Craing Dominion (Scrapyard Ship Book 5) Read online

  Jason initiated a phase-shift and the interior of the shuttle flashed white, followed by a resounding shudder as the vessel’s struts settled onto the floor of the underground aquifer.

  Jason watched Boomer get up and move toward the back of the shuttle. He got to his feet and in two strides was at her side. She quickly wiped at her moist cheeks. She raised her chin— vulnerability replaced by something else. Was that resolve?

  “Moll—Boomer! Hold up.”

  Boomer, halfway down the gangway, slowed for a second, but kept going. Jason felt something brush by him on his right. Teardrop, who had been at the controls, rushed past him to join its human. More protective than ever, the droid was never more than a few steps away from her.

  Jason stepped onto the gangway and took in the underground base. There’d been numerous changes since he’d last stepped foot here. Prior to Ricket leaving on his mission to the Craing worlds, Jason had given him a formidable to-do list. Since then, little had been seen of Ricket, who’d spent five consecutive days locked away on The Lilly’s sub-deck 4B. Writing code for the most part, he rarely slept, trying to ensure all his projects were as complete as possible.

  There was now a small army of droids implementing Jason’s conceptualized vision and Ricket’s technical programming. Three immense, multi-level, glass-like buildings were newly constructed along the cavern’s west wall and seemingly needed only finishing touches. The rocky dirt floor of the cavern had been covered over with deck plating, similar to that on The Lilly. Gone was the dark, damp, cave atmosphere, replaced with the ‘alive air’ of a bustling modern facility. It was a complex that would stay hidden, out of reach from enemies, as well as from possible U.S. government interference.

  Jason caught up to his daughter, standing in the middle of the cavernous underground base. Turning to take it all in, she looked astonished.

  “Looks a little different, wouldn’t you say?” Jason asked, stepping to her side.

  “This the same cave under the scrapyard? Doesn’t look like a cave anymore.”

  “No, it doesn’t. Come on, I just have to check on one thing.”

  Jason, Boomer, and Teardrop moved toward the tallest of the three new structures. Glass doors disappeared as they approached, and the AI addressed them as they stepped inside: “Good morning, Captain Reynolds. Good morning, Boomer.”

  “Good morning,” Jason replied.

  “Hey,” Boomer added unenthusiastically.

  They continued down a series of corridors and up a small flight of steps, which ended in a sterile-looking room.

  “What’s this place?”

  “These are my quarters. Just checking to see if I had a place to stay tonight.”

  She made a face. “It’s like one of those clear hamster cages. I can see the toilet over there, Dad.”

  “Wall opaqueness is programmable. We’re not finished setting things up yet. Walls are clear like glass until you program the ones you want to appear solid. Here, watch.” Jason walked over to an eye-level panel mounted on one wall’s glass surface. He tapped at the display and several walls became translucent, allowing light in the room to be subtly evident, but objects were non-discernible. More tapping and the walls changed to different colored hues—some to light green, others to a shade of blue or red. As the walls changed color, becoming less see-through, the space around them made more sense.

  “Huh. I see. It’s like an apartment or something.” Boomer walked from one area to another, taking it all in. “There’s the kitchen … kinda small. That your room over there?”

  “Yep.”

  “Um, where’s my room?” she asked.

  “I didn’t configure one for you. I could …”

  Her eyes flicked back to Jason. “Why don’t I get—”

  “Boomer, why on earth would you want to stay here when you can stay in your own room at the house?”

  She didn’t answer him and continued investigating her father’s quarters. “I guess it’s okay. But I still think it looks like a hamster cage.”

  “Yeah, I guess it does, kinda,” Jason replied, smiling down at her. “It needs more furniture.”

  “Maybe that will help,” Boomer replied.

  Jason turned and put two fingers to his ear, talking to someone else. “Yes … yes … Okay, on our way.” He turned back toward Boomer and let out a breath. “We’re late. We have to go.”

  “I thought we were going to the new house. I want to see Mom!”

