Deep Space Endeavor (25 page)

"I'm not sure
, Kimi, Reece also had some time alone when he went to find her," he admitted. "But I don't want to think it was either of them. Now, let’s get out there, Topanar is bound to have more men than our team can handle. Suzy, I need you stay in the ship, keep the hatch closed and the cloak on. We're leaving Commando and the warriorbots with you, just in case. Are you ready, Kimi?” As she conveyed her readiness to him, he turned and took off. "I hope you don’t mind a ten K run in the heat.”

______

“We’ve been searching down here for hours,” Wennagal called to no one in particular. He was clearly frustrated at the meandering pace this portion of the treasure hunt was taking.

“We haven’t seen any more of the reptapes, either,” Collin muttered. “Maybe they took the treasure somewhere else?”

Cassie laughed, “I don’t think the reptapes, or whatever they are actually called, care one way or another about a treasure, Collin.”

“Don’t be so sure; stranger things have happened,” he grinned.

“Maybe we just took the wrong tunnel,” Reece observed.

Josiah agreed with him, “Ok
ay, let’s double time it back to where the tunnels split off.” Josiah took off at a run that he was sure no one would appreciate in the heat. As they came back to the place where they had first entered the underground tunnels, they noticed for the first time in a while one of the creatures they had been calling reptapes. Cassie had finally figured out reptapes was a combination of reptile and ape. Collin felt this was a sign they were on the right track. His belief was rewarded a half a kilometer later when the tunnel opened up into a large amphitheater filled with dozens of the reptapes. They were hanging from the walls and squawking a very unpleasant sound. The artifact was positioned next to the map fragment, which was affixed to a rock of some sort. Each stood atop its own podium about chest-high. The animals seemed to be paying the podiums no mind, but they didn’t seem to like strangers in their sanctum. Every time one of the members of the team took a step, they would continue to get riled up and more squawking would occur. Finally, Kora took one step too far, and the ground began to give way. She screamed as Wennagal reached out and grabbed hold of her just in time as she began to fall into the darkness, pulling her back to safety. Now, there was a twenty-five meter chasm between them and their prize.

"Tha
nk you, Wen, I thought I was going to fall, good reflexes by the way." Kora tried to make light of the situation but everyone could see she was scared.

"It was nothing you would not
have done for me, Kora," came the humble reply.

“You see,” Collin was saying. “The reptapes were trying to warn
us not to come any closer. They are on our side.”

“You may be right,” Josiah agreed. “But I wouldn’t be willing to test that theory just yet. My main concern is how we’re going to get to the objective at this point. Maybe we can fire the grappling guns into the far wall, wedge them into the rocks over here, and climb out.”

“That’s a long way, Josiah,” Reece observed.

“I don’t see what else we can do……..”

As Josiah and Reece were talking, Wennagal pulled out a gun of some sort, looked at Collin and nodded as he pulled out a similar weapon. They both made their way to the edge of the stable ground and took aim.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Josiah threw his arms out in front of them. “What are you doing?”

“Exotic weapons, Josiah,” Wennagal replied with a smile, “Collin and I have weapons that will save us much time and energy.”

Josiah then asked the obvious question, “What do they do?”

Colin smiled, “They shoot out a tight net on a string. It’s meant to capture people or animals without hurting them, but in this case, we will just be capturing artifacts and map fragments.”

“Let’s do it.” Josiah decided, and then Collin and Wennagal fired their nets, each hitting their mark. As the nets were being drawn quickly back to the guns, the whole amphitheater began to shake. Rocks began falling from the ceiling and all
of the reptapes quickly made for the exit. Josiah’s team didn’t wait around to see what they were afraid of as they began to retreat down the tunnel as fast as they could. Collin and Wennagal each had their prize secure in their packs and gave a glance back as they were running. All they saw was a wall of water.

“We’ve set off a trap of some kind,” Collin yelled. “We’re gonna have to move a lot faster, or we’re in trouble.”

They made it back to the bottom of the hole and fired their grappling guns into the limb. No one even attempted to take the time to clip their guns to their belts as they just pressed the recoil button at best possible speed. They began to rise while a wall of water simultaneously came crashing through, and Josiah could only hope they had all held on. As the team rose up out of the watery hole, Cassie lost her grip on her grappling gun and screamed as she fell into the torrent.

