Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (16 page)

             
"I am going to kill this man with my bare hands, and I might not stop there," Kimi exclaimed as she stalked out of the room. They all knew that it was no idle threat.

             
"We need to end this," Reece yelled. "Even Jesse cannot take much more of this."

             
"He cannot tell them what they wish to know, because he is unaware of it." Serge added as he entered the room. "Lucien is looking for the twenty-eight
War Hawks
and
Leviathans
he sent to Enclave Prime to begin the reverse engineering process. Only they never got there, because I disabled them and Josiah and Manny brought them back here."

             
"Disabled, what are you talking about, Serge?"

             
"Classified technology that only Jesse and I are aware exists, I cannot tell you more. What I can tell you is Lucien wants those ships back, and he will continue to torture Jesse until he gets them. We can use this, because at the very least he is not going to kill him until after he knows where his ships are, which gives us time.
Endeavor
is only two hours out."

             
"Two hours, Serge, do you have any idea how much more damage they can do to him in two hours without killing him? Bliney's already likely crippled him, would you care to see him lose his arms, too." Suzy's outburst startled everyone including Lana. She felt terrible, but in the heat of the moment, it just poured out of her.

             
"Suzy, we can put him in the pod as soon as he's aboard
Endeavor
." Ariel reminded her, confused as to why she might forget that.

             
"No, Ariel, we can't. Jesse was badly injured several times in the Kalephi Galaxy and he began to build up an immunity to the recovery pod. It's losing its effectiveness on him, not to mention that the damage in his leg would be too severe for the pod even if it was his first time in."

             
As the realization of what Suzy had said began to sink in, Lana stormed out of the room and Ariel followed her. As she comforted her niece, an alert was sent to her communicator. She picked it up and noticed it was a distress beacon. It was from Carmine; he was finally reaching out to her.

             
"Carmine, where have you been? We've been trying for several weeks to find you. Jason is on Earth right now looking, although he's sort of preoccupied now with Jesse's situation.

             
"Yeah, I'm sorry Jesse's getting so messed up, kid. It's not right. I'd be at Bliney's house right now if I was on Earth, but I'm on Telos. This is the first time I've been able to contact you, because the feed being played from Prague throughout the Coalition has all of the leaders on this planet in an uproar. There is so much communication traffic at the moment that my transmission should get lost in the shuffle. The Enclave hunted my people all over Earth because they thought they could get to you through me, but I escaped and I have some of my people and our families with me, fifty-four of us in all. Can you get us to Polisia?"

             
"I'll have someone there within the next four or five hours. If I can find someone close, they'll be there sooner, if not, they'll be coming from Polisia. Hold tight at your location, Carmine." She looked at her big friend and said, "And Carmine, it's good to see you."

             
He smiled and winked and then the transmission ended.

             
"Are we gonna go save Carmine?" Lana asked her, still trying to hold back tears.

             
"I'm gonna send someone in right now, sweetie." She put her arm around Lana and smiled. "Lana, let me tell you something about your dad: he's been known to escape impossible situations on many occasions. He might be hurting for a while, but he's gonna make it. He's gonna need you to be strong for him, and he's gonna need you to keep training the pups until he's better." Ariel hated that Lana had to go through this. She had already lost her mother, now she had to see her father being tortured. She threw the pup thing out there hoping to distract her a little. Training snow wolf pups just might take her mind off her dad for a little while.

             
Lana leaned into her aunt as they walked. "Can you let me know when you've rescued Carmine?" She asked, her voice still cracking from her sobs.

             
"Of course, Lana, you'll be the first to know."

             
Two hours later, Lana overheard Ariel telling Nina that her rescue attempt had failed. With all three of the SSE cloaked shuttles currently on
Endeavor
or on Earth, she didn't think she had anyone good enough to get past Telos’ planetary defenses to rescue Carmine. She wanted to go, but Nina shut her down, letting her know it was far too dangerous. If she were to be caught, she did know what happened to those ships. When Lana realized that no rescue would be coming for Carmine, she decided to take action. She called Raina and Dmitri and showed them what to do to care for the wolves for the next eight to ten hours, grabbed Commando and made her way to the shuttle hangar. Maybe she would have to rely on others to save her dad, and maybe he was too far away for her to get to, but Carmine wasn't, and she wasn't going to abandon him. She looked around the busy shuttle hangar and no one seemed to notice her. She casually walked over to an empty Eagle assault shuttle, petting Commando as they walked. She entered the shuttle and stealthily began to run its pre-flight routine. She was about to close the hatch when Kimi suddenly came aboard.

             
"What are you doing, Lana?"

             
"I'm going to save my friend Carmine, Kimi, please don't try to stop me."

             
"Stop you? I wouldn't dream of it, I'm coming with you."

             
"You're what?" She asked in confusion.

             
"I'm going to come with you to keep you safe. It is clear to me that you need something to do to keep your mind off of your father. Saving your friend seems like a good idea because I need something to keep my mind off of your father, too. Helping you avoid capture will allow me to do that."

             
"Really? You're not going to take me back to my aunts?"

             
"No, they already have enough to worry about," Kimi sadly mused. "I hear you are one of the best pilots in the fleet, your skills and my experience should be enough to get us on to Telos."

