Mercurial: Ace Evans Book 5 (Ace Evans Series), page 23
Turning his head from side to side didn’t make the signals any clearer. It was maddening, he could almost reach them. After trying several things despair loomed over him. He was so close but the signals were just out of reach. The need to give up, to just lie down and die to escape the pain and despair was nearly overwhelming. Instead, he pressed harder against the wall. The counterpressure on his skull actually felt good for a moment and made the throbbing burn behind his eyes ease slightly. And then a strange thing happened—the wall started to move. Actually, it was the folding apparatus. The toilet lifted slightly, the metal section behind the wall bent inward, and suddenly Alex could hear the glorious sounds of the EM waves coming to him from around the ship.
It wasn’t the Theogony, which was still shielded at the source, but having taken Alex into custody, the order for the rest of the fleet to form up around the gargantuan ship had brought the other vessels into close proximity. Alex had to stand bent at the waist, holding the toilet in his hands and thrusting his head back into the cavity created as the apparatus folded into the wall, but his INC was receiving good signals. He immediately synced to the nearest ship. It was the carrier Exchange and Alex went right to the communications system.
… behind. No one will recognize the escape pods from the old Mora class ships. Ahzco hasn’t used them for decades.
Roger that, Command. We are leaving the escape pods and ship debris behind. You don’t think the Titans will be trouble?
No, they will run out of power or air soon enough. But bring Haley to the Theogony. I want to question him, personally.
Alex recognized the voices on the two ships. Lynn Faulk was giving the orders. Colonel Chastain was taking them. It made him angry. How they could talk about leaving the innocent behind so callously made him furious. And he learned the two things he needed to know. The first was that his friends were alive, the second was that Loman Haley was on the Exchange.
Despite the pain raging through his head and body, Alex synced with two other ships. They were smaller battleships, the Credit and the Debit. Forcing his will on them was like being pulled in three directions at once. The pain was excruciating. Alex thought it might kill him, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t afraid to die. It would be an end to the constant, blistering pain in his head. It took all his strength, but he managed to operate all three ships simultaneously. With a single thought, Alex cut the power to their internal lighting, and a split second later cut the artificial gravity. He knew that once the crews understood he had infiltrated their ships, they would countermand every decision he made. But in the precious few seconds before they regained control, Alex opened fire.
Three waves of raw energy hit the Theogony, two from above and one from her starboard side. Alex fired again and again. Explosions ripped into the massive ship, which shook and shuttered under the assault. The lights flickered, warning sirens wailed, and Alex was almost certain the door to his cell had opened. It took all his discipline not to run for freedom, but he knew as soon as he pulled his head from the wall, he would lose his connection to the two ships. The Credit was the first to recover. The lasers stopped firing and Alex moved quickly to the ship’s maneuvering thrusters. It was flying above and slightly behind the big Theogony, and it only took a full blast to push the Credit down on top of the big ship. The smaller battleship didn’t have the mass to cause major damage, but the lasers had softened the hull armor considerably. The sound, even deep down on the lower level, was deafening, and the entire ship bucked.
Alex was thrown backward. He landed hard on his backside, sending a terrible pain shoot up from his tail bone into his back, but there was no time to complain. Hardly able to breathe, Alex rolled over onto his hands and knees and forced himself forward. At the door to his cell, Alex stood up. There were people in near-panic running through the hallway. He joined them, limping back toward the hangar. His backside was aching and sent jolts of pain through his body with every step. At the door to the hangar, Alex stopped to catch his breath. The other ships were moving away from the Theogony and out of his range, but the Credit was damaged. After crashing into the giant ship’s hull, the armor had buckled and caught the smaller battleship. It had also rent the hull in several places. When Alex synced to the Credit, he was immediately battered with warnings. The hull was compromised and full evacuation had been ordered. Fortunately, that left the ship completely at Alex’s disposal. Her cannons weren’t at the right angle to fire at the big ship, but Alex didn’t need them to. He had a more potent weapon built into the ship. He bypassed the ship’s safety features and feed copious amounts of fuel into the fusion reactor. The buildup took less than a minute. In the meantime, Alex limped back into the hangar where he’d been taken into custody.
The tech was gone, and when Alex moved to where his Titan had been clamped into place, he saw that it wasn’t being charged at all. In fact, the MBS had been disabled, it’s power core and weapons removed. It took all his strength, which was failing, to push the rolling stairs to the next Titan, one of the new Sigma Services units. He limped up and clamored in. The Credit’s fusion reactor was well past the safe threshold, and with additional fuel still being pumped in, it was on the verge of catastrophic failure. Alex immediately hit the initialize button, and let the armor close around him. He had just connected to the Titan’s systems when the Credit exploded. Most of the blast unfortunately blew upward, but enough shot down to cripple the massive Theogony.