“
Cassie!” Josiah yelled as he clipped the gun to the front of his backpack while it was still moving and reversed direction. He dove down into the torrent as well, hoping she had gotten hung up near the entrance. As he tried to swim against the current in the murky waters, he noticed Cassie had gotten hung up on some rocks almost ten meters from the opening. He let the current take him quickly to her and saw her struggling to free her leg. She had a terrified look on her face that told Josiah she didn't think she was going to make it out alive. He began to work on freeing her leg as the strength of the current had subsided considerably. He had finally freed her leg when he noticed her eyes close and her body go limp. He had little time to get her out of the water. He only hoped the rest of the crew would be available to help him as his strength was fading fast.

T
he rest of the team made it to the edge of the hole and pulled each other up onto dry ground, they noticed the reptapes all swinging in the trees near them. They were still squawking and carrying on, and Wennagal cringed slightly, as he didn’t like what he observed. “They are upset with us for destroying their gathering place.”

“No,” Collin replied. “They’re trying to warn us of something, everyone take cover.”

They heard someone or something coming through the jungle directly towards them. A moment later into the clearing stepped Captain Topanar and two dozen heavily armed men. They began to make their way towards the hole that was now completely filled with water and stopped. They all watched with awe as Josiah’s hand found purchase on the ground and he pulled Cassyanna out of the water onto dry land and he began performing CPR.

“Someone, help me,” he called out before he had even checked his surroundings. Just then, Cassie began coughing the water out of her lungs as Josiah smiled.

His smile didn’t last long as he heard a long, slow clap followed by the words, “My hero.”

He looked up to see Captain Topanar standing at the edge of the clearing, several armed men leveling their blasters at him. He was wearing his battle suit, as was Cassie, but it was unlikely they could outrun Topanar’s soldier’s or fight them off after what they had just been through.
At least the others got away with the prize,
Josiah thought as he said, “Captain Topanar, how nice to see you again.”

“Take them,” Topanar yelled with steel in his voice.

Without warning, Jesse and Kimi came swinging out of the trees, grappling guns in hand. Jesse swung right into the first two soldiers and Kimi hit the third. Jesse flipped in the air, came down in a crouch with his blaster in one hand and Helga in the other. He opened fire, dropping two more. Kimi ran to Josiah and covered him as he helped Cassie away from the action. As they made their way away from Topanar’s men, the rest of the team began opening fire from their positions of cover.

“You’re out of your jurisdiction, Topanar,” Jesse laughed.

Captain Topanar began to laugh as he motioned his men to cease fire.

“Continue withdrawal,” Jesse called out to his team as Topanar continued to laugh.

“I expected better from someone who has given Garrinoras such fits. You’ve overplayed your hand, rookie. You and your friends are going nowhere. I have this whole area surrounded. I have more than fifty men out there. Now I’ve got your whole team, and you will lead me to your ship so I can collect the rest of your treasure clues, or you will die.” Topanar was basking in his perceived victory.

Jesse just smiled as his team continued to slowly withdraw from battle, covering Josiah as he helped Cassie. “When was the last time you heard from any of your perimeter teams, Topanar?” He asked, continuing to smile. “We beat
you here by a couple hours, Kimi and I took out your teams as you sent them. For the record, it was gonna take a lot more than a few four-man teams spread out over a couple kilometers to take out my crew.” With that, he fired, dropping another soldier.

“Kill them all,” Captain Topanar yelled as he opened fire on
ce again. He still had Colonel Marcos outnumbered and he meant to press that advantage.

Jesse yelled to his team, “Rapid withdrawal. Kimi, Reece and I will cover the exit.”

Josiah and Kora each put one of Cassie’s arms around their shoulder as they began to run with her. Wennagal took point and Collin brought up the rear. They only needed to make it to the shuttle two klicks away.

Jesse was taking heavy fire, and he didn’t know how much longer his battle suit would hold. He was out in the open and hadn’t been able to make it back to cover, but he, Kimi and Reece were dropping Topanar’s men pretty quickly. Topanar was standing behind his men, shouting instructions. He was calling in reinforcements as Jesse, Kimi and Reece were slowly backing away, hoping to make it into the deep co
ver of the jungle.  Topanar still had about ten men left, and there was no chance they were going to make it out of there if the reinforcements made it there in time. Topanar’s men were coming more slowly and carefully, wondering how Jesse and Kimi were still standing with all the hits they had taken.

