The Lost Voyager: A Space Opera Novel Read online

  Babcock smiled. “That’s the easy part.”

  Tulula sat next to Sanchez, placed her hand on his arm, and whispered something into his ear. Mach wasn’t one for secrets amongst his crew, but held his tongue. He would get the truth out of Sanchez soon enough regarding his health. Besides that, he didn’t want to press, as he was hiding his own secret about the cargo.

  Mach left the crew to it, to get some rest for the two standard hours it would take to reach the planet’s atmosphere. His smart-screen chirped when they were close, and he rejoined the crew on the bridge.

  Lassea deployed the Intrepid’s retro-thrusters to slow their approach. Mach repositioned himself in his chair to watch the entry through the HD screen above the pilot controls.

  Everyone joined him, peering at the screen as they entered Noven Beta’s atmosphere toward gray nimbus clouds. The Intrepid’s engines whined to slow their descent and they punched through the blanket.

  A gloomy set of snowcapped mountains stretched to the starboard side as far as Mach could see in the thin light. A carpet of spiny trees coated the mountain’s surface, giving it a rough texture.

  The 3D graphical display of the ground directly below, where the Noven Mining Organization facility was located, showed an undulating smooth surface and a deep quarry next to the main set of square buildings. A frozen forest covered the right-hand side, taking away any opportunity of a quick visual identification of Voyager.

  The place was so dense that without the facilities’ scanners they could be searching this place for weeks.

  The Intrepid smoothly lowered toward the only sign of habitation. Lassea maneuvered around the facility and activated the searchlight. A thick white beam speared through the darkness and reflected off metallic roofs.

  “Where do you want me to set down?” Lassea said. “There’s a flat landing zone by the facility or a couple of places a klick away.”

  Their radar showed no activity in the air or on the ground, but Mach didn’t want to take any chances, especially when a ship went missing recently in this area of space. “A klick away. I’ve landed next to enough supposedly empty buildings in my time to know it’s often not the case. I want you and Tulula to stay on board. Send up a drone and monitor for activity. Be ready to use the cannons.”

  “No problem,” Lassea said.

  “I’ll get suited up,” Sanchez said and squeezed Tulula’s spindly hand before heading off. On his way out, he glanced up at the planet’s readings. “We’re gonna need the cold-weather shells. I’ll get them prepared.”

  Mach wondered what condition the big hunter was suffering. He didn’t appear to be physically impaired. Once they were inside the facility, he decided he’d confront Sanchez. He couldn’t stand to think his friend had a problem and couldn’t confide in him.

  Adira, Babcock and Squid Two followed.

  With any luck, their mission would be over in an hour, but things were never that simple for Mach. He groaned out of his chair and followed the others to the airlock.

  ***

  Mach stretched the disruptive-patterned, white and gray cold-weather shell around his graphene nanosuit. Although slightly bulky in appearance, it allowed easy movement and stopped any chance of the suit malfunctioning in extremely low temperatures. It also provided a small level of concealment against the naked eye.

  Adira, Babcock and Sanchez were ready to go. Squid Two had no protection, but that didn’t surprise Mach. Babcock was a genius when it came to the technical side of things and would’ve rebuilt his companion to operate in all known conditions across the Sphere.

  Mach twisted on his armored helmet with a click and peered at the blue-tinted visor. The HUD readings burst into life in the bottom right corner. He grabbed his SamCore Stinger from the rack and held his glove over the glass plate to release the airlock and open the external door. “Ready to rock?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” Sanchez said.

  “Are you sure you’re…” Mach stopped himself. For now the mission was his number one priority and it wasn’t the right time to start asking his old friend questions.

  “Let’s do it,” Adira said.

  Mach’s pulse raced. Stepping onto a new planet always had that effect. Despite visiting two hundred across the Sphere and beyond, the novelty never wore off. He didn’t fear the unknown; he embraced it. Mach thumbed the exit pad.

