Mercurial: Ace Evans Book 5 (Ace Evans Series), page 1
MERCURIAL
ACE EVANS BOOK 5
TOBY NEIGHBORS
CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Epilogue
Survivors Prologue
Survivors Chapter 1
Survivors Chapter 2
Survivors Chapter 3
PROLOGUE
Lynn Faulk stood on the bridge of her super yacht Silent Partner and waited. She didn’t like waiting, but patience was a key to success that many people overlooked. Most people rushed into things and ended up paying a high price for their impatience. Lynn Faulk didn’t mind high prices, she had more than enough credits to last a hundred lifetimes, but she was after something that no amount of money could buy—at least not outright. At some point, money became just another lever to help her arrange circumstances to their most advantageous position. And she was almost there.
After waiting for decades, and quietly positioning herself to take advantage of every opportunity she could, things were almost ready for her crowning achievement. Soon, she would hold the fate of a hundred worlds in the palm of her hand. She would rule the galaxy. It sounded cliché, but it was quickly becoming a reality. The masses were crying out to be ruled, for someone with the foresight and strength to take charge. She was that someone, but a few obstacles remained in her way.
“The Starstruck just entered the system,” one of the crew members said.
Lynn Faulk rarely set foot on the bridge of her super yacht. It was one of the largest privately owned vessels in the galaxy, and a perfect representation of her financial success. But she left the operation of the vessel, including the management of the crew, to her captain. Lynn Faulk didn’t like being bothered with the details. She was a big-picture person, whose time was very valuable, and only the supreme importance of the trap she was setting had brought her to the ship’s command center.
“Let’s give them a few moments,” the captain ordered. “Begin slowing us down, Helmsman. How long until we cross paths?”
“We should be at our closest point in half an hour,” the navigator said. “From a full stop, we’ll reach the space tunnel in seventy-seven minutes once we start on our way again.”
“Very good,” the captain said. “Steady as she goes.”
Lynn Faulk had dreamed of crushing the pompous media magnate Francis Parleon since she’d first met him. He was incredibly wealthy, but that didn’t give him the right to treat people, especially young women, like playthings. He was arrogant, backward, self-righteous, and perverted, but his influence in the media was unrivaled. And his manipulation of the masses, especially those on the level one planets who thought so highly of themselves, was essential to her plan.
She wouldn’t get to watch him die, and that was a pity. Perhaps he would be foolish enough to record his own demise. That would be satisfying, if the ship was ever found and recovered. Not only would she get the pleasure of seeing the overconfident media magnate fall to pieces, but it would strengthen her alibi. Not that Lynn Faulk thought that she even needed one. Accidents in space were all too common. The Starstruck would simply disappear and Parleon’s brood of illegitimate children would rip his fortune to pieces. Their greed would overshadow any legacy that Parleon had attempted to create, which only served him right in her opinion.
“Do we have eyes on our asset?” Lynn Faulk whispered to the captain.
“Visual only,” he replied. “Nothing that would show up on our logs if an investigation was ever conducted.”
“And the general?”
“Monitoring things on the portable control console. It isn’t logged into our system,” the captain explained. “It’s military grade, so no one should be able to pick up the signal. You thought of everything.”
It was true, the entire operation was Lynn Faulk’s idea. And it hadn’t taken her days to formulate the plan. She knew, as soon as she learned of Alex Evans and his unique abilities, that she could use him to remove the last few obstacles that lay in her path to total power. And she had already stolen copies of the CDF’s files on the young Operator. She was gathering everything that had ever been recorded about him, from medical records to his grades in school. A team of researchers would work tirelessly to discover what made him unique and gave him such unrivaled powers with his implanted neural control chip. Once they had isolated what was different about him, they could find others with the same abilities. She would rule the galaxy with a team of special Operators. No secret would be safe from her. It was as if destiny had given her every tool she would need to create a universe where she would be revered, perhaps even elevated to a deity.
Such lavish thoughts of self-aggrandizement made her almost giddy.
“Sir, the Starstruck is hailing us,” one of the crew members announced.
Lynn Faulk didn’t bother holding back her smile. She was ten steps ahead of every other player in the power game she was running. And the pawns she wielded were falling right into place.
CHAPTER ONE
Alex was in the space tunnel. It was so dark that he would have felt blind if not for the constant system readouts that played through his mind as if they were being projected onto the bottom of a screen. He went into the tunnel not knowing what to expect and had come out a few seconds later, but it felt longer to him. Fortunately, the gravity forces that held open the space tunnel didn’t affect him in the Titan mechanized battle suit.
