Close Proximity - An Aeon14 Space Opera Adventure (Perilous Alliance) Read online

  Rogers added.

  Winter nodded, but he held his weapon ready as he followed Kylie down the hall.

  The terminal had held a map of the ship, and they used it to finally find their way to the bridge. Kylie hung back and monitored the entrance while Winter did his best to bring the ship back to working order.

  Keeping an eye out wasn’t the most stimulating work Kylie had ever done, but she did her best to stay alert and vigilant. Her mind was starting to wander when a signal from the Dauntless brought her back to the present.

  It was Nadine’s soft voice, but she sounded on edge.

  Winter said, and Kylie nodded in agreement.

  So, there were people aboard the ship? Kylie immediately tensed and unholstered her sidearm. She looked down the corridor leading from the bridge.

 

  Kylie sighed and glanced back at Winter as he continued to work on getting past whatever lockdown was keeping the ship offline. She tossed her head toward the door.

  Winter nodded without looking up, his fingers flying across a console.

  She hoped that wouldn’t be necessary. She smirked. She couldn’t help razzing the big man a little.

  Kylie headed out into the hallway before sending a transmission back to the ship.

  In her mind, Nadine’s glamorous avatar blew her radiant blue hair out of her face with a huff. Kylie liked it when Nadine focused on a task—it made her sound extra sexy.

  Winter interrupted.

  Kylie sighed. She hated a lot of things, but her least favorite thing in the world was human cargo.

  Winter gave a mental grunt.

  She silenced him with a look from her avatar.

  Kylie came to an intersection of two passageways and turned left, following the map Winter had lifted from the terminal.

  Nadine’s excited voice chattered in her mind.

  Kylie sent a 3D meme across the Link to Nadine of a sexy pinup model smoking an old-fashioned cigarette. One, because she liked to flirt, and two, to keep the mood light. She knew her girl—great at her job and what she did, but stress tended to lock Nadine up.

  Kylie reached the main hold. The door was open, and she eased inside. The hold was large, easily forty meters wide and twice as deep. Crates stamped with the logos of consumables lined the outer wall and metal cargo bins were stacked haphazardly in the middle of the room.

  Kylie swept her eyes and weapon across the hold as she approached the containers. Nothing stood out or made any noise. If there were bad guys onboard, they weren’t here.

  Due diligence done, she holstered her weapon and stepped up to the first crate. This was where the good stuff would be.

  As she looked for the first crate’s locking mechanism, the lights came to life around her and Kylie allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction. Nice work, Winter.

  At least he had the good senses not to make a joke. A quick check-in on her HUD said he was, indeed, running. A scary image to see in one’s head. The man was large, and boy could he move.

  Kylie found the crate’s latch and was gripping the lid when Nadine called out over the Link.

  she said and waited for Nadine to play the transmission.

  Nadine nodded and played the message. A deeper, huskier voice came to her over the Link.

  Slowly, Kylie removed her hand from the shipping container as if it were a nuclear weapon. She backed away, glancing up at the walls and the ceiling. If someone was there, if someone was watching, they could be anywhere—especially if they had the sort of stealth tech Rogers had gone on about.

  Something shimmered along the wall, but when Kylie peered closer, she couldn’t make out anything other than crates and bulkhead.

  Someone was there, she knew it. They weren’t alone.

  Kylie asked Nadine.

  Nadine gave an involuntary gasp across the Link.

  The Silstrand Alliance Space Force—that was the last thing Kylie wanted to hear, but it made sense, didn’t it? A freighter like this, adrift in space, with only minor hull damage and no signs of trouble or struggle inside…not to mention an easy-to-hack net and juicy manifest?

  The SSF may as well have hung a sign on it that said, take me. And she fell for it. Damnit, Kylie wanted to kick herself for being so naïve.

  Rogers interrupted her train of thought.

  She appreciated the concern and had the same idea, already running for the exit. She was almost out of the cargo hold when the door slammed shut and the mag-locks engaged. Kylie made a split-second decision and dove behind the food crates along the wall. A flash of light blinded her, and she shielded her eyes, unable to make sense of it.

  Nadine’s mental tone was clipped and urgent.

  Rogers asked.

 

  “Shit,” Kylie swore aloud. She knew that ship; it was large and well-armed. There was no way her Dauntless could stand against it. If Rogers fought back, he would lose, and her ship would be the next drifting hull at the edge of the Gedri System waiting for salvage.

  Kylie ordered Rogers.

  her pilot replied.

  Nadine chastised.

 

  Powering the lasers? Were they serious? Kylie’s argument was weak. She knew it, and Rogers would, too.

  There was no response from the Dauntless. Rogers either chose to ignore her orders—or was unable to answer.

