Universe of the Soul (15 page)

How in the world had this happened? How, by Danwe, had she allowed Gray to fall in love with her? More importantly, what was she to do about it? Did she want to do anything about it? The idea of kicking Gray out of her life right when she had realized that she was starting to depend on him hurt the very delicate organ she had spent most of her life trying to protect. But fear of worse pain to come if she allowed him to stick caused an equal pain. And what of guilt? She liked Gray, more than she wished to analyze. How could she untangle herself from a relationship she had been sucked into without hurting the other half of the relationship, regardless of her own feelings?

“Something wrong, L.C.?”

Adri started at the sound of Duane's voice. She glanced over to see that he had walked up to her bedside while she struggled in the chaos of her thoughts. “I've gotten myself into a mess,” she murmured, watching Gray as he continued to talk on his communicator and study something on the infirmary's computer bank. “I'm so confused, Duane. I'm way over my head, here.”

“Yeah, the lieutenant has that effect on people. He smiles and talks so pleasantly that you don't know you've been stepped over until you're looking at his back.” Duane grinned suddenly and nudged her shoulder. “I like him, if you ask me.”

“I didn't,” Adri muttered.

“Do you want to know why?”

“Not really.”

“He's genuine. He says what he thinks, no games, no masks. He never makes a fuss about little things, and never compromises on the big things. But I guess the real reason I like him is because he makes you happy. I've been your friend for years now, probably your only friend, and this is the first time I've actually seen you really happy. ”

Gray suddenly rushed over to them, carrying one of Doctor Geiger's holoboards. “You've got to see this, Adri. Tolsto may have hit upon the Belligerent's plan.”

The moment you realize that you want something that you've always had, that something suddenly becomes impossible to acquire.

                            -Undarian Proverb

A
dri could feel her adrenaline begin to race as she stared down at the schematics of the ship while Gray talked. It was like staring at a complicated code, knowing that the key was just under your nose, waiting for your mind to catch on.

“Although their small raiding craft managed to get within a hundred meters of the
Oreallus's
docking bay,” Gray was saying, “it didn't actually land. The best the analysts can come up with is that they somehow managed to - ”

“Teleport,” Adri answered.

Duane shook his head. “Oh come on! Nobody has cracked the secret to organic teleportation! How would the Belligerent Coalition know that secret before us? The Commonwealth has always had the upper hand in technological innovation.” He glared at Adri as she stared down at the schematics hologram in her hands. “Don't say you think they can teleport! If they could, why don't they use it all the time? Are either of you even listening to me?!”

Gray gave the paranthian a conciliatory pat on the shoulder as he watched Adri think. His declaration of love had been premature, but perhaps it was for the best. Now that Adri knew exactly what he wanted, he wouldn't have to hide his own emotions. Just watching her made him fell sappy inside. Suddenly Adri looked up, the faint frown lines on her forehead and the urgency in her eyes drawing him back to the situation at hand.

“Gray, have you inspected all the areas that were known to have been penetrated by the Belligerents during the raid?” she demanded.

“Not personally. I've been too busy collecting damage reports and working up the battle schematics for analysis since I got out of here to go over the whole area myself.”

Something in Adri tensed. “Has anyone inspected?”

“Sergeant Tolsto has done a brief scan, and doubtlessly maintenance has been through,”

“But none of them would actually be
looking
for anything out of order, would they?” Adri muttered impatiently.

Gray had a bad feeling that he was beginning to catch on. “No, they wouldn't.”

“What are you two talking about?” Duane wanted to know. “Looking for what?”

“Time-sensitive fragmentation devices,” Adri snapped.

Duane's complexion lost some of its brilliance. “
Bombs?
You think there are
time bombs
on our ship
?!
”

Adri tapped the holoboard. “Almost certain. Sergeant Tolsto reports that the enemy appeared in these locations, essentially at once,” she pointed to the locations that blinked red on the board. “Some of these places are obvious, such as the Engine Room and the munitions stores, but others appear really random, like the tertiary vehicle warehouse. But look at its location within the blueprint of the ship: its right over a major energy line that feeds the ship. If a big enough bomb was placed somewhere within the room, the chain reaction along the energy strain could practically split the ship in two.”

Duane made an incoherent moaning sound.

Gray frowned. “But if that would do it, why go to all these other places?”

“All these other areas also have proximity to something major. A bomb in the munitions stores would take out the whole port side of the
Oreallus's
warehouse. That alone would cripple us, making us easy targets. Am I correct, Duane?”

Duane forced himself to swallow. “Yep.”

“Why haven't they gone off?” Gray inquired. He didn't doubt Adri's take on the situation, it made too much sense.

