Scrapyard LEGACY (Star Watch Book 6) Read online

  “Hold for one moment.”

  Bri glanced over to Dira, a confident smirk on her face.

  “Berth 211B has become available. You now have clearance to proceed. Please take care to follow all station docking protocols and regulations. Welcome to Xavier Station 35.”

  Bri didn’t bother to reply to the magistrate. The station, completely filling the viewing window, showed hundreds of berths. Most were vacant. She brought the craft in closer—her brow furrowed with concentration. “Where the … okay, I see it now.” Adjusting the controls, she slowed their descent down even more.

  “You should let the AI park the—”

  “I already know that,” Bri said, cutting her off, then took her hands off the controls. “You think I’m crazy?”

  Dira shrugged and glanced out the starboard side of the craft. Gasping out, she pointed, “There’s … the Jumelle!” Bri stared back at her in confusion.

  “It’s our ride … how we’ll escape from here.”

  Bri’s interest was suddenly heightened.

  The Jumelle was docked on a lower-down concentric ring of nearly identical berths. The aft section of the Star Watch ship was lit up with bright lights. Dira could just barely make out movement within the connecting clear tubular skyway, men at work doing something. She flinched, spotting several bright flashes erupt—small explosions? They were trying to breach one of the aft hatchways, and she thought of Orion inside the ship. They were so close to breaking in. Even knowing it was probably pointless, she brought two fingers up to her ear and hailed her. Dira was momentarily speechless when she heard the hail actually go through.

  “Go for Gunny …”

  “Orion! I can’t believe …”

  Orion cut her off, “The connection won’t last. Tell me, where are you?”

  “Here … Xavier Station 35. Docking.”

  “The skyway’s full of workers and guards. Find a place to hide and …”

  The connection went dead. “Orion? Are you there?” Aggravated, Dira slouched back in her seat.

  “We can’t get on board?” Bri queried.

  “Not unless you can order those workers and guards to take a long break. We’re going to need to hide … somewhere here … until things change. At least the station doesn’t look to be very crowded.”

  The prince’s personal craft, now under AI control, slowly turned on its axis one hundred and eighty degrees, then slowly eased into what Dira assumed was Berth 211B. She asked, “What is it with both this station and the castle? There’s … like no one around?”

  “It’s not usually like this,” Bri said. “In fact, it’s usually the complete opposite, with hundreds of warships coming and going regularly. The castle down on Thorian Banal has troops, what we call knights. There are hordes of them. The majority of them are actually spacecraft officers … pilots.”

  “So where is everybody then?”

  Bri said, “I’m not privy to things like battle plans and such. My duties are … along … other lines. But I, and others like me, well, we listen and share information between us when we are alone.”

  Dira waited for her to continue.

  “What we’ve learned over these last few weeks is this: Lord Digby has been gearing up for an all-out deployment. Just about everyone, including all the knights, have been dispatched for conquest of distant star systems. The king’s four fleets are either en route to some other star system, or they are already there, putting new subjects under the rule of Sommis of Adriark.”

  “Four fleets?”

  Bri nodded. “And that’s just our own. There are a number of new strategic allies Lord Digby calls the New Brotherhoods.”

  “Can you remember any names of these other … brotherhoods?”

  “I know the largest one is the Craing.”

  Dira stared blankly at Bri. How was that possible?

  The ship jolted to a stop. Dira, peering out the window, noticed they were no longer moving. “You can find us a place to hold up … out of sight? News of the prince’s demise may soon become common knowledge …”

  “I know just the place. Come on.” Bri rose from her seat and turned to exit the cockpit, then suddenly halted and bent over—both hands cradling her protruding belly.

  “What is it?”

  Bri looked up, panting through the pain. “It’s nothing. I’ve had this feeling before. Just need to let it pass …”

  Dira placed her hands on Bri’s belly and felt around its tautness.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m a doctor. I’m only checking.” Then, after exploring further with her hands, she added, “To see what position your baby is in.”

  “Is it …”

  “I need to get you into Medical. Right now!”