  Kylie frantically cycled her helmet through multiple scan modes, and when she landed on backscatter radiation, multiple figures appeared on her HUD—two on either side of the containers she was hiding behind, and moving fast. They must’ve worn some sort of stealth suit to mask their heat signature and their locations.

  Probably military-grade.

  If they wanted her dead, she’ be dead already. So, something else was clearly going on—if only she could figure out what that was.

  Kylie lobbed a sonic grenade over the crate she hid behind before peering around her cover, spraying shots with her pulse pistol at the closest figures. Her HUD highlighted a hit on one of the attackers and she smiled as the force flung that figure backward.

  Kylie said to Winter.

 

  Like there was another option?

  Concussive shots
struck the stack of food crates she was hiding behind and the top one fell, landing less than a meter to her right and cracked open, the sight of bacon and apples interrupting Kylie’s train of thought. What she wouldn’t give for a piece of fresh fruit. Last time they had a supply of fresh apples, Rogers ate them all.

  Staying in one place was going to get her killed, so Kylie rolled behind another stack and fired off a few shots in the general vicinity of her attackers. The enemy was closing in and there was only so much she could do to hold them off. She tossed another sonic grenade into the mix, taking the meager distraction it offered to rush to new cover.

  Kylie broke off as two more figures appeared behind her.

  Where had they come from?

  Why hadn’t they attacked earlier?

  Kylie fell to her knees and pivoted to take a shot at the closest attacker when she saw one of them lob a grenade straight at her. She jumped back to get clear of the blast radius, but it was too late. It hit her center mass and a nano-net wrapped around her. The buggy little bastards infiltrated her suit and attacked her nervous system.

  The neural attack gagged her. Her lungs responded like smoke was suffocating her, and she fought the net in a blind panic. It was all a mental trick, and one Kylie had been taught once to fight against, but that was a long time ago.

  She clawed at her helmet, trying to remove it, forgetting that the air on the ship was not breathable. Luckily, strong hands pinned her down and kept her from removing her helmet as she sent a distress call across the Link to Winter.

 

  Winter didn’t speak but he flashed her his avatar, showing his arms held in the air before their Link connection was severed.

  BOARDED

  STELLAR DATE: 08.21.8947 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Salvage ship Dauntless – Beyond Gedri’s Heliopause

  REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

  Rogers knew he couldn’t just leave Kylie and Winter onboard that freighter, but when the Imperial Dawn dropped out of the dark layer, he knew there was no time to lose.

  “Get those beams powered up, we don’t have much time if this is going to work,” Rogers said as he activated his holodisplay and disconnected the Dauntless’s umbilical from the lifeless freighter. It was hard leaving the captain onboard, but if he didn’t, it would nix any chances they had of holding out against the enemy. “I’m bringing our shields up.”

  “Weapons ready here,” Nadine said. “What’s your plan, exactly?”

  “Well,” Rogers said as he boosted the Dauntless away from the Titan-1. “We’re pretty sure some of their guys are on that ship, so we’ll just tuck behind and use it for a handy shield.”

  “Rogers!” Nadine exclaimed. “Kylie and Winter are on that ship!”

  “Yeah, but so are their guys, and it has no shields. They’re not going to risk punching it full of holes.”

  Rogers spun the Dauntless and slowed it down, keeping only their dorsal weapons peeking over the disabled freighter.

  A warning shot from the Imperial Dawn lit up the space above the Dauntless, and Rogers whistled. “Yup, they mean business. Nadine, hit them on their sensor array—maybe they’ll decide we’re not worth it.”

  “This is nuts,” Nadine sighed but followed his direction.

  Return fire lanced out from the Dauntless, easily shed by the Imperial Dawn’s shields.

  “Damn,” Rogers said, his expression growing concerned. “Their shields didn’t even flicker; I didn’t think they’d be that strong.”

  The Imperial Dawn boosted hard, arcing over the freighter and the Dauntless, before braking hard. It spun and fired four separate beams at the same location above the Dauntless’s center engine.

  Nadine’s voice rushed out, “They just punched right through our shields.”

  “The reactor is overheating; I’m trying to get it shut down.” Rogers swore. “Damnit.”

  “One hit and we’ve lost an engine!” Nadine exclaimed from her station. “These guys are having us for appetizers and drinks, and they haven’t even asked us out on a proper date yet. We have to do something.”

  The enemy ship fired two more shots that disabled the shields over their other engines, and Nadine fixed Rogers with a hard stare.

  a message hit their shipnet and came to them over the Link.

  “Shit! A privateer,” Rogers exclaimed. “What the…”

  Nadine swallowed hard as she met his gaze at him. “This was a bait ship, and we wanted the payday so bad we fell for it.”

