Mako (The Mako Saga: Book 1) (23 page)

“Dr. Reiser, is everything alright?” Lee asked, perplexed as he rushed to catch up.

“We will find out momentarily, Lee, but I truly hope so,” he said with an authoritative swipe of his keycard through the door’s security panel.

Passing through the main lobby and weaving back through several of the structure’s bland white hallways, Reiser arrived at an out-of-the-way elevator on the building’s northeast wall.

“Listen, Dr. Reiser, I ain’t tryin’ to be pushy here,” Lee persisted, his patience for cryptic behavior waning, “but I’ve gotta ask, what’s this all about? Where are you takin’ us?”

“To my personal lab in the basement” Reiser said, allowing Reynolds to board ahead of him and removing a small silver key from beneath his shirt.

“Okay, definitely starting to get a little weirded out here, Lee,” Mac mumbled, filing into the confined space with the others and seeing the steel doors close shut behind them.

Lee nodded in full agreement as, beside him, Reiser slipped the key into a small slot above the floor selector to release a tiny panel with an oblong-shaped glass lens inside. Leaning into it, the doctor placed his right eye just in front of the lens and spoke.

“Reiser, Jonathan T. Authentication code, Victor-13-Delta, 72-Charlie.”

“Yeah, because this isn’t creepy at all,” Danny muttered from the back.

Just then, a thin beam of green light emitted from the lens and scanned Reiser’s eye from top to bottom, flickering twice before disappearing back into the panel.

“Access granted,” a modulated voice declared, beginning their downward descent. “Welcome, Dr. Reiser.”

Fifteen agonizing seconds later, the silver doors swooshed open once more, and five sets of wondering eyes bulged at what they saw; a large, cavernous room that looked far less like a lab, and far more like a NORAD fallout shelter.

“Okay, this just got a wee bit real for me, boys and girls,” Hamish uttered in amazement.

Encompassed by a series of tall, steel walls covered in yellow emergency lighting, the bunker’s vast concrete floorspace was cordoned off into separate departmental sections by several rows of computer terminals, workstations, and high-tech instrument towers, the likes of which none of them had ever seen. Adding to the confusion were the dozens of personnel that fluttered around the room—each one deeply engrossed in his or her respective tasks. As expected, many of them looked to be scientists, as evidenced by their white lab coats, computer tablets, and techno-babbly conversations, though it was the others in the room who caught the group’s attention. Dressed in oddly familiar blue fatigue uniforms, with black tactical belts and matching duty boots, each one of them was armed.

“Whoa… okay, jump back, Doc,” Link protested, the agitation thick in his voice as he stepped back toward the elevator. “Normally I’ve got no problems with guns, but you can bet your sweet ass that I most certainly do when everybody else in the room is packin’, and I’m standing here with nothin’ but my swingin’ junk in my hand! Now if you don’t mind, why are half the people in this
not at all suspicious as hell
lab bringin’ the heat? And while we’re at it, what is this place? Some kind of freak-show, Blackwater bunker or something?”

“Calm down, Mr. Baxter,” Reiser said, trying to defuse the situation long enough to explain.

“Sorry, Dr. Reiser, but Link’s right,” Lee declared, having none of it as the others formed instinctively into a flank behind him. “You either start talkin’—and I mean now—or we’re outta here and on the first commercial flight back to Florida.”

“
Dr. Reiser
,” a stern voice barked from across the room and the group turned to see Sgt. Major Noll marching toward them. Dressed in full uniform—complete with gold bars on his right shoulder—he was nothing short of livid. “
May I have a word in private, please?
”

Flashing the same look of frustration as he’d shown in the hangar back in Jacksonville, Reiser pursed his lips and excused himself from the group.

“Were we not in agreement that, as the head of this expedition’s military presence, I would be consulted before the decision to allow them clearance was made?” Noll growled once they were alone.

“I’m sorry, Keith, but there simply wasn’t time,” Reiser defended. “Unless I’m mistaken, Madisyn did text you, alerting you to our arrival. Correct?”

“That isn’t the point,” Noll scowled with an accusatory finger. “Outside of this facility, I couldn’t care less what you do with your time, or who you do it with. But when it comes to decisions that affect the safety, security, and success of this mission—and the people on it—I expect to be kept in the loop. That was our agreement, and you damn well know this, Jon.”