  Chapter 34

  Two-ton requested docking privileges at Xavier Station 35. In the not so far distance, the Stellar assumed a slow orbit around the gargantuan space station.

  “Come on, man! We need provisions and a bit of maintenance work done … crapper’s all backed up. We’re dying in here.”

  Billy, smoking a cigar—filling the small space with a stinky white haze—sat next to Two-ton. He marveled at the robot AI’s ability to think on the fly and to improvise; show true human characteristics—notably, a sense of humor. Billy wished he’d known Donald Koffman. For a brief moment, he was saddened that the genius techno-hipster deliveryman had died not so long ago.

  The flight control magistrate came back online, tired annoyance in his voice. “No one’s being granted docking privileges today. File the appropriate requests and come back next week. Things should be settling down by then.”

  Two-ton and Billy exchanged a quick glance.

  “What a douchebag,” Bristol said, sitting at the comms station behind them. He got up, then crossed to the far side of the cockpit and typed something on a terminal.

  “What are you doing, Bristol?” Billy asked. “Best you don’t do something half-cocked without talking to me first.”

  Bristol didn’t answer but kept on typing while issuing a string of foul insulting murmurs. He only stopped long enough to stare out one of the side porthole windows.

  Billy followed his gaze and saw the Jumelle. They knew she was around somewhere, but this was the first time he’d actually seen the ship here. “You’ve tried their comms?” he asked.

  Bristol, head down, kept working, but answered, “Comms are down … don’t you think I would have tried that?” Billy knew the Jumelle’s comms were in fact down; he’d already tried to NanoCom hail Orion twice.

  “Hacked their flight control hub,” Bristol said, “… pretty good firewall they have. Looks like they’re trying to breach one of the aft hatchways. As far as I can tell, the Jumelle is locked into a berth.”

  “Crew status?” Billy asked.

  “All there. Bunch of Sharks milling around on the lower decks, too.”

  Billy tried to make sense of that. Why hadn’t Orion given out an order to storm the station?

  As if reading his mind, Bristol said, “Ingress Virus is rampant throughout that ship. Weapons are down; shields, comms … you name it. I don’t think they could open that hatch if they wanted to.”

  “Take a look at the rest of the station. What do they have in the way of security forces?” Billy asked.

  After several long minutes of inputting, Bristol said, “A crapload of Vicksol ST66 warships landed here within the last hour. Two hours ago, there would have been little resistance.”

  Two-ton said, “I’ve been checking the planet below, Thorian Banal, via my own internal sensors. I’ve found the crew of the Aquarius. Well over one thousand … mostly humans … are held within a subterranean vault of some kind.”

  Bristol leered at the robot for a moment before re-checking the Stellar’s long-range sensors. “Yeah … I was just about to check on the planet too.” Then tapping something, a 3D representation of the world hovered above the tactical station. Making a disdainful face, Bristol sneered
, “What a shithole of a planet.”

  “Either of you locate the Omni?” Billy asked.

  Two-ton quickly came back with an answer. “He’s definitely on the planet. A DNA scan puts him within a stone fortress built within ragged mountain cliffs. He may be injured … life signs are faint.”

  Billy ignored Bristol’s growing irritation with the robot. He wondered whether it was the contrast; how the robot looked—a mecher, with an unchanging, dullard expression—but with smarts perhaps superior to Bristol’s own. Apparently, competing with Ricket wasn’t enough—he needed to compete with an AI as well.

  Billy said, “So we have three mission objectives: First, get Bristol onto the Jumelle. Get the patch installed … her Caldurian systems back up and running. Second, we need to get the Omni extricated from the castle. And third, rescue the Aquarius’s crew.”

  Bristol looked around the tiny compartment then glanced over his shoulder. “I count six of us; seven, if you count the tin can. We’re not prepared for that kind of incursion.”

  “Count again, Bristol. Once the Jumelle’s Sharks are freed … things will even out nicely. And don’t call Two-ton a tin can, Bristol, it’s rude.” Billy spat flecks of cigar remnants onto the deck then glanced over at Two-Ton. “Stay here with the Stellar. If we need you, or need tactical support, we’ll be in contact. Get Big Baby initialized—we may have to leave here fast!”