  “Yeah, but it was just sitting out here, fair game for salvage. What’s their game?” Roger’s replied.

  “I’m powering down our beams. There’s no way we can hold our own, let along take these guys out,” Nadine said. “They’re not making kill shots. They want us alive…or something.”

  Rogers didn’t bother to argue with her. He slid out of his chair and dropped to the bridge’s deck. He grabbed the handgun he kept strapped underneath in case of an emergency.

  “It’s the ‘or something’ that worries me. Find a place to hide, and stay quiet while I deal with this.” He stormed off the bridge, but Nadine followed close behind.

  “There’s no exit plan on this one, Rogers. We’ve been caught with our hand in the cookie box.”

  A shudder shook the ship as the Imperial Dawn grappled the Dauntless.

 

  Rogers sighed with exasperation, “It’s ‘jar’, Nadine. Cookie jar. Now go hide!”

  “Whatever!” Nadine’s hands flourished in the air. “We’re trapped. The Dauntless is a sitting duck, and now they’re going to come onboard and fry us.”

  “Don’t you say that. She can…pull it together.”

  Nadine rolled her eyes. “Rogers, I love you, but you’re delusional. We’ve lost. We need to shift gears or we’ll never be able to help Kylie!”

  She continued to follow him as he raced past the crew quarters and down the long passageway that ran toward the port engine. The enemy would expect him to come from the bridge, but if he could get past the airlock and take them from behind, they just might have a chance.

  “If you’re holding that weapon when they break in here, they’ll kill you, and they’ll be within their rights, Rogers. We fired. We fought. They have a letter of marquee. We don’t.”

  Rogers sighed. “But the captain. What about her? I know you two have been more than friends…more than once.”

  Nadine nodded. “Yes, and I’m twisted up inside, but if we die, we can’t help her, and if we fight, we die. Come on, Rogers. We’re outgunned and outnumbered. Please, see reason and listen to me.”

  The Dauntless shook again, and a loud clang sounded behind them as the enemy breached the airlock. Rogers blew out a long sigh and took cover, watching where the privateers would break through.

  “I hate giving in. I can’t, Nadine.” Rogers shook his head and gazed around at his girl.

  “It’s not giving up. It’s regrouping. We’ll get them back.”

  “When?” Rogers asked a deep growl to his voice.

  Nadine shrugged. “I don’t know.” She placed her hand on the weapon Rogers held. “I don’t want to watch you die.”

  Finally, with a resigned sigh, he turned it over to her. She tossed it into the corner as figures in powered armor burst through the airlock and scanned the corridor. She gave the intruding guard a pathetic glance and edged into view, her hands overhead.

  “I’m here. I surrender. Don’t shoot.” She nudged Rogers, and he sighed before following suit.

  “That a boy,” Nadine whispered.

  “If they kill us, I blame you,” Rogers said.

  The a
rmored boarders approached them with weapons leveled, while one signaled back through the airlock.

  A man stepped into the corridor, and Rogers groaned. He was with the SSF, and a colonel, if Rogers read the rank on the man’s collar properly.

  “On your knees!” one of the armored figures called out.

  Rogers knelt and Nadine followed suit. “Don’t hurt her, we surrender, all right?”

  “We’re not junkers like you. Silstrand doesn’t hurt its prisoners,” the colonel said.

  As he spoke, two of the armored boarders jammed tranq-wands into Nadine’s and Rogers’s necks. It might not knock them out, but Rogers instantly relaxed and Nadine swayed on her knees. She grinned and stared up at the officers. “Aren’t you guys cute?” She pouted her lips at them and blew them a kiss.

  Rogers chastised her across the Link, but his message never made it. Instead, it terminated at the edges of his consciousness, and the cocktail the tranq-wand delivered made the words bounce around in his head. He groaned out loud and made a move to grab his temples.

  One of the boarders cuffed him. “No more Link for either of you guys. Now up on your feet. You have a lot of explaining to do aboard our ship.”

  “Shouldn’t we get council first? A representative?” Rogers asked.

  “From who?” the colonel barked as they walked down the bay toward the merchant privateer ship. “The GFF? Please. Move it, the both of you!”

  “Are we in trouble, Rogers?” Nadine threw him a glance; she looked loopy, like the stun wand was messing with her more than it should have. If anyone on that ship took advantage of her…

  “Yeah,” Rogers whispered. “Big trouble.”

  * * * * *

  Back aboard the Imperial Dawn, Grayson took a sip of his coffee. Leaning down to access the holodisplay, he brought up images from the four holding cells. It was a motley crew that Kylie had put together. Who knew albinos even existed anymore? That recessive gene had been scrubbed from everyone’s DNA, which meant the big man’s look had to be a conscious choice.

  It took all kinds.