  The electric green pressure bar at the side of the lock lowered. Two seconds later, the door thrust out with a pneumatic hiss and slid to one side. The ship’s dark gray ramp extended and settled on the frozen ground below.

  Shouldering his rifle, Mach turned back to face the group. “I’ll lead the way. If you see anything remotely suspicious—”

  “We know what we’re doing,” Adira said, cutting him off. “Head to the facility. We’ve got your back.”

  Mach nodded. He knew they would. The reason Adira and Sanchez were part of his crew was their abilities in situations like this. Babcock and his little friend weren’t as lethal, but their skills gave the team a technical edge above most other crews in the Sphere.

  Densely packed snow crunched under Mach’s boots when he stepped off the ramp. Gusts of wind threw up thin sheets of ice crystals from the surface layer that spattered across his visor. He orientated himself to the map on his smart-screen and headed in a southerly direction.

  Black silhouettes of large jagged mountains ran across the bleak ash-colored skyline to their right. Tightly clustered twenty-meter-high trees, with ice-crusted evergreen ferns hanging from their stumpy branches, made up the forest half a klick to the left. Mach guessed the mining company cleared the strip of land between the mountains and forest when building the facility with the hope of expansion in mind.

  Thin blue light shone from behind him. Mach looked over his shoulder. Sanchez had activated his helmet’s strip light across the top of his visor.

  The only discovered life reported on Noven Beta by OreCorp was small insects and cave-dwelling herbivore aliens who only ventured out to scavenge. If Voyager had crashed here, they probably didn’t survive, as no lights were visible from the dark complex ahead.

  No communications had come from the planet. And the complete lack of emergency beacon signals was not a good sign.

  The first thing Mach would do would be to get the life support systems in the facility working again. Adira trudged to Mach’s side and jabbed her rifle toward the complex. “Who’d work in a place like this?”

  “I’m sure you’ve been to worse places to carry out contracts?” Mach said, thinking Adira must have if she had tracked him for any length of time.

  “Let’s hope Babcock can do the business. I don’t like it.”

  “You’ll like the money if we wrap this up quick.”

  The sound of the atmosphere drone’s engines whined through Mach’s earpiece. He turned and watched the X-shaped craft. Blue lights glowed from its four circular engines mounted on each stub wing. It cruised out of the Intrepid’s rear bay and paused for a moment before thrusting up at an angle. It powered high to their right. A white search beam stabbed from its underside and brightened the approach toward the facility.

  A tall white hangar stood to the left with its main concertina-style entrance closed. All windows of the eighty-meter-wide, two-story building, half the height of the hangar, were caked in frost. Three smaller buildings were positioned on the right-hand side, most likely used for vehicles or supplies, now probably empty.

  Mach headed for a set of double doors in the middle of the complex. He followed the drone’s beam around the edges of the buildings, peering through his sights, but detected no signs of movement.

  “Can’t see any footprints in the snow,” Sanchez said. “Place looks deserted.”

  “Lassea, how’s it looking from the drone-cam?” Mach said.

  “Pretty much the same. Zero sign of life. I’ll search the forest for wreckage.”

  Mach turned to the ground team. “Cover me. I’m going in.”
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br />   Adira and Sanchez advanced to either side of him. Both dropped to one knee and aimed at the entrance. Babcock and Squid Two stayed twenty meters back. Mach activated the fluorescent blue strip light above his helmet, grabbed the left door’s handle, and pulled.

  Chips of ice dropped from around the frame, but the door didn’t budge. Mach shouldered his Stinger, grabbed the handle with both gloves, and yanked it.

  The door swung open. Wind rushed inside the complex and yawned through a dark corridor. Mach peered around the metallic walls and focused his helmet light at the far end, twenty meters away, on a double set of swing doors. The temperature display in his HUD rose a few degrees.

  Raising his weapon, Mach entered, carefully placing his feet along the solid ground as he advanced. Footsteps followed him and Sanchez’s helmet increased the thin blue glow around the walls.

  “It’s slightly warmer in here,” Mach said. “Anything we should be concerned about, Babs?”

