Star Runners: Mission Wraith (#3) (15 page)

The retrieval bay outer door closed and red lights shifted to white, signaling the atmosphere had normalized. The space maintenance division rushed out to the Tridents, swarming the fighters like concerned mother hens. Austin’s canopy opened, and he quickly descended to the deck.
 

Bear rushed toward him, his helmet already detached and in hand. “What do you think happened out there?”
 

Austin shook his head and took off the helmet. “No idea. Let’s go find out.”

They ran through the sea of mechanics moving the Tridents from the retrieval bay back to the hangar.
 

“Where are we going?” Bear asked as they dodged a pair of crewmen pushing a floating cart across the hangar deck.
 

“Sick bay.”
 

“Why? You feeling crappy?”

“I want to see that Star Runner they rescued.”

Bear nodded and stepped into line behind Austin as they entered the narrow corridor. Enlisted crew backed up against walls as they approached.
 

They entered sick bay still wearing their flight suits, carrying their helmets. A nurse wearing a gray suit covering everything but her eyes approached with her gloved hands raised.
 

“You can’t come in here,” she said calmly. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait outside.”

Austin frowned. “Is there any way we can observe the patient brought in from the escape pod?”

She pointed to the left. “Down that hall. Observation Room three.”
 

“Thank you,” Austin said, nodding to Bear.
 

They rushed down the tight corridor and entered through a small hatch leading to a room with benches in front of a window. On the other side of the glass, a man lay in a hospital bed surrounded by two nurses. His skin had been blackened and wrinkled from burns. A wicked-looking gash split the skin on his forehead. A mask covered his mouth, and he appeared to be resting. Although torn in several places and completely shredded across his chest, Austin saw the man wore a faded Tizona flight suit.

Austin pressed against the glass, watching the nurses do their work. He remembered the nurses at Base Prime taking care of him after he survived the attack in the mountains and suffered from burns and wounds. If it hadn’t been for Nubern, Austin would have died that day. Every moment since then had been a gift. For some reason he couldn’t explain, this memory made him feel connected to the unfortunate pilot on the hospital bed in front of him. If the
Formidable
hadn’t been around today, this pilot might have died in space.
 

Bear sat on one of the benches with his helmet in his lap. He stared with his mouth hanging open. He looked at Austin, shook his head slightly, and stared back at the Star Runner on the other side of the glass.
 

“What are you two doing here?” Ryker asked as she burst into the room.
 

Austin turned. She also wore her flight suit and carried her helmet. Bear stood at attention as he faced her.
 

“We discovered the escape pod, Captain,” Austin said without standing. “We wanted to see if he would survive.”
 

“I see.” She held his gaze, her eyes darting between Austin and Bear. She moved to the glass. When she spoke again in a whisper, she sounded like Ryker—not Captain Zyan. “Has he said anything?”

He looked at her for a long moment, thinking about all the things he wanted to tell her, but glanced back at Bear. He cleared his throat. “We just got here. He hasn’t said anything, yet.”

They stood in silence for several minutes, watching the patient as the nurses did their work around him.
 

The wounded Star Runner suddenly coughed and writhed on the bed, his arms reaching high above his chest and curling back. With his blackened hands, he ripped the mask off his face.
 

“I need to speak with the commander of this ship,” he said before convulsing into a fit of spasms and gurgling coughs. “Please.”

“Lie still,” the nearest nurse said, placing her hand on his head. “It’ll be okay. Please try to relax.”

“It’s not going to be okay,” the Star Runner said, his head moving to each side. “There's no stopping it. They’re gonna come from the dark—kill us all! Tell your commander we must leave!”
 

“Bring a sedative!” the nurse barked.
 

Austin swallowed, the scene in front of him unfolding like another horrid nightmare.
 

“What’s going on here?” a deep voice boomed from behind them.
 

The three of them spun around to see Major Braddock looming in the entryway, his eyes blazing.
 

“We came to see the rescued Star Runner,” Ryker said before anyone else could answer.
 

Braddock took one step into the room. “And who granted you permission to do that?”

Ryker hesitated.
 

“I did,” Austin said without thinking. “Since we discovered the escape pod, I didn’t see the harm in—”

“Enough!” Braddock snapped, turning to face Austin. “I want you all to get out of that flight gear right now, shower up and report for your debriefing at 1600.”
 

Braddock moved past them all and stared through the window.

Star Runners packed into the briefing room. The pilots from all three squadrons on board the
Formidable
buzzed with quiet conversations. All the seats in the briefing room quickly filled. The remaining Star Runners stood at the back with tablets in hand.
   

Austin took an aisle seat on the right side of the room. Bear sat to his right with Curly at his side. She grinned her captivating smile and turned her attention to her tablet. Bear looked at him, bouncing his eyebrows twice.
 

Austin smiled and shook his head.
 

Bear grumbled something Austin couldn’t understand as he pulled out his tablet.
 