It was Duane who answered, shakily. “A bomb of such a nature as to take out the entire munitions store, or the tertiary vehicle warehouse would be very fragile and temperamental. Nearly impossible to transport safely. Better to bring them in disarmed, set them up where you want them, and then finish the process there. The only setback to that is that it would take a long time for the bomb to fully load to full detonation capacity.”

“How long?” Gray demanded, leaping to his feet and reaching for his communicator.

“About seventy-two hours. Any time now.”

Gray contacted his security team and began to bark orders. He turned to confirm the schematics with Adri only to see her out of bed, punching the code into the locker next to her. She pulled out her jacket and boots and clipped on her earpiece before turning to him. “Let's run. I'll contact the bridge.”

Running turned out to be painful, but Adri blocked the pain from her mind. Besides, even with the pain and the knowledge that they could be blasted to smithereens at any second, it was nice to be up and moving, her fighting elegy singing in her blood. Well, might as well admit it all; up and moving with Gray. Even if he was a crazy man who seemed to believe that they were going to get married.

Married. Huh.

Gray talked rapidly on his communicator as they ran, ordering the security team to race to the designated points and search for anything amiss. The bombs had to be concealed somehow so that they couldn't be discovered prematurely. [Search for anything out of place, even if it's nothing but a discolored wall panel.]

They had a moment to catch their breath in the lift as they made their way down to the pertinent levels. Neither spoke until Gray's earpiece crackled, [Tolsto to Grayson, I'm in the tertiary vehicle warehouse. My squad and I have discovered a vehicle seven centimeters off its mark. There's something secured to the underside. Whatever it is, it's big.]

[It's a bomb,] one of Tolsto's men confirmed over the open link.

Gray felt himself beginning to sweat. [Can you disarm it?] he asked, looking at Adri with an expression of grim determination.

[Attempting it now,] the ensign replied.

The lift arrived at its destination, and both Gray and Adri dashed from it along the narrow corridors towards the tertiary vehicle warehouse.

[Savon to Grayson!] another report came in. [We're in the munitions storeroom, and have discovered a bomb concealed within one of the crates for the heavy weaponry. Attempting to disarm now.]

Gray swore.

“Split up,” Adri ordered, and swerved off in the direction of the munitions stores. She turned her communicator frequency on to the security teams' before hailing Gray. [Rael to Grayson. I'm nearly at the munitions stores now.]

[Good. I've got another call from team Two; they've found another bomb in the orellium lab. I'm on my way there.]

Adri was nearly at the munitions stores when the fourth bomb was discovered. There was still no word on disarmament. Overhead, the warning sirens were going off and Vice Captain Lowell's voice was demanded every non-security member to evacuated the aft of the ship. A pitifully ineffectual measure if the bombs managed to detonate. Running into the storeroom, she was greeted by the petty officer in charge of the squad. “Wragardon is working on it now,” he said.

“How long until detonation?” Adri demanded.

The petty officer wet his lips in ill-concealed fear. “Seven minutes.”

[Grayson to Rael,] came a call over the officer's frequency.

[Rael here. What have you found?] Adri stepped away from the security team as they worked frantically to disarm the bomb in the amount of time remaining.

[These things are complex, just what Duane was hinting at. We've got the one in the lab nearly undone.] A tense pause. [I'm sure we're going to make it.]

[We will.] Adri confirmed. She turned just as Wragardon straitened up, face dripping perspiration.

“We've got it.”

[Tolsto to Grayson,] she heard over the cheer in the room, [We've got success. Hammond's managed to neutralize the bomb so that we can remove it.]

[Jojara-sen to Grayson, we've done a deep sweep of the surrounding area. No bombs have been detected.]

[Eff to Grayson, team Five had completed disarming ours as well.]

Adri breathed in relief. [Rael to Bridge, all located bombs have been deactivated.]

[Excellent job, Rael,] Lowell replied. [Stay with the security team until the threat is gone.]

[Yes, sir.] Adri replied. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Strange how something as cataclysmic as complex plasma bombs could be discovered and dealt with in such a short amount of time. But something still didn't appear right to her. It seemed too easy, too pat. Perhaps she was just getting paranoid with all the recent action.

[Grayson to all squads, remove the bombs and take them to containment chamber one for dismantlement. Use extreme caution; they're still dangerous.]

Adri helped the squad collect all the pieces Wragardon had removed to reach the detonation cerebrum. Trailing behind the squad, Adri followed them to the door, her mind still deep in thought.