  “It could be anything,” Babcock replied through the comm. “Skeleton settings that keep the place serviceable. The proton cell’s management system.”

  “Maybe it’s just the insulation?” Sanchez said.

  “Not after ten years,” Babcock said. “There has to be a source, which could be a good sign. The schematics indicate you’ll find a command center behind this door.”

  Mach leaned against it, and it creaked open an inch on its frosted hinges. “Ready?”

  Sanchez nodded.

  “I’ll be right behind you,” Adira said.

  Babcock and Squid Two had moved to the entrance. Mach waved them back, like he usually had to when curiosity got the better of them in dangerous situations. He took a deep breath, crouched, and shoved the left door open with his shoulder.

  The temperature display rose again by three degrees. Mach looked around the pitch-black room, casting a thin blue glow around four intact workstations and black digital screens on the wall. His boots squeaked across the rubber floor as he moved across to the closest desk and ran his gloved finger over the smooth surface.

  This place felt far too clean to have been left derelict for ten years. The glass eyes for the holopads gleamed, and he couldn’t see a speck of dust on the monitors. Mach picked up a crisp piece of white paper and held it in front of his light.

  Adira looked up from the opposite workstation. “Are you thinking what I am?”

  Mach nodded. “Somebody has been here recently.”

  “Why would they keep the place in shape?” Sanchez asked. “Doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Maybe a horan mining company?” Mach said. The enemies of the Commonwealth were always searching for new resources. As Noven Beta was currently out of the Salus Sphere, it made sense. “Proceed with caution. Babcock, what’s in the next room?”

  “Looks like a large warehouse to hold some quarry equipment.”

  “Stay outside until we get to the bottom of this.”

  “Squid Two and I could make a start—”

  “Stay outside,” Mach snapped.

  Babcock didn’t respond, but Mach knew he got the message.

  “What’s the condition like inside?” Babcock said.

  “Clean, warmer,” Adira said. “Looks like the power could’ve been cut just before we—”

  Mach tensed and spun toward an opaque glass door at the far end of the room. Adira and Sanchez crouched behind two workstation desks. The realization must’ve have hit them at the same time as Adira spoke.

  The power might have been cut just before they arrived. And if it was, it meant somebody saw them coming and had prepared for their arrival.

  A single scream echoed through the facility.

  Chapter Five

  Mach positioned himself against the solid wall under the dead black screens, away from the opaque glass door.

  Silence followed the scream.

  “What the hell was that?” Sanchez said. He edged around a desk and moved over to Mach in a crouching run.

  “Sounded more human than horan. You got any flare rounds?” Mach said.

  “Two. Are we going in?”

  “It’s a simple choice. Leave the threat, hope it doesn’t come after us, and carry out a planet-wide drone search. Or we go through that door.”

  Adira leaned over the desk she was using for cover. “I’m not waiting here for weeks. I’ll lead the way.”

  “What’s happening inside?” Tulula said over the comm. “Do you need our help?”

  “Lock down the ship and keep a lookout,” Mach said, conscious that they might have been watched since arriving, and prying eyes could be focused on the Intrepid. “Sit tight outside, Babs, and keep your eyes peeled too.”

  “Will do,” Babcock replied. “Good luck.”

  Mach crept toward the door and listened. Adira flicked off her helmet light and slipped through the shadows, appearing next to him.

  “We’re facing a warehouse, probably filled with industrial equipment,” Mach said. “Sanchez, you fire the flare. We’ll take up a cover position and observe.”

  “I’ll head to the left,” Adira said. “Let me do what I do best while you distract whoever or whatever is in there.”

  Mach nodded. Her movement to the door only reemphasized her skill and reputation as one of the Sphere’s deadliest assassins. Mach and Sanchez’s boots squeaked against the surface. Adira moved with grace, speed, and silence.

  Sanchez slipped two red-tipped rounds from the small pouches of a leather bandolier he had slung over his shell and loaded them into his magazine. He replaced it back in his rifle’s housing, chambered the first flare round, and killed his helmet light.