“
Sgt. Major Noll
,” Reiser snapped, standing up straight on his cane to assert himself. “While I firmly respect your military authority on this expedition, the bottom line is that this project is civilian in nature and therefore falls supremely under my jurisdiction. As such, my discretion is ultimately the only thing that matters as it pertains to the decision to bring onboard this team. I heard what I needed to hear at dinner and the unfortunate fact of the matter, Sergeant Major, is that we are out of time. You know it and I know it, and in this situation, there is no Plan B.” He motioned back to the group who stood a few feet away, whispering among themselves in visible frustration. “Like them or not, they’re it. They’re all we have, so we either bring them onboard or we cash this mission in as a failure. But we simply have no time to find anyone else, and a pissing contest between you and me will do nothing to change that.”

Noll gave an indignant snort. “How do you know they’ll even come?” he scoffed, knitting his arms over his chest. “And if they do, what good will their sort be? From what I’ve seen, they don’t take anything seriously, and this project is way too important to rest in the hands of a group of wisecracking idiots who’d just as soon get drunk and fall over themselves as breathe, much less what will be required of them from this point on.”

Looking back over his shoulder at the five unknowing faces on which the sole success of this mission would inevitably ride, Reiser pondered the merits of his colleague’s objection.

“They’ll come,” he assured the sergeant major. “And trust me, Keith… they’re exactly the sort we need. Now begin making Evac preparations with your personnel. We’re leaving.”

With an unintelligible curse, Noll stormed off to begin addressing his new directive, while Reiser hobbled back over to the five friends, who had long since had their fill of the secrecy.

“So what’ll it be, Reiser?” Lee demanded.

“Take them to the control room” he instructed Reynolds, who was busy speaking with one of the other lab coats. “Rest assured, everyone, you’re about to have all the answers you ever wanted and perhaps a few you might not have. Now if you would follow Dr. Reynolds…”

Completely confused and now perhaps even a little frightened, the group followed as the redheaded doctor led them through a series of steel alcoves into a small room toward the back of the vast, underground complex. Narrow and cramped, the room’s back wall was lined with flickering instrument towers, while the front wall featured a workbench with three computer terminals and a long, glass window which was covered by a metallic blind of some sort—almost like a blast-shield.

“Alright,
Dr. No
, we’re here, already,” Mac grumbled once Reiser had joined them, excusing Reynolds, who closed the door on her way out of the room.

“At the restaurant,” he began, “you asked me where I came up with the story for
Mako Assault
. Here’s your answer.”

With that, Lee and the others observed as Reiser leaned over to the nearest computer terminal and punched in a series of lightning-quick keystrokes, culminating with an authoritative pound on the “enter” key.

The low groan of creaking metal rumbled in front of them, and they stepped back to watch as a small crack of light appeared at the base of the blind and slowly expanded. Once the shield had fully retracted, a collective gasp went out across the room as five visibly stunned people—now frozen with disbelief—stared in sobered amazement at the earth-shattering revelation that lay just beyond the glass.

“Do you know what that is?” Reiser asked, taking a seat on the edge of the desk beside the speechless quintet.

No one said a word.

“Do you know what that is?” he repeated, a bit firmer this time.

“
Hooooooly…
” Mac finally managed—unable, though, to finish the thought.

****

Unmistakably defined by the long, steely shape of its main fuselage, its boxy port and starboard-side engine nacelles, the long, massive barrels of its forward cannons, and the broad, sloped shape of its rivet covered nose, the ship all but engulfed the chasmic docking bay below. Meanwhile, several members of the engineering staff, dressed in familiar gold and blue coveralls, scurried around its towering, three-story hull, conducting their daily series of routine maintenance checks and systems diagnostics.

“Do you know what
that
is?” Reiser repeated, persistent for a response now.

Stepping forward, Lee stroked the two-day-old whiskers on his chin as he rushed to process the magnitude of the unbelievable sight below. At this moment, every logical thought within him screamed that this couldn’t be, and yet, there it was—plain as day and bathed in the orange glow of the docking bay’s primary lighting.

