if it were inconsequential. 'You noticed no difference in the world around you after you had been without the glove for some time?'

Phil shrugged. 'I suppose the stakes rose over time.'

'You really haven't noticed, have you?'

'Noticed what?' he shouted back at the repulsive man, getting increasingly angry at being goaded into guessing.

There was a beeping noise from behind him, both soldiers that had accompanied him had sighted their weapons on his back.

'Temper temper, fair Captain Jones.' the Admiral crooned, basking in his hatred as if it were a luxurious hot bath. 'We can't have you blowing a gasket and doing something you'd regret in front of my fine men, what what?'

Phil took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. As much as he disliked the Admiral the man was right, he'd not do his friends any favours by getting killed here.

The Admiral ordered his men to lower their guns with another wave of his hand, and then took a deep breath in what was clearly preparation for some kind of speech. 'Can't you feel the difference, Jones? At the very beginning of your adventures you were a bumbling buffoon and the world around you was much the same. It was all one great comedy when you began, bouncing from one situation to another like some giant fleshy pin-ball. Over time though, over time things changed, they got darker, more serious, more real with each and every passing moment, did they not?'

Phil noticed he had tensed up in the seat and forced himself to relax. 'You are correct.'

'You'll have plenty of time to figure out why that is in solitary confinement. I'm afraid you won't be doing anything to help your friends, Captain Jones.' he motioned to the guards then. 'Take him away!'

Without further pomp or circumstance, Phil was dragged away with much to think about and plenty of time by himself to do it in.

Chapter 45

! ! !

T
hey exited hyperwarp and there was a collective intake of breath as their tiny pod came within sight of the fleet they planned to breach.

'I sincerely hope that your cloaking device is operational, for our sakes.' Smith said, staring at Terry as if he were a Voravian conspirator. Clearly he was rankled at feeling so small and helpless, even if they were still travelling at a very high speed. Terry just hoped it was enough to pass through the Voravian's shielded hull.

The impulse engines gathered momentum as they set about the pre-programmed path into the heart of the Voravian mothership. It lay out there, flanked by vessels a third its size and looking dangerously vigilant.

'The cloak will work, Commander. It's the impact that I'm not looking forward to.'

Smith scowled at him in disdain, as if rushing head-long into a giant vessel was nothing to be worried over. Then again Smith did look like the type who would ram his head against a wall until it crumbled.

'I'm sure it will be fine.' an entirely unconvincing Annika told him. 'We just have to brace for impact and be prepared when it breaches the hull.'

Agent Smith stroked his weapon silently, noone need tell him to be prepared.

Terry smiled back at her and she gave him a mischeavous wink that heated his face somewhat, even if he didn't believe her it was nice to have her approval.

The pod soared through space now at a rather unsettling clip. It was all very well calculating the speed and velocity of these things in a sterile environment, but baring witness to the effects and the terror that came with it wasn't Terry's cup of tea. He suspected even the most cavaliar of the gym members back home would have balked at this insanity, but it was the only possible way for there to be a gym beyond tomorrow so needs must.

The ship grew closer now as they stared in silence, harnesses firmly attached and waiting for everything to go to hell. Judging from the fine detail that Terry was beginning to spot on the mothership's hull that wasn't going to be a very long wait at all.

What Terry's calculations also failed to mention was that time's relative nature had brought the hull of the mothership into full view with mere seconds to spare in what seemed to be no time at all. The screaming of buckled shields followed by the booming impact and the unhelpful attempts of the harness to garotte his legs with every movement signalled that they had arrived.

The dust settled and the spherical pod plugged the gap where atmosphere would have been compromised, the hatch sprung open at a touch from the already-upright Agent Smith and they were off.

Or rather, he saw the back of his Commander disappear into the dust and several discharges of weaponry shortly after, this was swiftly followed by the much nicer view of Annika before Terry's brain reminded him that he was next go get out of the pod and face the collective force of an occupied and breached Voravian mothership.