She wasn't sure how she heard it, that subtle humming that blended in with the constant and oft forgotten drone of the ship's engines. The noise alerted her instincts enough for her to turn back into the storeroom and give it a thorough glance. The security squad had already departed, so she walked slowly over to a stack of crates lined up along the wall. The humming was louder here. Adri pulled one of the crates away from the wall, creating a crack large enough to see two plasma bombs lined up side by side, blinking one hundred and twenty four seconds to detonation.

[Rael to Grayson. I'm in trouble.]

Gray dropped the hyperscanner he'd been holding as a wave of something ice cold and tasting of fear washed over him. [What is it?]

[Two bombs, one eighteen seconds.]

Gray started running.

Adri crouched down in front of the two blinking demons, terribly uncertain how to proceed. [Gray, I'm no specialist.]

[Don't panic, Adri. Take the cover panels off. I'll guide you through.]

With hands she refused to allow shake, Adri removed the cover panels from the two bombs and stared at the intricate mess inside.
Suddenly she could hear herself screaming, flying through the air as a searing roar shook the air and the world turned white
. Shaking her head to clear the strange image, she listed off what she could see to Gray.

[All right baby, remove the brighter power cord, but don't jar anything else.]

Adri hastily did as he instructed, but the timer seemed to be moving much faster than her inexpert hands.

[I've got the first one, starting on the second,] Adri's voice was calm, but Gray's heart was beating so fast, he could barely hear her. Terror for the one he loved seemed to drown out everything else, even the sounds of those security men who could be spared from demolishing the bombs racing after him.

[I'm coming Adri, keep going. You've got plenty of time.] They both knew she didn't.

[Gray, I'm not going to make it!]

He heard her cry seconds before the explosion rocked the ship, sending him and his team flying across the hallway. [
Adri
!]

Adri woke to find herself floating through the dark room, blood down her nose and Gray shouting in her ear. [Adri! Adri, come in!]

[Gray?] she called, trying to turn her head in the darkness. [Where are you?]

[I'm outside the munitions stores. Are you all right? The bomb went off with you on top of it!]

[Uhm, yeah. I think I'm okay. I hurt like crazy.]

[Listen to me, you sound like you have a concussion. The emergency blast shield is down, so I can't get in to you. You have to find the oxygen suit in the far corner of the wall, or you're going to run out of air. You understand?]

[Yeah.] With a leisureliness born of not quite grasping the situation, Adri propelled herself through the room towards the corner that housed the emergency supplies for the room. [I guess I wasn't fast enough for once, huh?]

This time, she picked up the nerves in Gray's voice as he huffed a laugh. [You can't win them all, babe.]

Adri struggled into the oxygen suit. Its purpose was for maintenance outside the ship, or for such emergencies where oxygen was decreasing too rapidly to replace. Snapping the helmet on and pressing the auto respirator, she felt her wandering mind coming back together. [Okay, what's the situation?]

Gray pressed his hand against the tunsteel barrier that separated him from Adri. [There's a fracture along the wall on the other side of where I'm standing. Over half the warehouses have been wiped out on the port side. My team's still looking for other survivors, but the only reason you're still here is because you disarmed the first bomb in time. The second one was placed over an energy capillary, like you were saying.] He let out a deep breath. [I thought I'd lost you.]

[Scared me too.]

Adri glanced around what she could see in the room. [Some of the ceiling is gone, and most of the far wall. I can see the outside of the ship.]

[Lucky you weren't just sucked out.]

[I think the blast propelled me away, and I ran into an air pocket that didn't disperse.]

[Well babe, you can just relax and wait for rescue. I have a team suiting up to breach the blast door as we speak.]

[So we can just chat until they get here, huh?]

[Sure thing.]

The headache that she had been ignoring since she woke pushed to the forefront. [Gray, when this is all over, and I've rotted another eon of my life in the infirmary, and we finally make it to shore leave after our next assignment…]

[Yes?]

All courage fled. [Never mind. I forgot you had crazy notions about the two of us signing the contract.]

[Don't you forget it.]

On the bridge, Analysis Officer Devin Wede-Uctan, covering both his station and the security station, shouted the alarm. “Enemy ship sighted!”

Captain Heedman cringed in his chair. “Are you sure its an enemy?”

“Undoubtedly. Signals state they're coming in fast, and by the way the energy's flowing, they're charging their main batteries.”

Vice Captain Lowell cursed softly. “With our warehouses blasted off and the rescue mission incomplete, we're trapped.”

“What?” cried Heedman. “You mean if we didn't have to rescue anyone, we could escape?”

“Well, we'd have to blast off any of the destroyed portions of the ship still clinging in order to make an effective retreat.” Wede-Uctan corrected in an academic tone.