It felt good to be in action again, even if the mission wasn’t something he wanted to be a part of. But after being abducted from the ship where he was serving as a sergeant in Ahzco’s Corporate Defense Force—and having his life and that of his family threatened—he had been made a lieutenant in Sigma Services, a private security firm, and put to work carrying out the owner’s wishes. Alex had no desire to be an officer. He just wanted to continue serving as a Titan Operator, and under different circumstances he might have been pleased to be given a promotion in rank. But Alex knew when he was being used. Lynn Faulk was a powerful woman, accustomed to people rushing to carry out her every desire because of her immense wealth. And Alex was in no position to deny her.
He was in the Gobal Sector, near the Olympus Nebula. It was a massive dust cloud that glowed purple and pink. Even from a distance, it was beautiful. There was a small tourist space station that was positioned as close as it was safe to get to the cosmological phenomenon, but it was nearly fourteen hours away from the space tunnels that led into the rarely visited sector. And even if Alex could get his Titan battle suit to reach the space station, he would run out of oxygen before he could arrive. His battle suit had been modified, not just with new arms, but with explosive charges. If Alex did anything other than what he had been ordered to do, General Cordair could kill him with a push of a button.
A relatively short distance away, the Silent Partner was cruising toward the space tunnel from which another ship had just appeared. When Alex looked at the newly arrived ship, his suit identified the craft as the Starstruck, his target. Alex increased his thrust and angled his trajectory so that the larger Silent Partner would block him from the sight of the Starstruck.
It was impossible not to marvel at the two super yachts. Alex thought the CDF carrier ships like the Republic were huge, but the privately owned super yachts were even bigger. In fact, they were larger than many space stations. Alex could only guess, but if he had to put a number on how many people could comfortably travel in the Silent Partner he would have to say at least two thousand. What would anyone need with such a vessel was beyond his ability to imagine. But then, he had grown up in near poverty on a corporate-owned world with only one colony and no name, just a number—NP8261.
The EM waves from the two big ships were like fiery beckons in his brain. They made a noise that sounded like music he couldn’t quite identify, almost like the sound from a nearby friend’s headphones that they had turned up too loud. He could have synced to the Silent Partner’s computer systems and taken control of the massive vessel, but he didn’t want to give away his abilities. Lynn Faulk had placed safeguards against him on the ship’s computing systems, and even though Alex felt certain he could bypass them, there were also spy programs that would alert the crew of anyone tapping into the various comput er systems. They might not be able to see that he had synced to the systems, but any order or function out of the ordinary would be immediately spotted and reported. It wasn’t enough to stop Alex, but it would give away his abilities to a woman who already knew too much about him.
Lynn Faulk had threatened him and indirectly had threatened his family. She obviously had no qualms about killing him and probably would not hesitate to torture him to death if it seemed somehow advantageous to her. But Alex didn’t hold secrets; it was his abilities that she wanted to control. All Alex wanted was a way to contact his friends and hopefully find a way to escape the Silent Partner and return to service with the CDF. His captor, who imagined herself his benefactor, suspected he could do more than he was willing to admit. She was right, but Alex didn’t want to show how powerful he was. That would only invite either a desperate struggle to control him at all costs or give her reason to kill him because he was a threat. Instead, he had downplayed his abilities. That hadn’t stopped her from assuming he could disable the Starstruck and in doing so, kill her rival.
The two big ships slowed, making it easy for Alex to get close. He needed to be near his target to sync his INC to their systems. Alex maneuvered under the massive belly of the Silent Partner and approached the Starstruck. He let the EM waves into his mind. It was no different from giving the background music in a video his full attention. When he did, his implanted neural control chip, which was created to give him full control of the CDF’s mechanized battle suits, synced to the approaching ship’s systems. It felt like two magnets snapping together. There was something satisfying about syncing his INC to another system, be it a mechanized battle suit like the Titan he was in or a ship like the Starstruck. Almost instantly he became aware of all the ship’s systems. It was too much information, and he had to let his Titan battle suit drift on its own while he sorted through the various systems. He only needed to take control of a few to carry out Lynn Faulk’s plans, but Alex had ideas of his own. And he was finally ready to do something about the predicament he found himself in.
