Chapter 27 – I’m Taking You Home
“I promise you” - Malcolm Lee
Indri-3
Lee couldn’t recall a time when such hate boiled in him—and hate was a powerful thing. It could consume you. Maybe even turn you into the thing you hated most.
Bile rose in his throat.
They had stuffed his people in a metal box like cattle. You didn’t do this to anyone. He imagined he could feel the pulse in the neck of the person responsible as his fingers tightened.
The laser optics had mapped out the interior well enough. Although, the heat signatures were intermittent. Likely a result of the ongoing and unseen battle between his armor’s software, and the enemy countermeasures.
The enemy thermal signatures winked out and reappeared as though they were teleporting.
He moved down the narrow corridor. Only an arm’s length of room on either side. It’d be a shuffle getting the crew out. Tight space. Not tactically sound.
He rounded a curved corridor. Ahead, there was a single entrance with a sensor above it. A facial recognition scanner to permit authorized personnel.
He attached a hacking device to the door. Five seconds later it was undone. Security was just a delay mechanism. Not impenetrable.
Each half of the door recessed into the walls.
He froze.
At the end of a hundred-foot corridor, a lone man stood with a shoulder-deployed mobile missile system. There was only one way out of this.
Forward.
***
Knees bent Lee launched into a sprint. The missile-toting goon fired.
He slid with the forward momentum. Feet first and onto his back. Just before his back hit the ground, he fired a reverse pulse from the jump-pack.
Lee shot along the floor of the corridor on his back, the missile streaked by his face mere inches above. He raised his legs and crashed feet first into the speechless goon. This goon wasn’t wearing armor. Perhaps they didn’t have any left for the base defenders. The trooper’s ribs compressed into his lungs and jutted out his side at an odd angle.
Lee continued. At the end, another door. He hacked it.
The room opened to a square space. Inside the space was a simple enclosed, square structure. The thermal readings told him what he wanted was in there. This wasn’t a mechanically locked door, it was an antique door with hinges. He slammed the hinges with his arm weakening them. He pried it loose and threw it one-side. Lee comm’d Corporal Chen. “I’ve located the crew. Stand by to receive us by the north side of the outer wall.” Chen clicked back an acknowledgement.
Inside, their backs against each wall, with their heads oriented to the floor, Endeavor’s crew. Their necks, hands and ankles bound to the wall by round half-circle rigid straps.
Hate wasn’t a strong enough word. He scanned the faces quickly on his HUD. Vee wasn’t there.
He moved around to each. They groaned and stirred. Most looked bewildered. Soiled. Nasty. The suit saved him from the smell. One by one he freed them and gently placed them on the floor.
“Lieutenant Lee,” he said. “United Starship Phoenix. I’m taking you home boys and girls.”
They were in no shape to do much. But they could hear.
Some whimpered. Others nodded in silence. Some struggled to speak. Someone hugged him.
“Does anyone know where Commander Alvarez is?”
No answer. Some shook their heads.
“Anyone? Commander Alvarez. Your captain. We have to find him.”
The one who hugged him spoke. “They took him a few days ago. We don’t know where.” She looked frail.
Lee dropped the bag of stimulants and his ration pack.
“One stim for each. Half a cup of water and a separate booster. It’ll prevent the stim from allowing you to damage yourself.”
Lee surveyed the hellhole. “You’ve been through a lot. I can tell. But I need to ask a bit more of you. You’ve got to move. I can’t carry all of you. Things are bad down here and they’re worse up there.” He pointed skywards. “Just stay close. Follow my orders.”
He un-shouldered his rifle. “The strongest or best shot among you take this.”
“I’ll be back.”
They started to protest.
“I promise you.”
He left the box to look for Vee.
***
The other three doorways surrounding the metal “box” each had small rooms. Likely individual interrogation rooms. Each had a single chair and an overhead light. The crew had gathered outside the box. The stronger among them helped the others.
Lee closed on the second door. His HUD told him the material was weak enough to smash. He balled his fist and punched through it. He then gripped it and pulled it from the attachments.
In the center was Vee, manacled to a chair. A man stood behind Vee with a weapon aimed at his head.
“Glad you could join us, Mr. Lee.”
This was the definition of a cosmic joke. A very bad one. Ben James’ hideous grin was recognizable anywhere.
How many times did he have to kill this insufferable goon?
Chapter 28 – Hold A Little Longer
“Any last words my United Fleet friend” – Rylar Kane
Indri-3
At the same time the door to Lee’s right opened.
A man exited with a female officer. Lee recognized her as Endeavor’s Executive Officer. She too had a weapon aimed at her head.
The man pulled his hostage away increasing the distance between him and Lee and stopped. To his left through the door was one problem and to the right another.
“Let these people go and that’ll be the end of it,” Lee said.
“No one is going.” The one to the left said. “You are staying. Your people outside are dead. Your ship in orbit was destroyed by our dreadnought. You can’t shoot both of us with your one weapon before one of these dies.”
“I only made the offer to make myself feel better,” Lee said.
The unknown one to the left seemed surprised. “About what?”
“About killing every last one of you.”
Those who blinked missed it. Lee shot the grappling hook spear through the forehead of Vee’s captor and shot the other one holding the Executive Officer through the left eye.
Vee slumped next to the trooper. Lee moved in and hit him with a stim. Vee stirred and opened his eyes.
“Lee…” He groaned.
Lee triggered the recoil for the grappler as he hoisted Vee and carried him. The others helped Endeavor’s XO and hit her with a stim.
Lee led the survivors through an alternate route and back into the interior section before the walls.
Vee stirred. “Lee, I’m good I can walk. The stim is kicking in. You need to focus ahead.”
Lee moved slightly ahead and continued along an alternate route to the final exit. He stopped. A man clad in black stood there. He felt a bump from behind. Lee gave Vee a questioning look.
“I don’t know,” Vee said. “All I can tell you is it seems he is the man calling the shots down here.”
That was all Lee needed to hear. Chen waited at the far side of the enclosure within the walls.
“Follow Corporal Chen,” Lee said. “He’ll get you to the extraction point. I’ll deal with this goon.”
Vee hesitated. “I don’t know. This guy . . . don’t underestimate him.”
“Go. Now.”
Vee signaled for the others to follow him.