The lights went out, along with the gravity and the power that projected the electric field that allowed the hangar to be open to hard vacuum. Suddenly, Alex, along with everything else not clamped down in the hangar, was sucked up. The Titan suit hit the deck with enough force to crack the faux marble, and while the suit absorbed most of the impact, it jarred Alex hard enough to knock him unconscious.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Loman Haley was being escorted up to the bridge when the attacks took place. Unlike Alex, he wasn’t handcuffed, and when the gravity suddenly disappeared, he was able to keep himself from being hurt. By the time he reached the bridge, the power was back on and the Exchange was moving away from the Theogony.
The large holographic display showed scorch marks and places where the Theogony’s armor had buckled. Gas was venting from the big ship in several places, but Loman could tell at a glance that she was far from finished.
“Your pet Operator is quite the nuisance,” Colonel Chastain said. “Ms. Faulk will not be please he marred her new ship’s pretty exterior.”
Loman was amazed. Lynn Faulk must have been building the massive ship for years before her recent escapades. And if she built one enormous vessel, could there be more? Loman didn’t know, and he suddenly wished above all things that he could pull Lynn Faulk out of her flying fortress before she hurt more innocent people.
“Sergeant Evans isn’t my pet,” Loman said. “You’ve got some nerve to criticize me after throwing in with a complete traitor.”
“You mean Ahzco’s chairwoman?” Colonel Chastain said. “How is that a betrayal?”
“Because she isn’t your boss,” Loman said. “I am.”
“And the CEO is your boss, and Lynn Faulk is his,” Chastain snapped. “So I broke the chain of command, but it wasn’t like I went to her. She came to me, and I didn’t have much choice.”
“We always have a choice, Colonel,” Loman said.
Before Chastain could respond the Credit crashed into the top of the Theogony. Loman thought it was insanity that anyone could make such a boneheaded mistake. He had seen the ship rushing forward and expected her helmsman to pull up. But somehow, for some reason, he didn’t. The battleship hit the Theogony and the two vessels stuck fast. But Loman noticed something else, something even more significant. The lights on the big ship began to flicker. Something vital had been hit and there was a chance, however slim, that the Theogony might go down. If she did, it was his chance to stop Lynn Faulk for good.
There were murmurs around the bridge. Loman let them build for a moment. He saw several glances cast toward Colonel Chastain. She saw them too, but pretended not to.
“Lynn Faulk is a desperate woman,” Loman said. “Stop this madness and order the Ahzco ships to finish the job Alex has started.”
“You’re out of your mind,” Colonel Chastain said.
“Am I? You know what she’s been planning.”
“You fabricated those videos.”
“Is that what she told you?”
“She said you’ve been terrorizing the galaxy. That you nearly killed Francis Parleon. That you’re paranoid and probably mentally ill.”
“And you believe her?” Loman asked.
“It makes sense,” Colonel Chastain said. “Everything she said has a ring of truth.”
“The best lies always do,” Loman said. “Just remember, I promoted you to colonel, because you deserved it. And I’ve made my share of mistakes, but I’ve never done anything that I didn’t truly believe was for the good of the company. Make the call. End her petty grasp for power.”
“Maybe he’s right, Colonel,” the navigation officer said.
“We’re fighting our own, ma’am,” the captain said. “I can’t get behind that.”
“Nor I,” said the fire control officer.
Soon most of the senior officers were voicing their concerns. Colonel Chastain looked as if she were carved from stone. Not a muscle moved, but Loman could see the stress in her face, the anguish in her eyes. But before she could agree, the Credit exploded. A jet of flame shot into the space above the Theogony and the entire ship shook for a moment. Then she went dark.
“That’s it,” Loman said, no longer waiting for Colonel Chastain. “Direct all fire onto that ship. Comms, send the order to all our vessels. Fire on the Theogony!”
Laser light shot out from the Exchange and was quickly joined by the other Ahzco ships. As Loman watched, the lasers punctured the huge vessel and cut through the thick armor. It was like watching hungry savages hack at the carcass of a buffalo with stone tools, but Loman knew the big ship couldn’t survive for long. He saw debris spilling out, and fires were burning inside. Where the hull was compromised, smoke came shooting out. A moment later, escape pods began ejecting from the massive vessel. Loman didn’t like to think about how many members of Lynn Faulk’s crew didn’t survive. A ship that huge would have thousands of people on board.
“Let’s get rescue crews ready,” Loman said. “Cease fire. She’s dead in—”
Before he could finish, the big ship broke into three pieces. There was a fiery puff, like the dust disturbed by the launch of a bottle rocket, and the separate pieces of the Theogony began to drift apart. They were dark, almost frightening wrecks, like floating tombs. The sight of them turned Loman’s stomach. He looked at Chastain, saw the tears quivering in her eyes, and stepped up beside her. He had known Ursula Chastain for many years. She was not the type who showed her emotions, and Loman had never seen her offer another person a physical gesture of support, but in that moment, he felt she needed it. He put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a light squeeze.
“It’s over,” he said quietly. “Let’s get our people and go home.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Alex woke up just a few hours after the Theogony broke apart. He had drifted nearly forty kilometers from the site of the explosions, yet he was still close to one of the large sections of the huge ship.