  “Big Baby?” Two-ton asked.

  “It’s what the Stellar’s kick-ass rail gun is called,” Bristol said, happy knowing something that Two-ton did not.

  Billy headed aft and found the four Shark recruits playing cards. Over the last few hours, he’d gotten to know the boys. None was over the age of twenty-one. Two were twins—Harper and Dale Clark. Although they looked nothing alike, were fraternal, their voices were identical. Both wore easy smiles and were highly athletic. They spoke about sports, all kinds of sports, incessantly. The two other Sharks were Paul Bellman and Kyle Dumfarht. Kyle’s last name became Dumb Fart and sometimes just Fart, once he joined the group of Sharks.

  Billy spent a few minutes going over the plan with the recruits. After Bristol entered the cabin, he instructed them all to initialize their combat suits. Two-ton had suggested they phase-shift into one of the lower deck holds to ensure no one landed on top of anyone else on such a crowded vessel.

  * * *

  All six flashed into view within the confines of Hold #2 on board the Jumelle. Billy moved to the hold entrance and found the virtual hatch tightly secured in the closed position. The Ingress Virus had obviously messed with multiple ship functions. He scanned his HUD life-icons, noting the corridor on the other side of the hatchway was vacant—completely unoccupied.

  Billy, studying the recruits and Bristol, asked, “Can you guys group together a bit? Come on, get in closer than that!” Joining the others, he phase-shifted them all to the other side of the bulkhead. Then together they double-timed it, rushing forward.

  With all DeckPorts down, Billy and Bristol traversed the ship the old-fashioned way, finding and using the hidden catwalks and ladders on each level. Billy ordered the recruits to report to the barracks, to Master Sergeant Gillroy Blatt.

  Billy, the first to enter the bridge, found Orion sitting in the captain’s chair, her back to him, conversing with her helmsman—Army Ranger Sergeant Gail Stone. Lowering his helmet, he gave a casual wave to Stone. Her eyes went wide, but she didn’t say a word after he signaled her to be silent by placing a finger over his lips. He quietly stood behind Orion, and said, “I bet you’re thinking about me.”

  Orion spun around, utter surprise on her face.

  “Cat got your tongue?”

  She jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist, and squeezing him so tight he thought he was going to break a rib. He attempted to embrace her equally tight but failed to do so—she was such a strong one. She spoke into his ear, “I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in all my life.”

  Billy and Orion, an on-again, off-again item for years, had split up months ago … or was it a year. Billy slowly had come to accept that she would never fully commit to him, not in the way he hoped for, anyway. So he was more than a little surprised by her reaction. She whispered in his ear, “Billy, I don’t ever want to be apart from you again … not ever.”

  “That can be arranged. Okay if I finish rescuing you and the crew first?”

  Letting her long legs drop down to the deck, Orion quickly composed herself. Billy watched Bristol, already at work at one of the stations.

  “What’s Bristol doing?” Orion asked.

  “Installing a patch over the Ingress Virus. Getting your ship up and running again.”

  She nodded, “That’s good. Billy, they have the Omni. And Dira is running around somewhere …”

  “She’s close … here in the station,” Bristol said, without looking up.

  Chapter 35

  Their next stop was District 2—where Captain John Baxtor commanded the Pisces. Jason was apprehensive as the Parcical exited the interchange wormhole into a planetary system that was in stark contrast to the one visited before it. All seemed quiet so he let himself relax somewhat. But he couldn’t ignore the fact that this system—the Jhardon planetary system—was home to Dira. He felt his heart constrict within his chest and tried hard not to worry about her now. She surely had been captured, or even worse, but hopefully she was still alive somewhere within the Sommis of Adriark system.

  Ryan said, “I’ve got a lock on the Pisces, ten thousand miles distance.”

  “Take us to her, Helm.”