             
"Your experience?"

             
"Yes, Lana, you may be a good pilot, but have you ever had to sneak onto a heavily guarded planet before?" She shook her head no and Kimi continued. "Well I have, many times, so you will need the benefit of that experience if you wish to be successful."

             
"What about Sun?"

             
"She is currently watching your pups with her friends, she will be fine. Now, let us depart before we are discovered." Lana nodded at Kimi and closed the hatch. Moments later, they were out of the hangar and on their way.

             
"Captain Marcos," A security tech called over his comms.

             
"Yes, what is it?" She wearily replied.

             
"An unauthorized shuttle has just left the hangar; one of the men said they saw Lana hanging around with Commando just before it departed."

             
"Oh no," She cried as she immediately began trying to raise Lana on the shuttle's communication. "Lana, come in. I know you're in that shuttle, and I know you want to save Carmine, but you have to turn around. Lana, please answer."

             
"I'm sorry, Aunt Ariel, but I'm not just gonna abandon Carmine; he would never do that to us."

             
"We're not abandoning him, Lana, what are you talking about?"

             
"I heard you tell Aunt Nina that your attempt failed and you didn't have anyone else; well, now you do."

             
"Lana, did you think we just gave up? We're working on something now; please, sweetie, turn around. You can't do this alone, you may be good, but you haven't been taught yet how planetary grids work. Even with your skills, you would get caught."

             
"I'm not alone, Aunt Ariel."

             
"Commando doesn't count, Lana, he's not gonna be able to help you past that grid."

             
"But I will," Kimi's voice chimed in. "Neither one of us can sit and do nothing and we both need to take our minds off...other things. I will make sure she is successful, Ariel, you have my word."

             
"Kimi, this is an awful lot of danger to put Lana in."

             
"I agree, but even if you were to put guards on her, she would have eventually found her way to an empty shuttle. At least this way I can help her. Do you really think I would let any harm come to Jesse's daughter?"

             
"No, and you're probably right. Send me a transmission when you're in Telosian space. I had to sneak past the grid nine or ten months ago, I can give you a few pointers." She told them as she sadly recalled her last night on Telos and her near death experience at the hands of the Dragon.

             
"We will, Aunt Ariel, and thanks."

             
"Don't thank me, Crewman Evans; unauthorized use of a shuttle is a serious offense. Lieutenant Commander Briggs will be waiting with your consequences when you return; and, Kimi, make sure you bring my niece back to me." The transmission ended and Kimi knew that Ariel was just trying to scare Lana with the whole consequences bit. It looked like it might have worked, as Lana was deep in thought.

             
She looked up at Kimi with a serious look in her eye and said, "Let's go save my friend."

______

              The throbbing in his knee wouldn't stop, and he was pretty sure he could no longer feel his leg below the knee. His body was a mass of cuts and bruises and broken bones; and the electricity pouring through his body made every one of those wounds ache even more. Every time the energy coursed through his body, his chest constricted; he found himself gasping for air and he still didn't know what they were talking about. He didn't know anything about any missing ships, but there was a good bet one of his people did. He had passed out several times, but each time he was roused back to consciousness with water in his face and more energy. He had no way of telling how much time had passed since he had fallen from that garden wall, but it had to have been hours by now. Pretty soon, they were gonna figure out that he didn't know anything, and then sadly, his life would end. He was surprised to learn that for the first time since Rebecca, that prospect scared him, knowing Lana would have lost both of her parents, knowing Kimi would have lost him so soon after they finally found each other. He wasn't ready to go.

             
"Awake I see, Marcos. I have to admit, I'm quite disappointed. I thought the great Jesse Marcos would have been able to take a lot more punishment than this."

             
Jesse tried to laugh, but it quickly turned into a bloody cough. "Sorry to disappoint you," he wheezed.

             
"Let's be reasonable, Marcos, there's no need to go through any more pain. Just tell us what we want to know and I'll even spare that science project you call a daughter." He smiled as he subconsciously ran his hand over the hilt of his decorative Admiral's sword.

             
"Alright," Jesse began in almost a whisper, "I'll tell you what you want to know."

             
Admiral Bliney leaned in close and replied, "See, now that wasn't so difficult." He leaned in so close to taunt his beaten enemy that he was completely surprised when Jesse reared his head back and slammed it into his face. Jesse laughed at the satisfying crunch of Bliney's nose breaking as his head butt had found its mark. Bliney stumbled back in pain, blood pouring from his nose and down the front of his white Admiral’s tunic as Jesse continued to laugh.

             
"I told you not to call her that." He laughed again.

             
"She will die by my hand, Marcos. Your insolence has sealed her fate and the fate of everyone you love." He drew his ceremonial sword and brought it down hard across Jesse's injured knee, opening up a deep gash. Jesse cried out in pain as he brought it down two more times before Lucien's guards dragged him away.

             
"We need him alive, Admiral," Lucien yelled.

             
"He broke my nose," Bliney yelled back.

             
"Yes, and he taught you a valuable lesson; never get too close to a prisoner's face during interrogation, now go see to your wound while we move on."