  “And she wants to see you, too, and that’s exactly where we’re going.”

  “Oh, okay!”

  Together they walked in silence out of Jason’s quarters, down the stairway and out of the building. Teardrop was waiting there for them.

  “You’ll be staying here, Teardrop,” Jason said.

  Boomer looked as if she was going to object, but then asked another question instead. “Dad, did Mom get the house fixed? You do know it was flattened, don’t you? Uncle Brian landed a tractor thing on it.”

  Jason shook his head. “No, that actually didn’t happen this time. Remember when I told you about Earth being set back several weeks in time? That’s why your mom and Mollie are still alive and well. We were able to stop Captain Stalls from hurting your mother, and also Uncle Brian from landing on the new house. But the house got pretty banged up. I still haven’t seen it—your mom wanted to get it back into shape first.”

  “So are there two Uncle Brians?”

  “Well … No.” They continued walking until they came to a large double door. Jason paused a moment while the AI scanned his bio-form. There was an audible click as the door unlocked. Pulling the door open, he gestured for Boomer to go through first.

  Boomer smiled. “I know where we’re at now!”

  “Uh huh, this part is the same as it always was,” Jason replied.

  Together, they continued walking down the wide rocky tunnel. Spaced every hundred feet or so, lights hung down from long metal cables affixed high above. Jason thought back to a year earlier—the first time he’d run down this same tunnel with Mollie dead in his arms. He had followed close on Ricket’s heels to The Lilly and into the ship’s Medical, where he’d placed her lifeless body into a MediPod. God, so much had happened since then.

  They stepped into the metal lift and Jason slid the rickety gate closed. The elevator jerked and started to rise up the vertical shaft. Automobile body parts lined the walls. One stretch was nothing but old hubcaps. Jason thought about hubcaps and how they were a thing of the past, replaced, like so many other things in life.

  “Why not? Why aren’t there two Brians?” Boomer asked, pulling him away from his thoughts.

  “We had to make a quick decision, Mollie, sorry—Boomer. The bin lift was going to land on the new house, possibly on Mollie and your mother. Another Brian and Betty were already alive in another location. We fired on the bin lift, hoping to destroy it before it crash-landed on the house a second time. It crashed on top of the old house this time, and I’m sorry to say Brian, Betty and the hopper didn’t make it. They died.”

  “So me and Teardrop are the only extras?” she asked.

  “Extras? You think of yourself as extra?”

  “I don’t know. That might not be a good way to say it. But why would Mom need two of us? She already has one Mollie—two seems ridiculous. I’m extra.”

  The lift came to a stop within the confines of the ancient, rusted-out bus. Boomer slapped a button and the double doors swung open. They made their way through a tangle of junked cars and heaps of scrap metal before stepping onto the concrete path that led toward the house. Jason noticed Boomer, dragging her feet, was getting more and more nervous the closer they got.

  Jason stopped and waited for her. “What are you doing? Why are you walking so slow?”

  “I’m not! You have longer legs,” she replied irritably. “Why do I even have to be here?”

  “Half hour ago you couldn’t wait to see your mother again. What’s going on with you?”

  She shrugged, slowing her pace even more, watching her feet as she walked.

  Jason knew there was nothing he could say or do to make her feel any better. They continued on in silence for the ten minutes it took them to reach the back of the new house. He stopped and Boomer, head down, proceeded to walk right into the back of his legs.

  “Ow! Warn me when you’re going to stop like that, Dad!”

  She scowled up at Jason only to see he was smiling at her. Her eyes drilled into him with a mixture of anger and hurt until she noticed something when she looked around him, up ahead. There, ten feet up on the hill, stood the new house she and her mother had seen built. Perfect and beautiful. On the back fence, which ran the width of the back yard, was a hand-painted sign, the biggest she’d ever seen:

  WELCOME HOME BOOMER!

