A cloud passed overhead. Both Jason and Ricket looked up. Not a cloud. Two boxy mail truck-looking crafts were lumbering along in the direction of quadrant 2, a mere thirty feet overhead. Calculating the flat space on top of each vehicle to be about fifteen feet by twenty, Jason was encouraged. He opened a channel to the group.
“Look up! We’re going to phase-shift to the roof of those feeding drones. One at a time. Jump to the middle—once you’re up there, get over to the sides. We don’t want to phase-shift right on top of each other. Let’s start with you first, Orion,” Jason commanded.
One by one, starting with Orion, they phase-shifted onto the top of the drones. With the weight of each additional person, the drones lost a little altitude. Jason noticed that the rhino warriors were not phase-shifting as their turns came around. Jason and Ricket were the last to make their phase-shifts. Weighted down, both feeding drones barely skimmed above the tops of the rocky spires. Once above solid ground, everyone jumped from the drone rooftops. Within seconds, the drones rose back up and slowly continued on with their deliveries. At the edge of the gorge, Jason and the others looked back to the remaining rhino warriors. Two separate screams of agony were immediately followed by two more bright bursts of fire. Only three rhino- beasts, those fortunate to be on higher spires or plateaus, remained.
Chapter 15
The Lilly
was back at the freighter's starboard side. Lieutenant Dak had assembled the few remaining SEALs still onboard, as well as the med tech, Allen. Perkins watched the display with the various segmented helmet cam POVs. The team had used the shuttle to ferry over to the freighter and was currently in the process of clearing their airlock. Something about this situation made Perkins uncomfortable. Why only three survivors? Sure, there was damage, but nothing so catastrophic to the point that so many hands would have been lost. And why hadn't the pirates taken the ship, or destroyed her? By the time Perkins had connected the dots—dots that led to one singular conclusion, it was too late. It was a trap.
"Signal general quarters," the XO yelled.
* * *
At the sound of the klaxon, the solemn seaman was ready. His instructions had been clear. Trigger the three devices simultaneously. Only two remained, but that would be more than enough for their purposes. The only deviation he would make was to ensure that he would be there to greet them. With
The Lilly
AI now completely at his control, and with the impending breech, he was aware of something unfamiliar:
A feeling of confidence.
He walked with his head up, taller. A feeling of importance engulfed him. He reached into a small pouch at his side, found the square object, and let his thumb roll over the smooth protruding button.
Not yet.
He picked up his pace, entered the DeckPort, and emerged on Level One. His two devices were well hidden and he was sure hadn’t been discovered. How that annoying little girl had found the one on Deck 5 was still a mystery. The AI had been reprogrammed—there was no way she could have told that little brat the location.
I’ll figure it out.
He brought his hand up and let it gently slide across the bulkhead as he walked. His bulkhead. His ship. The arrangement would have to be changed. There was no way they were going to hand this ship over to the Craing.
Who was doing all the heavy lifting here?
Their new high priests were nothing but conniving little shits. No, his brother had promised he wouldn’t let that happen. He’d already killed the three Craing dissenters for them. Whatever the Craing were paying for this ship, it wasn’t enough. Maybe he’d rename her.
What kind of name is
The Lilly
, anyway? Too girly
. No, he’d change it to something appropriate.
Like
The Guardian.
Yeah, I like the sound of that.
Two crewmembers were running down the corridor toward him; they both looked at him. “What are you doing? Where you going, Bristol? Get back to Engineering—don’t you hear that fucking alarm?”
Bristol continued down the corridor. The first of his devices was secured to the bulkhead behind a protruding ventilation duct. Bristol stopped in front of the duct and reached a hand above his head to the narrow open space behind it.
There you are.
He brought his hand down and looked thirty yards further down the corridor. There, up above, behind a similar duct, was the other device. They have no idea of its complexity.
Simply elegant
. Sure, Ricket did the lion’s share, building those crazy phase-shift belts.
But who came up with this implementation?
