Chapter 18
Two hours later, Jason and the assault team had made good progress crossing quadrant 3. Periodically phase-shifting forward across the plains, they followed the chariot tracks. They aligned nearly perfectly with the direction their HUD’s indicated they needed to go. Jason fell back and watched the team move ahead of him. He’d noticed Morgan had been slowing down, and Jason wondered if he was having ill effects from his surgery. Watching him now, the problem became apparent. The weight of his backpack was stretched to capacity, billowing out nearly twice the size of anyone else’s.
“Hold up there, Morgan,” Jason commanded.
“I’m all right, Cap, it’s all good.” Morgan picked up his pace and continued on, even catching up to the others.
“Hold up,” Jason said again.
Reluctantly, Morgan came to a stop, but was obviously irritated. The others in the group held up as well, turning to see what the hold-up was.
“Take off your pack, Lieutenant.”
“Sir, there’s nothing to be concerned with—”
“Come on. Off with it.”
Morgan released the waist strap, slipped his arms out from the shoulder straps, and let the pack gently fall to the ground.
“Open it,” Jason said, eyeing the now-moving pack on the ground.
Morgan hesitated, then started to unzip the back portion of the pack. Halfway through the unzipping, the creature sprang out, ripping the pack wide open in the process. Now the size of a medium-sized dog, the creature took off.
“That thing is huge!” Billy said from the front of the group. “Morgan, what the hell have you been feeding it?”
“Just water and nutrition bars, same thing we’re all eating.”
Jason noticed the creature was headed back and running at full speed. All six legs moved at different intervals, but that seemed to work for it okay. When it reached the group, it veered off and continued to run tight circles around everyone. At times it seemed to forget to pull in its big blue tongue.
Dira started laughing. Characteristically, her hand covered her mouth though her helmet was still on. She laughed until everyone else caught the laughing bug. “She’s playing!”
Sure enough, the thing was enjoying itself. It charged each of the individual team members, then quickly skirted off—daring anyone to chase it. Dira took the bait and chased after it as best she could, but she wasn’t nearly fast enough. When she gave up and turned away, the creature darted back and, dog-like, laid at her feet on its back. Dira reached down and tickled the creature’s belly, which caused its six legs to gyrate in the air, obviously in some kind of happy ecstasy. Dira looked over to Morgan and said, “It’s a female. So what’s her name?”
“Hadn’t thought of naming it,” Morgan said. “Call her Alice. Had a dog as a kid called Alice.”
“Alice it is,” Dira said, giving the creature one more round of tickles. She caught Jason’s eye, and gave him a quick wink.
“You’re not going to be able to carry that creature … Alice … in your pack, you know,” Jason said to Morgan.
“Yes, sir. I was really struggling towards the end there,” Morgan replied.
“This is as good as any place to set up camp,” Jason said, looking around their surroundings and removing his own pack. "Billy, set up a sentry rotation—don't include me this time."
Billy nodded, "You got it, Cap."
The group spread out into a circular configuration similar to the previous night. Jason brought out his own small RCM device, set it on the ground, and pressed the release button. Within seconds, it unfolded to its standard size, nearly seven feet high at its center point and ten feet wide, large enough to fit four adults comfortably. With all the amazing technology Jason had been introduced to over the last month, for some reason this contraption fascinated him more than most. As Jason unzipped the front flap, he noticed there was one difference in how the other team members had configured their modules—Dira had moved closer and was now his next door neighbor. A soft, overhead lamp illuminated as Jason entered his RCM. A virtual display came awake and hovered high up at the back of the module. He let his mind reflect back to the previous day with Dira at the rock pool. As he stepped out of his battle suit, he wondered how far he wanted things to progress. That was a lie; he knew perfectly well Dira was already a part of his life, like it or not. But, then again, so was Nan. Maybe he was playing house with Nan.
A request icon flashed onto the virtual display and Jason snapped back to the present. There was a high-priority communications file from The Lilly waiting. Jason touched the icon.