“All right,” Braddock said in a stern, powerful voice that echoed off the steel walls of the room, silencing the conversations. “That’s enough. There’ll be time for socializing later.”

The room’s lights faded to a soft glow.
 

“I know a lot of you have been wondering about the Star Runner we brought aboard yesterday,” Braddock said. “With the insane rumors we have been hearing about this pilot, Commander Horace thought it prudent for me to hold this briefing with all the Star Runners on board to give you the facts.
 

“The Star Runner we brought aboard, Ren Callapen, call sign Dipper, was the sole survivor assigned to the science station,
Ramelle
. He was brought aboard yesterday and has received treatment for his injuries. The other three Star Runners stationed there were killed.” Braddock paused, his eyes moving around the room. “After the Tridents were incapacitated, a team of well-trained professionals boarded the station and hacked into the Legion computers. We don’t know how much information they were able to gather from the station, but we have to assume they were able to steal all the information including the roster and manifest of the
Formidable
since we have been linked with the station since arriving in this quadrant.”
 

He placed his hands on his hips. “With the information about the
Formidable
now out in the open, all communication off this ship is to be halted immediately while we are in this quadrant. We have to assume detailed information on the Star Runners, the crew and the ships on board is now in unfriendly hands. This includes our patrol patterns and flight schedules. In other words, they have detailed knowledge about every one of you and could still be monitoring signals onboard this ship. We are currently accessing all systems to ensure our security on this ship has not been breached, but this will take time.”

Braddock sighed, staring at the floor. “This force was able to cut through the Trident umbrella protecting the science station because … because the Zahl is in possession of a ship we cannot pick up on sensors. A ship command is calling the
Wraith
.”

The room seemed to rustle all at once, the Star Runners turning and whispering to one another.
 

“Okay, that’s enough,” Braddock snapped. “I want you to listen and listen good. This
Wraith
ship is no spirit or ghost rising from the dead to terrorize this area of space. It’s just a ship, no more no less.”
 

He activated the hologram display, and a cyan image hovered over the briefing room. “What I’m about to show you is classified. This is not to be discussed outside of this room with anyone—including the enlisted men on board. Please pay attention—Legion agents died to bring us this video.”

The cyan image flickered and moved. The recording showed a radiantly lit room, sterile, with white walls stretching high above the floor littered with electronics. Wires and scopes covered the view as the camera shook. The image persistently flashed, and it took Austin a moment to realize the bursts were blinks. They were seeing an image taken from a person’s eyes!
 

His eyes widened as he watched this person walk through the technical work area. Other people dressed in black lab coats passed by the view, nodding at the person making the recording. The view lingered on a line of computers displaying a series of algorithms in a green font. The screens shimmered, changing to display a schematic of a space fighter.
 

Austin’s gaze narrowed on the schematic.
 

A Zahl Interceptor, he thought.
 

No, wait a minute. There was something different about the fighter. He had seen the images of the interceptor in his studies. It had a distinct horseshoe shape culminating in two sharp points on either side of the cockpit. This fighter had the same shape with a peculiar surface covered in tiny bumps like a toad’s back.
 

The image moved away from the screens. A woman with a charming expression passed to the left, and the view shifted to follow her for a moment as she strolled up to the screens. She studied the information, her eyes focusing on the images.
 

The view turned around, passed through another line of workstations and into an open area of the room. In the center of the room, sat the modified Zahl Interceptor they had just seen on the computer screens. The image paused.
 

“There we have it,” Braddock said. “The
Wraith
. The latest weapon developed by Sector Regent Knox Tulin. We can only expect this ship has been developed to start a war.”

Austin swallowed.
 

Tulin.
 

If the intelligence briefing Austin had been given when he first arrived on the
Formidable
could be trusted, Tulin was the man responsible for everything Austin had suffered since he began his service in the Legion. From the initial Tyral Pirate attacks and Josh’s capture to the Battle of Atlantis and the attempt to take over Earth, it had been Tulin behind all of it. And now the man had a fighter that could allegedly destroy four Tridents without being seen.

“Major Braddock,” Ryker said, raising her hand from the front row. “Do we know the exact specifications of this …
Wraith
?”

Braddock sighed. “Exact? No. Even though we have been told by one of our Star Runners and the dark world vessel commander that this ship is invisible, we find it very unlikely the Zahl Empire has gained the technology to create a vessel that can attack while shrouded. The energy output required to fire while maintaining a shroud is difficult to comprehend.”

“What about projectile weapons?” Tarnex Captain Doug Lord asked from the rear of the room. “Could they use projectiles and still fire while shrouded?”

“Possibly,” Braddock said with a nod. “It’s one of the theories we have been delivered. The other is that the
Wraith
is a stealth ship, invisible to all sensors and immune to stunners. If this is the case, the only weakness would be missiles armed with heat seekers rather than our standard lock. This means dog fighting this monster would be eyes only—no scopes.”