Alex held his arms out and focused on the wall. A line of traveling dots projected a recoil off the wall and straight into the side of the man’s head.
The man threatened to shoot the hostage, “Put your gun down—”
THRAA-TAT-A-TAT-SCHPLATT!
Alex let out a burst of three bullets. One by one, they ricocheted off the wall and punched through the bad guy’s chest, neck and forehead, respectively.
The civilian woman ran across the room and went to hug Alex, “Thank you.”
“No time for that now, Alex,” Oxade chuckled from the viewing gallery, “Keep moving, my friend.”
“Hostile down,” the female’s voice into Alex’s headgear, “Hostage deactivated.”
The woman vanished completely, leaving Alex to back himself toward the door, “Area secure.”
“Go, go, go.”
Alex bolted out of the room and approached the adjacent door. He slapped the lever down in the side of his D-Rez and aim it skyward.
“Be careful here, Alex. Don’t get trigger happy.”
“I don’t intend to.”
The timer on his HUD read 65:15, “Come on, let’s do it.”
“I’m not stopping you.”
BAMMM!
Alex booted the door open and slid across the floor, aiming his gun at the far wall.
A long metal bridge snaked out to a door fifty feet away. His feet and legs lifted away from the bridge floor.
“Not so tough now, are you big guy?” she laughed into his headgear, “Let’s see how your firearm works in zero gravity.”
“Holy shi—”
The circular room rocked to life and revolved around him. Severely disorienting Alex as he clung to the rails. His feet lifted above his head as he aimed his gun at the far door.
“Look at all the pretty stars, Alex,” she attempted to put him off, “Can you defend yourself when push comes to shove?”
“What?”
BOP!
A disgusting alien creature thumped him on the back, knocking him across the spinning tube. The lights from the stars swished around, revealing the creature’s six eyes. Two skewers shot out from its body and clawed at Alex as he propelled himself from the metal bridge.
SWISH-SWIPE!
Alex took aim at the beast as he hung upside down in the air, “Damn it.”
“Don’t shoot it, Alex,” Oxade yelled from the gallery. “You don’t want to blow your hand off.”
“I wasn’t going to—”
SNAAARRRLLL! SNASSSHH!
The creature hooked its two front arms up and around the railings and pulled taught on its back legs, ready, to launch at Alex.
He looked at his belt and unfastened a wire with a hook at the end, “God damn it, “cmon, c’mon…”
Alex threw the hook at the top railing. The prongs at the end fanned out and clamped to the metal, keeping Alex tethered in the air by the wire.
Oxade nudged Nutrene and pointed at the nearby staircase, “Come on, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
GROWL!
The creature revealed its fangs and gripped the metal, throwing itself back on its haunches.
Alex slid a grenade from his belt and flicked the pin away. It spun across the air, headed for the far door, “Come on, you ugly sack of scum—”
WOOSH!
It flew into the air and made for Alex, who bent his knees against his chest and released the D-Rez into the floating void.
SLAMMM!
His boot kicked away its skewers, forcing it to scream in pain. Alex’s fist rammed into the beast’s mouth and down its throat. He released the bomb and booted the creature along the bridge, pushing himself to the exit in the process.
“Go on, get out of there,” the girl said in his ears.
Biddip-biddip-beep-beeeeeep…
Alex darted through the air and overtook the whizzing grenade pin. The panel on the wall grew larger and larger as he twisted himself into a flying position.
He slammed his glove against the panel as the beep from the crazy creature flat lined.
WOOSH! The door opened into a small, black decompression chamber.
Alex took one, final look at the creature and grabbed the door frame, “Bon voyage, you ugly mother—”
KA-BLAAAAMMMM-MM!
The creature detonated in a thousand, messy pieces as Alex slammed the door shut.
His entire body hit the deck as a cloud of gas thrust from the vents in the wall.
“Decompressing now,” the female on the other end of his headgear said. “All good?”
“Yeah, fine,” Alex picked himself up from the floor and held his arms out.
SWISH!
The outer door slid open, releasing Alex into the training compound. His HUD recorded a completion time of 87.7.
“Damn it,” he flipped his visor up and placed his D-Rez firearm on the table, “Two seconds short of my target.”
“But just over two seconds faster than the record, my friend,” Oxade applauded with a distinct over-zealousness as he made his way to the table, “Not bad for your first try. Very well done.”
“I could have been quicker,” Alex removed his helmet to reveal a devastatingly handsome young man with a chiseled jawline and beautiful crystal blue eyes.
Nutrene made the mistake of looking him in the face. She felt her heart flutter, temporarily disabling her ability to speak, “Oh, m-my.”
“Hi, I’m Alex.”
He offered her his hand to shake. She stared at it for a few seconds, trying to decide if something spectacularly embarrassing might occur if she made contact.
Carefully, she took his hand in hers and melted inside, “I’m, uh, Nutrene. Nutrene Byford.”
Alex chuckled and threw her a heart-stopper of a wink. She yanked him forward without warning and ran her hand over his face, much to his surprise.
Her lips pressed against the side of his face, allowing her to whisper something very serious in his ear.
Oxade wasn’t surprised by her actions. Nutrene had a way with her colleagues, not least the men.
“All that time dealing with animals,” he muttered, “And she’s the biggest animal there is.”
“I, uh, don’t know what to say?”
“Then say nothing. Alex Hughes,” she returned the wink and spun around, making damn sure he could see her svelte frame and behind display its perfection.
Oxade sidled up to his new colleague and elbowed him on the arm, “She’s something, ain’t she?”
“She sure is,” Alex blinked.
“She may be a medician. But don’t be fooled, my friend,” Oxade patted him on the back and walked off, “Just as she saves lives, she takes them away. She’s one helluva killing machine.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
A fighter jet opened its landing gears and made its descent toward the air strip.
Oxade, Nutrene, and Alex sat in the back of a white buggy, headed from USARIC’s main building.
“So, Minneapolis Two, huh?” Oxade asked over the noise of the engines.
Alex scoured the air field through his shades. The sun burned brightly, adding to the intense heat he felt within his American Star Fleet suit, “That’s right, captain.”
“How long did you serve?”
“Joined six months ago on the Bering Strait clean-up operation.”
“Right,” Oxade raised his voice over the noise of the fighter jet touching down on the strip, “Getting rid of the commie bastards from our soil? I hear they’re just getting started”
“Something like that,” Alex said. “It’s going to turn into a real bloodbath, soon.”
Nutrene pointed at a spacecraft looming in the distance. Space Opera Charlie. The scaffolding had been removed. The vessel looked ready for action.