  As a smile spread across her face, she saw her mother running towards her, screaming her name. Tears welled up and flowed. When Nan engulfed her daughter in her arms she heard what she needed to hear: Mollie … Mollie … Mollie, I love you, Mollie.

  Jason watched his daughter, her eyes squeezed closed, her mother’s arms wrapped tightly around her, as they swayed back and forth to a rhythm only the two of them could hear. Nan stepped back and held her daughter’s small face in her hands. More serious now, Nan said, “You know I love you, right? You know that I’m so so so happy you’re here with me, right?”

  Boomer nodded and Nan wiped at her wet cheeks with her thumbs, then kissed her forehead again.

  On the rise, behind the house’s backyard iron fence, Mollie stood and watched. Jason smiled up at her and waved. She waved back but never took her eyes off Boomer. This was the moment Jason was most apprehensive about. How would they react to each other?

  Boomer saw her standing up there, watching them. Nan stepped back and let them both assess each other.

  Mollie held out an outstretched arm and pointed, “What’s that?”

  Boomer, confused, followed the direction of Mollie’s finger and looked at her wrist.

  “This?” Boomer asked, holding up her arm and pointing to a multicolored braided wristband.

  “Yeah, did you make that?”

  “Uh huh. I used the garment replicator. It’s a few strips of cloth braided together. I can make you one, if you want.”

  Mollie looked over to Nan. “Mom, do we have a garment replicator in the house?”

  Nan nodded. “In the master bedroom. Don’t make a mess.”

  Boomer was off and running and scrambling up the hill. Mollie met her at the metal gate and together they disappeared out of view.

  Chapter 8

  With zero fanfare, Her Majesty moved away from Earth; past a distant Mars; past the orbits, but unseen planets of Jupiter and Saturn; past Uranus and Neptune … past icy, gaseous Pluto; and then past an area that was strewn with space junk and what was left of a demolished Craing fleet. Brian ordered Bristol to go ahead and connect to the interchange, and he provided the intended end-point coordinates on the other side of the universe. Brian was almost surprised when a wormhole appeared less than a thousand miles before them. Hell, this might actually work.

  They had initiated the toric-cloaking system before entering the wormhole. To be on the safe side, they emerged several light-years away from the Craing worlds. Even though the entrance to a wormhole was detectable by most vessels’ long-range sensors, Bristol assured Brian their vessel was completely invisible and any sudden fluctuation in space’s atmosphere would be attributed to just another space anomaly.

  “XO, report.”

  Perkins stood at the far side of the luxury liner’s bridge with two fingers to his ear. “Typical space chatter. Wait . . . there is mention of a large vessel entering the system. They may have detected us. No, they’re talking about a prison barge. Other than that, all’s relatively quiet here.”

  Brian’s eyes held steady on the display before him as he scanned Craing space. Hundreds if not thousands of vessels, of all kinds, moved like trails of ants from one planet to another. Other vessels maintained orbits around each of the seven worlds. The display changed and two Caldurian Crystal City vessels filled the display.

  “Captain, these two vessels are in high-orbit around Terplin,” Perkins said.

  Brian nodded, then took a step closer. “Bring us within three thousand miles. I want to see what’s on the other side of the furthest one.”

  A slight, pasty-looking crewman at the tactical station mumbled something, then spoke up louder: “There’s definitely another ship there. Not much showing on sensors, though it could be the Minian.”

  “Helm, get us a better angle on her,” Brian commanded.

  Her Majesty slowly traversed a sufficient distance for the other vessel to come into view. No one spoke. The image of the Minian spoke for itself.

  “I still can’t believe the Caldurians would want to have anything to do with the Craing,” Perkins exclaimed.

  Brian shrugged. “Well, it’s only these few. For the most part, Caldurians—the progressives—keep to the multiverse these days. No, these are originals—renegades—and no doubt Granger is there, on board the Minian, as we speak.” Brian hailed Ricket.

  “Go for Ricket.”

  “We’re well within Craing space,” Brian said. “Moving to phase-shift range above Halimar. You and Gaddy ready?”