  “We’re going in,” Mach whispered, making the rest of the crew aware.

  The opaque door had no locks or bolts, only a metal strip at waist height to push it open. Sanchez stood to aim over Mach’s shoulder. Adira hunched, ready to enter at pace.

  Mach killed his helmet light and pushed the door. It easily swung open on its hinges, revealing darkness. Adira darted inside and disappeared into the gloom.

  Sanchez fired.

  The flare streaked across the warehouse. Its hissing flame illuminated the high-latticed ceiling and pieces of large machinery parked randomly around the immediate area. At the far end, part of the roof had collapsed; smashed debris littered the ground. The red sizzling ball struck an angular fidian pile driver’s transparent cabin and dropped.

  A shadow moved across the far wall. Footsteps echoed around the walls, wind whistled through the gaping hole in the roof. On second inspection, it looked like the roof had taken a hit from a cannon due to the scorch marks on the edge of the downward-twisting metal.

  Mach ran towards a pile of sacks directly ahead and knelt behind them. He leaned over one, sinking into its soft paper exterior, and scanned for signs of movement. Sanchez split to the right and skidded to the ground five meters away, behind the empty trailer of a small, grounded hover truck.

  The flare continued to throw up bright red light, and it would for another minute unless somebody stamped it out.

  “Look out!” Sanchez shouted.

  Mach instinctively swung to face him and ducked. A man in a dark blue corporate atmosphere suit had charged from behind them. He must’ve been hiding behind the air filtration unit by the door.

  The man fired a laser. It speared to Mach’s left and hit the sacks, sending a puff of dust between them. Mach rolled to one side. The laser fired again, hitting his former position, belching out more of the sacks’ contents.

  Sanchez, who must have had a clear shot, fired his last flare round. It zipped into the body of their attacker and he dropped to his back. The laser spilled out of his hand and the flare crackled next to his helmet, illuminating his human face.

  Mach immediately trained his rifle, sprinted over, and kicked the weapon away. It spun across the floor and clanked against a distant object. He aimed down at the man’s visor. “Start talking!”

  “You’re going to die,” the man sa
id. “We’re all going to die.”

  Sanchez stamped out the flare with his heavy boot and swept his rifle around the warehouse. “Adira, what’s your location?”

  The distinctive snap of her rifle split the air. “One down,” she said.

  Mach focused on his attacker. The man glanced to his left.

  “You ain’t getting the laser,” Mach said. “But you’re right about dying if you don’t tell me what the hell’s going on.”

  The man slid back and sprang to his feet. Mach didn’t want to shoot a crazy person in cold blood. He wanted to know what he was doing here and who damaged the roof.

  “There’s another one here,” Sanchez said. “Amongst the debris.”

  “Do your work,” Mach said. He stepped toward the man in front of him. “Who are you, and why are you here?”

  The man pulled a domestic knife from his suit’s thigh pocket with a trembling hand and raised it. Not the most dangerous thing in the world, but enough to puncture Mach’s shell with enough force.

  Mach took a pace back. “If you make one more move, I’ll shoot.”

  Sanchez fired a burst.

  “I’m flanking left,” Adira said through the comm. “Wait a moment.”

  Confident that his crewmembers had the situation behind him at a manageable level, Mach returned his attention to the man in front of him. “We’re here to help you. I’m here on behalf of OreCorp. Put down the knife.”

  “You’re one of them. I won’t let you take me alive.”

  The man lurched forward. Mach fired his weapon; it struck a meter in front of the man’s feet. The caseless round sparked off the stone floor, ricocheting away with a whiz. “Who are they? Because I sure ain’t here to take you. I didn’t even know you were here.”

  “The monsters.”

  Mach frowned and shook his head. “What monsters?”

  The man sank to his knees and grabbed either side of his dusty blue helmet, still keeping the knife in his right hand. He clenched his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, and grunted. Nasal mucus spattered against the internal side of the visor.