To his surprise and delight, his head no longer hurt. He was weak, but the fire inside him no longer raged. Almost without thinking he synced to the nearest ships. There were several in the area, all picking up survivors in escape pods. At first, he didn’t notice how easily he connected to five different ships. It was similar to his connection to the Titan battle suit. It felt natural, like an extension of his mind. But then the reality registered and he perked up.
“No pain,” he said out loud.
It was true. Despite syncing to five different ships, one carrier and four smaller battleships, Alex felt no strain, no burning throb behind his eyes. It was such a relief, he felt giddy. The burning fever and terrible pain in his head hadn’t been the INC killing him after all. It was growing, rerouting the synapses in his brain to make everything more efficient, and more powerful. He was tired, but he felt stronger than ever, like he could take on armies all by himself. It was such a relief to realize he was okay that he felt elated, but then his concern for Nyx brought his priorities into focus. He searched the ships’ computers. They were sharing a running tally on survivors from the Drachma, the Credit, and the Theogony. Alex searched the registry, but Nyx West wasn’t on the list. Sly, Ash, and Sansabar were all accounted for, but not Nyx. She was still out there, he knew it. Somewhere she was waiting for him, and he set out to find her.
It wasn’t easy. Alex didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He made little course corrections, but tried his best to appear as if he were just another Sigma Services Titan suit. Half an hour after he began looking, Alex found a Valkyrie spinning through space. From her trajectory and spin, it was assumed she was empty, but Alex had a feeling about the asset recovery suit. He tapped into a nearby ship’s communication system and sent a tight-beam transmission to the suit.
The response was immediate. Nyx was trapped inside, blind and helpless. Once the crew realized her plight, they sent a rescue ship to pick her up. Alex had to bid his time and wait for the right opportunity, but eventually he was able to fly to the ship where Nyx had been taken. He let his suit connect to the hull and waited. He had eighteen hours of air in the suit. Hopefully, it would be enough to get him to the ship’s first docking port.
As much as Alex wanted to reach out to Nyx, he thought it was best to wait. Loman and the others would be searching for him, but all they knew for certain was that he had been on the Theogony. It was best, in his opinion, if they thought he was dead. His power was too great for anyone to control, and since waking up from the explosion, he was even more powerful than ever before. It was doubtful that Loman would survive unscathed from the Askerria Sector. Even if he wanted to continue with Ahzco, new leadership would almost certainly be brought in. Once they discovered what Alex could do, there was just no telling how they might respond. It was best, the young Operator thought, not to give them that chance.
Five hours later, the Commodity left the system, unaware that Alex was still clinging to the hull. He had napped on and off, occasionally checking the communications between the ships. Most were pulling out with the Commodity, but five were left behind to comb the wreckage for survivors. Lynn Faulk and her companion, General Cordair, had already been discovered. They had left the ship in an escape pod, and both were in the Exchange where they would face charges. Alex feared that Lynn Faulk, with her abundant resources, would find a way to escape any consequences, but at least her plans had been thwarted again. She had underestimated Alex, everyone had.
As for his status, he was officially listed as missing, but there was an asterisk by his name. Alex didn’t know what it meant, but he was sure it indicated their desire to find him. He was a priority to someone, and once word spread of his abilities, the entire galaxy might go looking for him. Better to disappear while he still had the chance.
The Commodity made port eight hours later in the Dawn system, at the Clearview space station. It was a large port, a trading center for the highly populated system, which had two habitable worlds and several lunar colonies. Just before the ship locked onto the station, Alex used the spaceport’s computer system, which he linked to effortlessly, and sent Nyx a message.
Go into the port. I’ll find you. – AE
Once his message was sent, Alex drifted below the big ship and found a maintenance air lock. He opened it easily enough with his link to the space station’s systems. He could have shut the entire place down, or moved funds from every other bank account in the local business hub, but he didn’t want to abuse his power. He would use it to stay hidden and create a life for himself, his family, and hopefully Nyx. They might be in danger once word leaked of his abilities, and he had no intention of stealing or using his abilities to break the law. At least not from the innocent.
Nor did he want to continue to use his gift, as he saw it, since using it didn’t cause him terrible pain or make him fear for his life anymore, to kill people. There was a place for the CDF, but not for someone with his abilities. If they discovered that he was still alive, they wouldn’t stop looking for him. Alex had no doubt he could use his gift to stay ahead of them, probably several steps ahead, but he didn’t want his family to be in danger.
So he slipped onto the space station, then tapped into their security system while he was still in the maintenance area. He found Nyx at a café. She was in the corner, near the back. There were restrooms nearby and a maintenance access. Alex used a schematic from the space station’s computers to find his way, and ten minutes later he slipped into the restroom of the café where Nyx was waiting. He had picked up a clean pair of coveralls along the way, since the space station cleaned and provided them for their maintenance staff. He would return it soon enough, but he needed to look different before taking the chance of being seen. He pulled off his stinking compression fatigues and washed his body the best he could, then dressed in the coveralls.
