The Crucible: Leap of Faith (6 page)

“What?”

“The House of Lords and Ladies is
keeping a lid on it. They can’t let news like this spread. We can’t
give in to the terrorists and let them drag us into a state of
fear.”

“If there were 50 terrorist
attacks last week, it would be in the news!”

“They were mostly on military
facilities and personnel. The Star Forces is good at keeping things
quiet. As the military arm of the Alliance, they have to
be.”

I sat there and stared at her. A
cold pressure pushed through my chest, locking my limbs in place.
“This is impossible.”

“I wish it were,” she said
bitterly as she shook her head and brought up a hand to pinch her
nose. “But it’s happening. And we have credible evidence that a
fair chunk of the resistance is being organized from the Hari
System. That’s why this mission is so important.” She let her hand
drop and stared at me directly.

“…
Why wasn’t I told
earlier?”

“You’re being told now because it
influences your next mission. I’m not kidding – the House of Lords
and Ladies has suppressed all information on this. They won’t risk
telling non-essential personnel and potentially letting this news
spread.”

My top lip was sweaty and I
brought a hand up to swipe it away. “What if the terrorist attacks
spread? I mean, so what if they’re concentrating on military
targets for now. They will move on to civilian targets
soon.”

She nodded slowly. “Of course they
will, Nathan. That’s why we’re going on this mission. That’s why
it’s so important. The whole Alliance could be on the line here. If
the resistance is allowed to gather force, who knows how much
damage they’d do?”

I couldn’t speak,
I couldn’t think.
I just couldn’t process
what she was telling me.

“This will be the
most important mission of your career,” she said with an obviously
dry mouth as she shifted closer to me. “Everyone –
the whole goddamn Alliance will be relying on
you,”
her voice cracked.

I leaned away and stared at
her.

“You were always the one in the
Academy who told us not to lose hope.” She leaned across and patted
a hand over my taught sweaty knuckles. “This is what you’ve been
training for, Nathan. You might doubt yourself right now, but
you’ll do the right thing when the time comes.”

Chapter 4

Lieutenant Commander Nathan
Shepherd

I walked back to my ship in a
daze. I contemplated the floor as I made it through the civilian
passageways, my thoughts consuming me.

This was… indescribable. Not only
was the resistance real, but they had already perpetrated hundreds
of attacks.

The Alliance was being besieged,
and only the House of Lords and Ladies and a handful of Star Forces
personnel appeared to know about it.

Christ.

A cold pressure was still building
in my chest. It felt as if every muscle had turned to
ice.

I was now dog tired, but I knew my
mind would not rest.

I kept walking through the
corridors, gaze slicing towards everybody I passed.

I stared at them with a new
question in my mind. Could they be part of the
resistance?

If the resistance really were
powerful enough to attack the Alliance, how long would it be until
they made their way to the capital?

I rounded a
corner that led to the lifts that could take me to the military
docking ring. My ship would be there by now – ready to be
resupplied for our upcoming mission. Though we could have been
resupplied in the civilian docking ring, I imagined the
Godspeed
was being
stuffed with as many special weapons as she could
carry.

I saw someone walking in front of
me, the only other person in the corridor.

I recognized her
instantly.

Ensign Jenks.

She appeared to realize someone
was behind her as she glanced my way. She frowned
immediately.

I felt like putting my hands up
and protesting that I really wasn’t stalking her, and that we just
happened to be walking in the same direction at the same
time.

Without a word she turned and
continued walking forward.

She disappeared around a
corner.

Momentarily, I allowed myself to
be distracted by the sight of a massive heavy cruiser entering
docking maneuvers. The wall to my left was just windows
interspersed with the occasional structural metal plate, and it
offered an unimpeded view of the military docking ring.

The Alliance
Attack Cruiser
Ra’xon
was docking. One of the flagships of the fleet, she was a real
beauty to behold.

I had time to smile at the
beautiful vessel.

Then there was an
explosion.

It tore towards me from further up
the hall.

I was thrown backwards slamming
into the wall beside me, head cracking against the
metal.

I slumped to the ground just as a
wall of fire tore towards me.

In a single heartbeat, my eyes
opened and my breath froze... I prepared to die.

….

But my death did not come
today.

Emergency shields blinked into
place around my body, protecting me from the wall of destruction as
the fire slammed down the corridor.

At the same time, more shields
shot into place over the windows, protecting them before they could
crack and suck everything into space. Then, with my body still
protected by its own shield, a fire suppression system blinked into
place, sucking all the oxygen and debris out of the room the flames
were naturally extinguished.

Two seconds later, the fresh
atmosphere was pumped back in.

I shook. There was a crack in my
skull, and I could feel blood streaming down the back of my neck
and wetting my collar. That explosion hadn’t been loud, but my ears
rang so badly, I couldn’t even hear my panting breath as it slashed
from my chest.

I tried to push myself up, but the
pain powered down my legs and into my feet. I’d damaged my back
somehow, probably broken something, if not several
things.

In pure agony, I twisted my arm
around and grabbed my back as best I could, searching for any bone
protruding out of the flesh.

