Ben knelt next to him.
“Oh dear,” he said. “I do believe your betrayal has struck a nerve with our cynical Commander Rayne. You have something to ask her, Commander?”
Aaron looked passed James towards her. “This mission . . . Supreme Commander Shepherd, is he one of you? At least do a faithful Fleet officer one last honor. Tell me, did I help spur this whole thing into motion?”
“You’ll get no such honor,” Ben said. “Fleet officer or not, you betrayed the USS by compromising it with your weak ideals. All you get is this little metal slug, inside your weak little brain.”
Ben James stood and stretched his arm toward Aaron.
“Aaron Rayne, former Commander, USS Trident—traitor to the USS—have you any last words?”
Aaron opened his eyes.
Rachael stood behind Ben to his right. Just moments before the world exploded and his eardrums ruptured, the final thing he saw was a sudden movement from Rachael.
Aaron snickered. “No one lives forever.”
****
The eternity passed.
Either Lee was supremely fortunate in his timing, or the goon pointing the weapon at Lieutenant Delaine’s head was anticipating some sort of signal. His thermal optics tracked the movement in the room. At the single entrance, two goons stood relaxed, clearly firm in the belief they were safe.
They were not.
Lee chuckled to himself as he prepared the pulse pistol. The Commander would definitely call this a plan “w”. Worst plan ever. He set the pulse pistol to overload. It would explode in thirty seconds. He pierced the body of the pistol with the grappler and aimed it through the barred window. He hoped the bar wasn’t military grade, if it was, then this would be plan fail.
If as he suspected, it was ordinary industrial barring, then the powerful grappler would penetrate. The pulse pistol should be all the distraction he needed to send the goon squad back to goon-ville.
Permanently.
The man over Lieutenant Delaine lowered his pistol and stepped forward. Then he reached down. The Lieutenant then stood next to her former captor and faced the Commander. This was an unforeseen turn of events, but he couldn’t dwell on it now. The man had raised his pistol to Aaron who lay motionless on the floor.
Lee stood on the building ledge, it was the same height as the other building, and his target window was about twenty feet below. He programmed the grappler to fire on a five-foot proximity and aimed it center of the window and ran back.
Don’t fail me now arm.
He gathered himself and sprinted for the edge. When he reached within five feet of the grappler, it launched its projectile. He then leaped over the ledge with his arm, and used the elbow mechanism as a catapult off the ledge, launching himself at an angle toward the same window. He had over forty feet to travel. But being rated to lift one ton, he was certain he could propel himself all the way.
The grappler spike arrived a few moments before him, and blasted through the window, splintering the glass and barreling outward across the room. The pulse pistol skirted across the floor and towards the direction of goon number one and two near the door. It exploded moments prior to his entry.
He too skated across the floor and towards the far wall feet first, an impact which would break his spine and other important parts. He slammed the arm down into the floor to anchor him and twisted his body to orient the arm to the wall. He stretched the arm, and impacted, allowing the majority of the energy to be absorbed on the elbow recoil.
He quickly surged to his feet, attempting to draw his projectile weapon, but he’d lost it during his graceful entry.
Goon one and two were down, but the door burst open and two more attempted entry. He leaped towards the door and hammered it with his battering ram of an arm. The door slammed into the first unfortunate fellow, ringing his bell, who then knocked the other one over. The other one scrambled to meet Lee. Unfortunately, for the goon, he looked up from the floor only in time to receive a hardened leather boot to the chin, followed by a crashing blow from a flesh fist. Curtains for this one.
Lee snapped up the man’s projectile weapon, and spun on the man who at one time had been standing over Aaron. That man was now raising his pistol with his right arm and clutching his temple with his left. The man fired several shots.
And as predicted he aimed for Lee’s center mass. Lee outstretched his arm in anticipation, which from this angle covered his chest, and the projectiles ricocheted off his palm. Those were the final shots the goon leader would ever fire as Lee raised his weapon and inserted a hole into the man’s forehead.
Delaine lay on the ground motionless not far from the Commander.
Lee knelt next to Commander Rayne.
“I leave you for one day and look at the trouble you get yourself into, sir.”
Aaron spoke slowly, his head lulled over to look at him.
“Lee,” he wheezed. “I’m a mess . . . I can’t feel my legs. Something’s wrong with my back. You don’t suppose Max could give me a new one do you?”
“We’ll fix your back, Commander, even if I have to give you my own. I’m carrying you out of here. Take this.” He handed Aaron the projectile pistol. “Watch my back, and sides, if you can. I’ll try to rouse sleeping beauty over there.”
Aaron shook his head. “Don’t bother, she’s one of them. As much as I’d like to take her into custody. I don’t think we can manage to get her out in my condition.”
Lee paused for a moment. One of them? Just didn’t seem right.
He shrugged. “You’re my priority, not her. Take a deep breath.” He hoisted the Commander over his shoulder and carried him over to the grappler. It was intact. The impact through the window dislodged the pulse pistol and it wasn’t near the exploding weapon.
Lee heard a ground car beneath them. If logic followed, the ground car could only be Flaps. Since he was certain he got all the goons. He trotted over to the window, leaned out and fired the grappler onto the roof. He held the control grip in his bionic hand. He turned, and sat on the window ledge, extended his arm up, and fell back. Immediately he engaged the reverse function and the grappler lowered the Commander and him slowly to the street below.
He twisted and dashed with his shoulder cargo for the ground car. Flaps had the side entrance open and together they placed Aaron, gently as possible into the rear compartment. Lee was barely in when Flaps dragged off.
***
Hammerhead
Atlas low orbit
Aaron’s eyes fluttered open. He blinked rapidly, but the haze seemed intent to remain. Then the outline of something familiar appeared. A few blinks later the outline turned into a familiar face—it was Lee.
“Commander,” Lee said. “Are you still in pain?”
Aaron paused a few moments, he was lying flat in a bunk in the rear compartment of Hammerhead. The movement of the ship told him they were surging through the atmosphere. There was no pain.
“I don’t feel anything really, what did you give me?”
Lee held up a pressure syringe.
“The pain reliever to end all pain relievers,” he said. “I did a basic scan of your back. Nothing’s broken, but you might have a bruised or sprained spine, if such a thing were possible. It’ll hurt like someone hit you with a steel pipe but it isn’t permanent. An easy fix—for a doctor—according to my searches.”
“I suppose that’s good news. What’s our heading?”
Flaps popped his head into the cramped space with an eager smile. “We’re pursuing the ship which broke orbit just before us, Commander. Lee is certain the spy lady is aboard as well as a few other friends you guys made.”