And the best part was that the ship, his ship, would not be damaged. Bristol continued on down the corridor until he was midway between both devices. He brought out the small transmitter and fingered the smooth button again. If everything went as planned, both devices would activate at the same moment. Two ten-yard radius sections of the ship would disappear for one hundred and twenty seconds—briefly phase-shifting to a parallel layer in the multiverse somewhere.
The Lilly
would never be completely exposed to open space. They’d thought of that. The pirates would have more than enough time to bring their vessel alongside and then access the ship. Then those same sections would return. No harm done. Bristol was ready. It was time. He pressed the button.
Chapter 16
It took another two hours for the remaining rhino warriors to rejoin the group. Jason was happy to see Traveler was among the living. Tired as they all were, Jason wanted to continue on—at least until they made their way out of quadrant 2 and into quadrant 3. Dira was finishing up tending to the scalded feet of one of the rhino-beasts.
Morgan sat off by himself on a rock. He was having trouble securing the top of his battle suit over the now substantially larger growth on his neck.
“Come to gawk at the freak?” Morgan asked him without looking up.
“What did the test results say?” Jason responded.
“They came back inconclusive. Dira said something about her portable diagnostic device having limited capabilities.”
“Let me see it,” Jason said, gesturing towards Morgan’s neck. Reluctantly, Morgan pulled the field dressing away enough so Jason could peer beneath it. “Has anyone looked at this in the last hour or so?” Jason asked, trying to keep his face as expressionless as possible.
“No. I think Dira is heading over here next. Why? What’s wrong? What’s it doing now?” he asked, craning his head to do the impossible: see the back of his own neck.
“Stay calm. I was just wondering if—maybe it had grown—you know, a tad more.”
“Grown a tad? Holy mother of God, what the hell does that mean?”
Dira arrived and wedged herself in between Morgan and Jason. Seeing Morgan’s state of anxiety, she furrowed her brow at Jason as if to say
What did you say to him?
She untaped the dressing and exposed the parasitic growth. Both Dira and Jason had to fight the urge to jump back. It was moving beneath the skin. Something dark—a complex shape. “
I don’t get it
” Dira said to herself. “
His nanites should have extracted this abnormality from his body. That’s
one of the things they do, remove foreign matter from the body.”
“Well? What is it? What are you looking at?” Morgan asked, closely watching Dira’s expression. “Did it grow a little?”
“You could say that,” Billy said, leaning in from above.
“Just back away, Billy,” Dira said, holding her hands out and gesturing for him to give more space. Ricket was now inspecting Morgan’s neck as well and started to poke at it with his finger. It moved.
“I can feel it moving. I can feel it moving all around there,” Morgan said nervously.
“And you say it’s grown over the last few hours?” Ricket asked, looking up at Dira.
“As much as two hundred percent. That’s in the last hour alone,” she replied. “Truth is, I think his nanites are leaving it alone because they don’t consider it a foreign body. From the few tests I’ve taken, the only DNA I’m seeing is Morgan’s. Not really sure how that’s possible.”
“It needs to come out,” Ricket said.
“I don’t have the proper instruments here to conduct that sort of surgery,” Dira replied with incredulity.
“I will do this myself. Please sterilize and provide an anesthetic to the localized area. I’ll prepare myself.” Ricket turned and hurried off toward his backpack.
Morgan looked up at Jason. “Shouldn’t the doc … Dira, be doing this, Captain? I mean,
is that robot equipped to be digging around in my neck?” Morgan asked, watching Ricket in the distance.
Jason was no fan of Morgan, but he certainly wouldn’t wish this parasitic growth on him or anyone. “Don’t underestimate Ricket. He brought my daughter back to life, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, only after shooting her in the first place,” Morgan replied shrugging his shoulders, which only seemed to agitate the parasite. The dark mass beneath his skin scurried from his lower neck to the middle of his shoulder and then back up again.
Dira had her medical pack open and had retrieved a small device. Being careful not to inject into the mass itself with the anesthetic, she began numbing the area around his neck and shoulder.
“Okay, let that take effect for a while. Just sit tight, Lieutenant, while Ricket gets prepared.”
Morgan nodded, but said nothing. Dira stood and gestured for Jason to follow her a few steps away. “I didn’t want to alarm Morgan, but his condition is worrisome.”