His legs finally coaxed themselves into something resembling a very cautious walk as he exited the pod and watched the dust continue to settle from their impact with the alien vessel's hull. Smith was standing over three Voravian bodies and speaking in urgent tones to Annika, who held out an M-7 scanning device in front of her and had it set for reading of large energy signatures.

'It stands to reason that the power switch would be located somewhere near the main reactor, I can continue my scans as we move along the corridors and see if I can spot anything resembling an off button.'

Smith nodded at her, completely ignoring Terry's appearance and observing the Voravians at his feet. 'It won't be long until they swarm about this area, we should get moving.'

In agreement, the two of them started to make their way down one of the corridors and Terry swiftly moved to keep up with them.

'This is too easy.' Annika said after a time.

'Agreed, we should have met some more resistance by now.'

'No, I mean, look at this.' she shoved the sensor readings up to Smith's shades. 'It's almost identical to the Star Command layout, with only one noticeable difference.'

Smith raised an eyebrow. 'Our off switch?'

'Precisely. I don't like this, it feels like we're walking into a trap.'

'With the number of troops they should have on board such a large vessel they would have no need to attempt trapping us. Either they are not aware they have been boarded yet or are waiting to see what it is we have come to do in such a hurry.'

Terry certainly knew which of those possibilities suited him the best, he stared up at the walls as if expecting eyes to seep out of them and track his every step. Letting out an involuntary shudder he quickened in his pace, nearly running into the back of Annika in the process.

She turned and levelled the gun at him, a look of anger briefly flitting across her face to be replaced by an apologetic smile. 'Watch where you're going, Engineer.'

'Yes mam...' he stuttered at the barrel of the laser pistol.

Smith held up his hand. 'Quiet, both of you... I think I hear something.'

Moments later the unmistakable sound of claw on deck plate became audible to the Terry too, he tried his best to resist the urge to leap around in terror, his lack of success resulted in a strange pirouette that achieved nothing.

'Stand still Engineer!' Smith hissed at him as he crept forward with pistol raised.

This time he did as he was told for fear that the Agent would turn and shoot at him otherwise. Instead he focused on the only thing that was left, raising his own gun and waiting for the clicking claws to grow close enough to shoot at.

In a spectacularly accurate fulfilling of all his fears, the clicking claws grew close enough for Smith to shoot at, and the Agent obliged at a speed that baffled Terry, sending a series of blasts out that penetrated the scaly lizard creatures and transformed them into an increasingly large piled obstacle for their colleagues to hop over.

Where several went down to Smith's blasts, additional Voravians took their place, and unfortunately it seemed that they were growing closer with each passing second, even if none of them managed to get away an accurate shot before Smith dealt with them.

'Get out of the way!' Annika yelled at him, causing him to jump into her way.

He couldn't take his eyes of Smith, a one-man killing machine that was carving open swathes of Voravian flesh with a smoking pistol that looked to be glowing with the heat of the energy discharge.

It wasn't enough, the lizards kept coming and no amount of sharp-shooting by Smith was going to prevent one of them from eventually tackling the man.

What Terry didn't account for was that the Agent was almost as dangerous in close quarters. As the unfortunate Voravian that was first to get there discovered. Instead of disarming the man it received a pistol whip that cracked open its skull and left it prone on the floor with the rest of them, the brief lapse of fire still wasn't enough for a Voravian to get a shot in.

Then just like that, all the enemies were transformed into a smoking pile of debris.

Smith rounded on them, a scowl evident upon his face as he dropped the hissing and smoking gun from burnt fingers. 'Where were you?' he shouted.

Annika held up her hands. 'I tried to get a shot away but my sight was blocked by our Engineer.'

Uh oh.

The Agent loomed over him, grating his teeth and twitching his seared fingers. 'You will stay out of the way for the rest of this mission, otherwise consequences will be...dire. Is that understood?'