  “Not quite,” Ricket replied, sounding distracted. “I need to make another adjustment to my nano-devices.”

  “You can do that? Without a MediPod on board?”

  “Yes. Portable equipment brought along for just that purpose. Now please, Captain, let me complete this task, and I’ll be ready to go.”

  * * *

  Ricket cut his NanoCom connection to Brian and brought his attention back to the small portable display on his makeshift workbench. His head was encased in a circular construct, not dissimilar to one of the oversized motorcycle helmets he’d seen people wear on Earth. But the similarities stopped there. This device, one he’d nicknamed a CrainyPod, had much of the same technology found within a standard MediPod unit, although this device would only provide its advanced medical capabilities to a patient’s head region.

  “You look ridiculous in that thing.”

  Ricket had forgotten Gaddy was on her way to his cabin. “I’m almost finished.” He ran the most recent subroutines designed to support the added nano-tech hardware implanted into his brain. He’d borrowed the technology from something he’d seen while on board the Minian several weeks earlier. Testing the changes and additions would have to wait. Ricket removed the CrainyPod and placed it on the workbench.

  Gaddy came closer and tilted her head. “I still can’t believe you’re Ricket. You look so different.”

  “Well, it is me. I just hope I can pull this off. I’m not so good at this whole play-acting thing … as you’ve discovered over the last few days.”

  “You’ll probably be fine. Just don’t get nervous. That’s when you give yourself away. You need to start acting like Nelmon Lim, postgraduate student at Craing Empire University at Halimar, instead of Ricket. Listen, we’re going to have to give the performance of our lives down there. The plan, everything, depends on us getting it right.”

  Ricket slid from his chair, grabbed his small backpack and headed for the hatch.

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Gaddy asked, catching him just prior to leaving.

  Ricket turned and surveyed the small compartment. “What?”

  “What did we talk about? How do two people in love act?”

  Ricket’s expression softened and he attempted a weak smile. He held out his hand and waited for her to take it, and together they walked out of the cabin and down the corridor.

  “You know … I’m just saying … You’re not a robot, or a cyborg thing, anymore. You might want to keep that in mind.”

  Ricket looked more nervous than she’d seen him in the past. His hand was moist and he kept looking down at it, as if inspecting the strange, and overly personal, connection to Gaddy. “I’m trying. This is new to me. I’m not comfortable with …”

  “I know. It’s all right, Ricket … Nelmon. Try to have some fun with it all. I’ve been to the Emperor’s Palace more times than I can count. Relax, everything will turn out fine. Okay?”

  * * *

  Gaddy and Ricket phase-shifted onto the planet, into a wooded area approximately one mile from the Craing Empire University at Halimar. Gaddy had ensured him they were wearing the most typical style of clothing worn there, not unlike what students wore at universities back on Earth: jeans, sweatshirts, tennis shoes, and small backpacks. Craing youth were fascinated by anything related to Earth, and the styles of clothing worn there were no exception.

  Together, they reached the outer boundary of the university. Here, students and professors alike were hurrying along across campus. A group of five students huddled together up ahead. One was talking excitedly, then abruptly stopped.

  “Gaddy?” the student yelled.

  Ricket watched the entire group of young adults turn in their direction. Gaddy grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the awaiting group.

  “Chala!” Gaddy yelled back excitedly. Gaddy let go of Ricket's hand and ran ahead the last few yards. The two quickly hugged, then stepped away.

  “Are you back? I didn't think you were in school this semester,” Chala asked, eyes dramatically opening wide.

  “Yes, I need to finish … only have a few more classes.”

  Chala looked toward Ricket. “And who’s this?”

  “Oh, sorry. This is Nelmon, Nelmon Lim … My boyfriend,” Gaddy said with pride, looking over to Ricket. “He’s a post-grad student working on his doctorate.”

  That raised eyebrows from the others and Chala looked confused. She looked at Gaddy and then to Ricket as if something about this was askew.