  Jason closed his eyes against the bright flash of the Parcical’s phase-shift. Upon opening them, he saw the mile-long Master Class warship Pisces at the relative distance of seven to eight miles away. Typically, such Star Watch vessels glimmered with hundreds of twinkling lights, emanating from various small portholes and observation windows. But that was not the case here. The ship looked lifeless. Adrift.

  “Tell me, Lieutenant Meany, what’s going on around us?”

  “As you know, Captain, Jhardonian space is surrounded by other systems. I’m not picking up any recent alien fleet intrusions. The present status quo for this district remains normal.”

  Ricket stood at Jason’s side to the right of the captain’s chair. “I am sorry, Captain, but there are no viable life forms detected on board the Pisces.”

  Jason turned his gaze to Meany, who simply nodded in concordance. He was immediately sickened that once again he was viewing an immense tomb adrift in space. Systematically, his people were being exterminated. And worse yet, the only barrier remaining between the Sommis of Adriark forces and Earth, Star Watch, was quickly disintegrating.

  “So the CBDs did this?”

  “I do not believe so, Captain,” Ricket said. “I researched and found that CBDs, once activated, typically emit faint traces of exotic elements into the air. I am not detecting those elements on the Pisces, to the same extent they were found on other Star Watch vessels, including this one.”

  “It does seem their environmental systems are a bit haywire,” Lieutenant Meany added.

  Jason let out a breath and, rising to his feet, hailed Boomer.

  “Go for Boomer.”

  “I’m heading over to the Pisces. It may not be … a pleasant trip.”

  “I’m going with you anyway. I’ve seen unpleasant before.” Jason knew she had. Numerous times.

  “I’m on my way,” she said.

  “Mind if I come?” Ryan asked. “Now that the lieutenant is here on board, I was hoping I could go along on this mission.”

  Jason considered the request. “Sure. There’s a good chance you’ll be piloting her back to Sol, in any event.”

  Jason felt the now-familiar thumping footsteps of the friendly CBDs out in the corridor. He watched as Ricket initialized his combat suit, collected up a medium-sized case off a console, and headed off the bridge.

  “You have the conn, Lieutenant. I’ll keep you tied
into our open comms channel.”

  “Very good, Captain.”

  * * *

  Jason, Boomer, Ryan, Ricket, and the two recruits, Scott and Lopez—along with the two Caldurian battle droids—phase-shifted together to their usual, now standard drop location, right outside the Pisces bridge.

  Immediately, HUD alarms sounded within Jason’s helmet. Environmental conditions—extremely high surrounding ambient temperatures. Reluctantly, he strode headlong onto the bridge expecting the worst, but found the ship’s command center deserted. He moved forward, studying the space around him, when he saw the hunched human form—slightly behind him and to his left—sitting upright in her seat. Ricket was already there, inspecting the body—using his combat suit-covered fingers to touch and probe the body.

  “What happened to her?” Boomer asked. Jason wondered the same thing, as the two recruits kept their distance, standing guard in the entrance.

  Jason knelt down next to Ricket—eye level with the deceased bridge officer. At first sight, she looked almost mummified—her flesh was obviously reddened and rippled over her skull. “She looks as though she was—”

  “Cooked?” Ricket observed. “That is a correct assumption. She was subjected to extremely high temperatures. I would estimate somewhere in the range of one hundred and eighty to two hundred degrees Fahrenheit.” Ricket glanced up then around. “My HUD readings tell me the ambient temperature in this compartment is nearly that high now.”

  Ryan said, “The Ingress Virus?”

  Boomer sarcastically said, “You think?”

  “So where is everyone else? Where are the bodies?”

  Ricket placed his portable case atop the console, then, opening it, went to work. Jason stood and took in the view appearing on the wraparound display—noting his own ship off in the distance.

  “Ricket … can I assume the temperatures were not high enough to affect the ship’s systems?”

  “I believe that is correct, Captain. From what I can determine, all systems are still online, although some have automatically gone into some kind of sleep mode, for self-preservation. But since introducing the Ingress Virus patch … those systems are waking up. I should be finished momentarily, Captain.”