'Yes. Quite. Perfectly.' Terry gulped.

Smith didn't say another word, bandaging his hand and picking up the warm gun gingerly before continuing down the corridor.

'He won't actually shoot me, will he?'

Annika stared at him and it wasn't kindly this time, her lack of words answered the question for him.

'Oh.'

They proceeded down the corridor until Annika called them to a halt.

'What is it Lieutenant?' Smith asked, trying to keep from snapping at her and clearly seething from a mixture of adrenaline and anger at Terry's incompetence.

'The scanners are picking up a series of Voravian life signatures ahead, and some rather heavy looking energy weapons.'

'I'm guessing we can't shoot our way through this?' Terry asked, and was promptly ignored.

'Suggestions?' Smith asked.

There was silence, apparently there wasn't an easy way to circumnavigate a load of laser turrets and Voravians armed to the teeth.

Then it was almost as if a light bulb was visible above Annika's head, or it would have been if this were anything remotely like the cartoons that he watched growing up. It was then that he wished this was the case.

'We could re-route their own systems using an algorithm in my scanner and have the turrets target Voravian life signatures.'

Smith cocked an eyebrow. 'Impressive... but can you guarantee that the turrets won't target us after eliminating the Voravians in question?'

The shake of the head from Annika wasn't the most inspiring thing that Terry had seen of late. Either the plan worked and the Voravians were shot at and they could sneak past unharmed... or they simply walked up to said turrets after they had done their work only to get blasted themselves. He racked his brain for alternatives but it would appear that this one was the only viable option, this felt less than promising to say the least. What surprised Terry was that he had already thought of that solution even before Annika had, he was just too scared to speak to Smith in order to voice it.

'How far do you need to be from these turrets in order to... reprogram them?' Smith asked, raising his bandaged hand and sighting through the pistol in preparation for more Voravian company.

'I can do it from here, the Voravian systems work wirelessly and I doubt they'll be quick enough to circumvent the little program I've got stored here.'

'Do it.' Smith ordered, though not unkindly.

'Already am, sir.' she replied with a smile that seemed entirely unwarranted given their precarious position.

They stood in silence, with Terry making an attempt to raise his gun and imitate whatever military standard pose Smith was pulling off. The Agent had absolutely no time for him since his previous blunder, and he couldn't blame him for that.

'Done.' Annika informed them after a few minutes. 'We should know whether it worked in a matter of...'

Her words were cut off by a series of volatile blasts and screeches from the corridor beyond, evidently it had worked.

'Listen to me carefully when I say this... Engineer.' Smith warned, finally acknowledging that Terry indeed continued to exist. 'You will follow behind us at all times, and will not venture a word unless it is asked of you.'

Terry nodded.

'Good, now let's find out if these turrets are friendly or not.'

They crept forward at a slower rate than previously, Smith occasionally halting them to listen to nothing in particular as far as Terry could tell.

'They should be just around the corner.' Annika informed him. 'What's your plan?'

Smith detached a piece of his uniform and proceeded to lick it, not the bookie's favourite for his next plausible action that's for sure.

Whatever it was Smith was doing, the Lieutenant was equally puzzled by it and furthermore, she was allowed to venture an opinion. 'Agent... are you feeling okay?'

Smith continued to lick the piece of moist uniform as if it were exceptionally delicious and completely ignored them. He promptly threw it around the corner into a blaze of light as lasers annihilated it.

'I think we can determine from this that the turrets are hostile.' he said.

He had used his own saliva in order to determine whether the turrets were hostile to them without sacrificing life or limb. It was...brilliant. Only now it left them with a slight problem.

'What are we going to do now that the turrets are blocking the way forward?' Annika asked, voicing the question that Terry himself was incapable of asking.

Smith rummaged in his uniform and pulled out a small silver grenade, the sight of which elicited a strange smile on his face. 'Watch this.' he said, tossing it around the corner as it beeped faster.