“Seems so,” Jason said. “But we’re going to cut that thing out of him and he’ll be done with it, right?”
“It’s not that simple, Captain. According to the scans, that organism not only shares his blood stream, but his nervous system as well. What’s interesting is I didn’t pick up any foreign DNA indicators.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that
thing
is more of a growth than an actual parasite. Still—something, perhaps an organism back in that pool, infected him. I don’t know. As of right now, with the amount of nerve clusters tied directly to Morgan’s brain stem, I don’t see how Ricket will be able to do anything without killing both him and that
thing
. I just wanted to mention that—if it were up to me—I’d let it stay along for the ride, so to speak. At least till we get back to Medical on
The Lilly
.”
“Noted,” Jason said. “Let’s just see what Ricket comes up with. Here he comes now.”
Ricket was back at Morgan’s side and poking at his neck again. “Umm, this is better. The effects of the narcotic has also effected the organism. It seems to be sleeping,” Ricket said.
“I thought you’d have a set of medical devices. Scalpels—that sort of thing,” Jason said with a furrowed brow. “What were you doing over there?”
“I was accessing The Lilly
AI’s medical database. I now have the necessary programming to continue with the procedure. I can get started now, with your permission.” Ricket’s face was expressionless. Jason glanced over to Dira, who shrugged and shook her head.
“Do it,” Jason said, staring down at Ricket. “Just don’t kill him.”
Most of the team had huddled in close and were also watching Ricket. “Let’s give them some privacy; we’ll be moving out as soon as possible.”
Billy took the cue and marched twenty yards out into the open desert. “Let’s go everyone, over here. Give them some space to work.”
A folded-up tarp was placed on the ground. Ricket told Morgan to lie down on his side and to try not to move. Jason wasn’t exactly sure what he’d expected from Ricket. He didn’t have any medical devices, scalpels, or anything useful other than his partially mechanical hands. Once Morgan was situated and had become still, Ricket placed his right hand over the protruding mound on his neck. Ricket’s hand moved very slightly and then was still. Sitting, with his legs crossed Indian yoga-style, Ricket closed his eyes. Quietly, Jason and Dira also sat and continued to watch. An hour later Ricket’s eyes opened. Keeping his right hand on Morgan’s neck, Ricket gently slid his other hand beneath it. With his two hands cupped together, Ricket stood.
“The procedure is complete—neither organism has suffered any adverse effects,” Ricket said.
Jason looked over at Morgan’s prone body. The skin on his neck and shoulder was exposed and the mound was gone. Whatever Ricket was holding in his hands was awake and moving—to the extent that Ricket’s arms were being jostled about.
“Can we see it?” Jason asked, gesturing toward his cupped hands.
“Yes.” Ricket brought his hands down to the ground and slowly separated them, releasing what he held. The organism was black. Short fur covered its entire body, including its six stubby legs. Slightly larger than a hamster, the organism was fully conscious and didn’t seem to be nervous or afraid. Its small head was wide, with a protruding muzzle and ears that flopped down—dog-like. As much as they were looking at it, it was staring right back at them.
“What the fuck is that?” Morgan asked, now up on his elbows.
“The short answer is this organism is ninety-eight point nine percent—you,” Ricket replied.
“Is it dangerous?” Jason asked, moving a little closer to inspect the creature.
“Does it bite? Or worse, will it infect or get inside someone else?” Dira asked, also coming closer.
“I believe it would have extruded itself fairly soon from Lieutenant Morgan’s body. It’s self-sustaining and not parasitic in nature. At least now that its incubation period is over.” Ricket looked at the creature with indifference.
“So it’s not dangerous?” Jason asked again.
“I do not believe so. It does not produce toxic poisons or infectious enzymes. And again, since it’s basically Lieutenant Morgan’s DNA, it should be safe.”
“It doesn’t look like me,” Morgan said, seeming somewhat confused.
Ricket shrugged.
“So what do we do with it?” Jason asked nobody in particular.
“I can terminate the creature if you wish,” Ricket replied.
Although the creature did not seem to understand the conversation, it was paying attention to who was talking and watching as each person spoke.