Hello, Captain Reynolds. I am Captain Stalls. I was disappointed you were out when I dropped by today. Apparently, wherever you are, communications are tenuous at best. Which is strange unto itself, since even FDL transmissions are commonplace. Where could you be? Unfortunately, you will not have heard your ship has been boarded and, as you can see from where I am seated, I have taken command and ownership. I realize this is a lot to take in, and I sincerely apologize—but there really isn't a nice way to communicate this sort of thing.
Now, there are a few things I'm sure you will want to know straight away. First of all, your wife, who by the way is simply magnificent, and your daughter have not been harmed in the slightest. But to be perfectly honest, Mollie has run off and hidden herself, quite effectively by the way, but we will find her, of course—there are only so many places for a little girl to hide on a ship, yes?
As Jason listened, he felt his blood pulsing through his ears; it took every measure of self-control to keep from firing a plasma blast into the display.
Now for the less pleasant news. There have been casualties. But that should be expected from a forced takeover. You realize that, of course. Piracy is a messy business.
I am a reasonable man, Captain. From what I understand, you were asked to deliver two things: your ship and the emperor—Emperor Reechet. Now I already possess your ship—no worries there. That makes things easier—all that's left is for you to deliver the emperor. I would hate for anything unfortunate to happen to your wife, excuse me, ex-wife, and your daughter. But Space is a dangerous place, my friend—very dangerous.
Well, I must attend to things. I so wanted to make your acquaintance; you've built quite the reputation in such a short time. It is quickly approaching the dinner hour, and tonight I will be dining with your lovely ex-wife—captivating is an understatement.
The file closed. Jason’s mind immediately flashed to Mollie and Nan—at present they seemed to be safe, and Nan hadn’t been thrown into another Craing cage.
Jason hailed the team. “I’m forwarding a file to each of you. Please watch it. Obviously things have changed. We're breaking camp—be ready to head out in ten minutes."
Jason emerged from his RCM fastening up his battle suit. The team had already assembled and was ready to move out. After retracting his own RCM, he moved forward to the point position and headed off towards the blinking purple rectangle on his HUD. They needed to cross twenty-three miles, avoid confronting Craing locals, and figure out how to find and retake The Lilly and rescue the crew, including his daughter and ex-wife. And he had to figure out how to divert those three advanced alien warships, the Emperor’s Guard, from annihilating Earth. Truth was, he wanted to abandon the mission here and now, head back across HAB 12 and reenter The Lilly. But what about the Emperor’s Guard? How do you weigh the needs of one family against the possible destruction of an entire planet?
They were maintaining a fast jog. Billy, Orion and Ricket—and even Alice—hurried to catch up with Jason. Within minutes, they were brought up to speed on The Lilly’s situation.
"Ricket, what can you do to get us more distance with these phase-shift belts?"
"They can be reconfigured beyond safe parameters."
"What does that mean?"
"A ten mile phase-shift radius, with thirty minutes re-gen time."
"That would put us at the portal in an hour!" Jason said, encouraged by the news.
"Be aware that overheating is a distinct possibility; this is a dangerous configuration," Ricket added.
"Overheating? You mean the belt gets overly hot?"
"No! Approximately ten percent of the time, the belt will explode."
Jason looked back at his team: Counting himself, they were still ten strong. If he moved forward with the reconfiguration of the belts, one or more of them would most likely be killed. His eyes lingered on Dira, now jogging at Morgan's side. He wasn't willing to risk anything happening to her.
Jason slowed and brought everyone to a stop. He opened a comms-channel to the team. "Okay, we're splitting into two teams. Traveler, Billy, Rizzo, Ricket, and myself—we're team Lion. Morgan, you'll head team Zebra with everyone else. Team Lion will be moving ahead to the portal with reconfigured phase-shift belts. Team Zebra, you'll make all haste to catch up when you can. Morgan and Orion, keep your team safe." Immediately a private hail came in from Dira.
"Go for Captain."
"What are you doing, Jason?"
When had he become Jason to her and not captain, he wondered to himself? "We're reconfiguring our belts. Truth is, there's a good chance they'll explode. I like you better in one piece."
"Yeah? Then I'm fine being in Team Zebra. Just make sure you don't leave us in this place. You and I still have a bit of unfinished business, you know."
"I know." Jason smiled and cut the connection.