CHAPTER TWO
Alex had drifted past the Silent Partner and used his suit’s magnetic capabilities to clamp himself to the Starstruck’s hull. He had orders not to disable the yacht until Lynn Faulk’s ship had moved on, which gave Alex time to access the Starstruck’s messaging system. He didn’t need the communications array. He wasn’t attempting to speak to anyone in the sector. But the ship did have a galactic network connection, which it established as soon as it passed through the tunnel. It made sense to Alex that a man who owned multiple media outlets would want unfettered access to them at all times.
Alex didn’t want to watch shows or read news stories. He used his link to the big yacht’s computer system to pull up the private message account he had started while on Skandia Seven, and sent Nyx a direct message.
Nyx, I’m being held on the Silent Partner and forced to work for a woman named Lynn Faulk. For now, I’m okay, but they’re watching me every second and I can’t afford to give away what I’m capable of. I’m using the computer system on the Starstruck, which I’ve been ordered to disable. If you can get to her in the Gobal Sector, the passengers and crew will be grateful for your help. Try to get word to VP Haley. The owner of this ship is Faulk’s partner, and he’ll know that she betrayed him.
Alex sent the message, but there was no way to know how long it would take to pass through the local networks and upload to the galactic net. And even when it did, Nyx might not get the message or be able to do anything about it. Alex needed more than just a message in a bottle; he needed leverage. And as the two super yachts began to move away from one another, Alex searched the ship’s computer systems.
Gaining access to life support, and navigation was simple, but he was searching for something else, something private. It took a bit of searching. The huge private ships had hundreds of computer systems. Everything from passenger access computers, to the orders taken in the dining rooms, all ran on separate systems. Eventually, what Alex was looking for practically jumped out at him. Within the ship’s haystack of computer systems was a powerful, but small, independent computer system. There were eight incredibly complex security programs running simultaneously to block access from outsiders. Fortunately, when Alex synced to a computer system, he didn’t merely gain access like a hacker who would need to break through the security. Alex actually took on the computer system as if it were part of him. Just as the Titan battle suit became an extension of Alex’s own body, the computer systems he synced to were like compartments in his mind.
It only took a few seconds to scroll through the files kept on the isolated computer system. It had access to the ship’s network system, but only when activated. Otherwise, the computer didn’t link to any other device or operating system on the ship. It was like a room at the end of a long hallway, with only one door and no windows. The door was locked from the inside, and there were booby traps to keep unwanted visitors out.
Alex discovered hundreds of video files, all neatly organized and clearly labeled. There were files from Francis Parleon’s business meetings. And what appeared to be private meetings with government officials on every level-one planet in the FTA. Some of the files merely had women’s names on them. There was no time to check them all, and Alex didn’t need to. One set of video files were labeled Sigma Services. He didn’t even watch them, there was no time. Instead, he connected the isolated computer to the ship’s network, and attached them to a new message he sent to Nyx. They were still a long distance from the nearest network buoy, which meant it took several minutes for the video files to upload. In the meantime, Alex synced to the ship’s navigation system. The Starstruck was en route to the space tunnel Alex had already passed through. There was plenty of time for him to dismantle the ship, but he didn’t intend to doom everyone on board in one fell swoop. Instead, he began to shut off the power to certain areas of the ship, one by one.
As the isolated computer—what Alex thought of as Parleon’s private server—completed the upload of the secret video files, Alex essentially herded the passengers toward the center of the huge ship. The bridge was at a high point on the super yacht, but in the center of the ship, just above the oxygen reserves and heating system, was the crew mess. Alex had no idea how many people were on board the massive ship, but it was a simple matter to shut down power to every area except the crew mess. Alex would also keep one tiny section of the ship’s reserve power in place, to continue cycling heat and oxygen into the crew mess.
As soon as his message to Nyx was sent, Alex shut down the communication system and caused several of the ship’s thrusters to misfire. Soon the huge yacht was off course and in a slow spin. They would miss the space tunnel and continue into the void beyond, just as Lynn Faulk had wanted. Only, instead of disabling the ship completely, Alex merely crippled her. The main drives were shut down, the ship’s computers were taken offline. Power, life support, and even artificial gravity were completely disabled. Only a small section of the ship’s auxiliary power was left functioning. The crew mess would have lights, heat, and air for weeks. In that time, Alex hoped the ship would be rescued.
Nor was it outside the realm of possibility that the crew could work through the problems that Alex had caused. He made it seem like the systems were malfunctioning or broken, but in reality he had merely shut them down. If the crew understood how the ship’s computer systems worked, they could reconnect the auxiliary power, fire up the yacht’s vital systems, and eventually get everything back online. Alex felt good about the fact that the crew could save themselves if they didn’t give in to despair.