“Auran Military Transport Cruiser… Voryx Class, if I ain’t mistaken,” he began. “Average crew complement of 56 with a maximum deep-space payload of 150,000 kilos—175,000 in total sublight. She’s driven by an Ester 127/Z-series powerplant that makes her fast; capable of outrunnin’ most ships her size and some even a little smaller. Plus, if she’s got the new 781 series Nav-Com upgrade, she can calculate, plot, and execute a hyperspace jump in 3.24 seconds—faster than any other ship in the ASC fleet. On the downside, she’s modestly armed with the Sabra M-32 defensive package, so she can handle herself in a scuffle, but she’d be wise not to pick any fights along the way.”

Reiser folded his arms. “You know your Auran starships, Dr. Summerston,” he said, impressed.

“Okay, how in the bloody hell is this even possible?” Hamish exclaimed through his initial shock.

“You wanted to know where the
MA
story came from,” said Reiser. “The answer is that it came with me… from Aura, though more specifically in the case of the cruiser, from the Manza shipyard outside of Retaun.”

Slowly coming to grips with what was happening, the group turned to face the man who, only hours ago, they’d seen as nothing more than a programming geek turned multimillionaire business mogul.

“Everything that you know about the world of
Mako Assault
is real,” he continued. “The planets, the ships, the tech, the people… it’s all real.”

“It’s real?” Danny blabbed. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I were,” Reiser answered. “But I can assure you, everything I’m telling you is true. It’s all real, as is every battle you fought, every ship you flew, every weapon you fired, and every person you met along the way—Fleet Admiral Katahl, Captain Ryan, the ASC… all of it.”

“Of course it is,” Lee said in a tone of near-nonchalance as he broke from the glass to face the others. “How else could he have created a game that was such a quantum leap ahead of the times? Mac, you wanted to know how Mako was programmed? Well, there’s your answer. It’s because their methods don’t exactly adhere to the typical industry standards.”

Mac shook her head. “But why?” she asked. “You guys couldn’t strike it rich in your own world, so what? You decided to come do it in ours?”

The doctor paused—his expression somber with the gravity of his next words. “Because the war is real, too.”

Jon Reiser’s entire demeanor darkened at this, and if there were any lingering doubts in Lee’s mind as to whether or not he was legit, they were laid to rest here. Lee had spent his entire research career studying war. In that time, he’d known more than his fair share of people whose lives had been tragically affected by it, and whether or not this man was human, he was definitely one of them. Pain that deep just can’t be faked, and it was written all over Reiser’s face.

“The war with Alystier is real?” Lee repeated.

“Yes,” Reiser replied, “and it’s very much at the heart of why we’re here. Moreover, it’s also why I came to Florida to find you.”

Having no clue what he could possibly mean by that—though discounting nothing at this point—the group stared at him in bewilderment.

“I’m sorry, what does any of this have to do with us?” Lee asked.

“I need the five of you to come back with me to Aura.”

“I’m sorry,
what was that?
” Link blurted from the back of the room.

“Relax, Lincoln,” said Lunley. “Let the man speak.”

“No, Hamish. I’m sorry, but this is
nuts
!” Link argued, his voice rising. “I mean, let’s just skip right on past the little detail where we just found out that we’re not alone in the universe… because honestly,” he snorted, “who gives a flying dog turd in a handbasket about
that
little nugget? Now this clown—who may or may not even be human—wants us to set sail with him and General Patton back there for what else but front-row seats to a civil war in a galaxy far, far away! Sorry, man, but excuse me for being a little frickin’ vexed right about now!”

“Yes, we’re human,” Reiser assured him. “Humans from a different world, yes, but humans nonetheless. As for the rest of your concerns,
Mako Assault
was designed as a training program—nothing more. It consists of a virtual phase, which the five of you have completed, and a physical phase. That’s why I need you onsite. Once it’s done, you’ll be free to return home.”

Danny stepped forward. “Listen Doc, not to join Link on the Debbie-Downer Express or anything,” he huffed, “but we’re just a bunch of 30-something nobodies who like to spend our weekends watching sports, playing video games, and drinking beer. With all due respect, what possible help can we be to you?”