My personal shield blinked out,
having done what it had to. The fire suppression unit had cooled
the once red-hot metal, and once atmosphere had been pumped back
into the room and the shields had stabilized around the deck, I
could survive on my own.

Incapable of standing however, I
crawled forward.

“There has been an accident in
your area,” a toneless voice echoed over the intercom, “it is
recommended you remain still and wait for medical
assistance.”

I ignored the
recommendation.

I crawled until I reached the
force-field-reinforced glass.

Planting a shaking hand on the
sill of the window, I pulled myself up, pain stabbing through my
back as I moved. With blood still trickling down my neck and onto
my collar, I angled my head until I could see into the military
space dock.

My first thought
was that the
Ra’xon
had botched its docking procedures, and crashed right into the
side of the docking ring.

It hadn’t. In fact, it had pulled
right back, its own powerful shields protecting it from the
blast.

I watched as the
debris that had been sucked out from the explosion tumbled around
the great silver hull of the
Ra’xon.
As she shifted back from the
station, I caught sight of a ship beyond.

It was floating in space, the main
clamps that had once held it to the dock dangling from its side,
singe marks scattered across the hull where metal was still intact.
There was an enormous hole torn in the side, chunks of metal
plating tumbling listlessly in space around it.

I didn’t need to see the name
painted across the glistening black hull to know which ship it
was.

The Godspeed.

It was my goddamn ship.

Ignoring the pain in my back
completely, I pulled myself closer to the window, the flickering
heat of the shield beyond the cracked glass playing against my
face.

Fear shot through me, descending
so deep into my gut it felt as if it would liquefy my very
organs.

My ship. Christ, my
ship.

I watched as she tumbled in space,
her erratic path taking her back towards the station.

Before she could
impact with it, the
Ra’xon
shot a beam of blue-green light towards it – a
traction beam. It was powerful enough that it locked my ship in
space, instantly stopping its deadly tumble towards the
station.

My ship…
my ship.

Just as that horrifying thought
tore through my mind, I remembered something else.

Ensign Jenks.

Though it was murder – plain
torture – I pushed myself to my feet. I could barely walk, let
alone run, but I forced myself forward, ignoring the agony as it
jerked through every muscle.

Staggering, teetering on lifeless
legs, I rounded the corner.

I expected to see her
dead.

She’d been closer to the location
of the explosion. When my ship had torn from its dock, it would
have pulled a massive section of the corridor with it.

Ensign Jenks should be—

…

Ensign Jenks

The explosion had taken me off
guard.

I’d still acted,
though.

My mind had slowed down, seeing
the explosion rip through the corridor before me.

Automatically, without thinking, I
extended both hands towards it. Yellow channels of light lit up
over my forearms and across my fingers, pulsing out from the two
implants lodged in my elbows.

Just before the wall to my left
could be torn open, I locked it in place.

With nothing more than my
mind.

I held it there as fire swarmed
around me. It didn’t touch my skin, though. I kept it back with my
ability. I created a vortex of air around my body so no flame could
touch me. Instead it rushed past me, continuing down the corridor
in a deathly wall.

I couldn’t think. All I could do
was concentrate.

This was the first time I’d used
my powers since I’d escaped the facility. The first time I’d
willingly used them, that was. Whenever my body ran out of compound
78, my ability to control myself was compromised. I could tear
holes in walls around me or suck the air right out of a
room.

I kept my hands extended towards
the wall, those channels of bright yellow-gold light still powering
up and down my forearms. The light didn’t give me the ability to
move objects; it accentuated a gift that was already there and
allowed me to direct it.

I held onto the wall until the
emergency systems on the deck sprang into place, and shielding lit
up across the wall, reinforcing the hull.

Shields even snapped in place
around me. I could have held them at bay if I’d chosen
to.

I didn’t. I let my hands drop, a
shimmering blue emergency force field encasing my whole body from
the tips of my toes to the top of my head.

Soon the fire suppression system
kicked into gear and the oxygen was sucked from the
room.

Then nothing but calm.

There was a slight ringing in my
ears, but that wasn’t from the explosion – it was from using my
abilities.

I took another step back, and my
protective shields flickered off.

I stood there listening to the
creaking hull and floor, gaze slipping towards the cracks in the
walls, shimmering structural shields in place behind
them.

I took another step
back.

What the hell had just
happened?

With a jerked movement, I brought
my hands up and stared at them.

Had that… had that been me? Had my
abilities gotten out of hand again without me even
noticing?

With desperate eyes I searched my
hands, finally letting my implants switch off, that gold-yellow hue
disappearing instantly from under my skin.

With my breath stuck in my chest,
I searched my body for any sign I could have caused that
accident.

Then I took a step to the left.
The section of hull I had been standing in front of had no windows.
But as I walked several meters down the hall, I reached a section
that did.

I gazed into the military docking
ring. I watched a ship tumbling in space, a massive hole ripped out
of its side.

There was no way I could have done
that. Not that I couldn’t muster the power – but because it was too
far away.