Jesse knew another hit to the chest was going to take him off his feet. He had already taken five or six, and while the suit had held admirably, each
blast still hurt, and he could barely breathe. He noticed this awful squawking noise as some odd looking animals began swinging down from trees, swooping just past Topanar’s men, and in some cases, knocking them off their feet. Jesse used the distraction as an opportunity to open fire, dropping another one of Topanar’s men. Reece dropped one and Kimi sent four scurrying with a grenade. The animal’s distraction had been just enough as Jesse, Reece, and Kimi disappeared into the jungle and began making their way to the shuttle.

“What was that?” Jess
e called through the pain as he ran a bit slower than he would have liked.

“Reptapes,” Reece said, s
miling as he ran alongside him. “Collin thinks they like us.”

H
e was sure he’d get the whole story later, but for now he only wanted to get back to the ship. He heard Topanar's men closing in as they ran, and then he heard Shadow’s barking, as he saw her come bounding through the foliage. She circled around him and began jogging beside him. Jesse supposed it was his personal escort back to the ship. “Good, girl,” He called as he saw the shuttle and they made their way in.

Topanar's men opened fire on the shuttle as it took off and they lost it as it flew above the dense forest.
Captain Topanar was furious as he and what remained of his men made their way back towards the ship. He had called to have his shuttle meet them at the closer coordinates, knowing there was no threat. Colonel Marcos’ team had fled from the battle like cowards. It was still a ten kilometer hike, and he was tired and very angry. Still, coward or not, Colonel Marcos had gotten the better of him this day. He knew was going to need more money and more men to continue the hunt. At least, he had the consolation of knowing that Kora would be getting the information to him soon enough.

Kimi was the last to board the shuttle, and Collin had it in the air before the hatch even finished closing. The trip to
Endeavor
took only a minute, and as they were all exiting the shuttle, Josiah looked at Jesse, smiled, and said, “Mission accomplished.”

Chapter eight

______

Jesse was pretty sure he had a traitor aboard, but he wasn’t sure what to do about it. The original crew had all been informed of his suspicions. He had to find the leak and plug it, while giving the crew time to figure out their newest clue.
Endeavor
also had to get some distance between them and Topanar while trying to stay out of the pirate’s sights. In the meantime, Cassie was being checked out by Suzy, and she was in a fair amount of pain.

“I don’t understand how I am still alive,” Cassie was explaining. “I was certain my quest to save my cousin had cost me my life.”

“Apparently, Josiah dove in after you, pulled you out and revived you. Jesse and Kimi arrived just in time to cover your escape as Topanar’s men closed in on you.” Suzy could see how shaken Cassie was, so she added, “Our crew has grown rather fond of you.”

Cassie smiled her thanks
as Josiah entered the med-bay.

“Suzy, I’m really tired, but I can’t spare the time for sleep yet. I’ve got a couple very important things that can’t wait. Do you have anything that can help me?”

She knew Josiah was talking about the search for the traitor and the plan to thwart whoever it was, but her doctor side took over. “You are suffering from exhaustion, Josiah. Swimming against a torrent that strong while holding another person after all that time in the heat would take it out of anyone. The only cure for that is rest and hydration. However, since I know you won’t rest, here is an energy supplement that should keep you going for a while. Eventually, you will need to sleep, though.” She handed him the supplement and he thanked her with a hug, and then left the room to get back to work.

“Your crew i
s all really close, aren’t they?” Cassie noted.

Suzy smiled as she
began to answer, “We've all been through a lot together, Except Reece, he joined us a couple days before you did.”

“Well
Colonel Marcos has really put together a good team.” She really seemed to be developing feelings for Jesse, and Suzy silently prayed that she wasn’t the traitor.

______

Mayor Valinor sat across the desk from Agent Sandstorm with a big smile on his face. “I’m speechless. How did you find this information? This is going to put Sub-Mayor Topanar away for life, you know. I may have already had a strong enough case against him to end his career. Maybe even put him away for twenty years, but this vid is better than a recorded confession.”

“Thank you, Mister Mayor,” Sandstorm crossed his legs with a satisfied smile.
This wasn’t such a bad job after all. Tarrick Valinor was a good man. He was helping that good man put away a bad guy that wanted him dead. How he got the information didn’t matter. He had broken no laws to get it, and he was helping a good man so it was fine
. At least that’s what he kept telling himself.

As Agent Sandstorm left the office, Mayor Valinor sat down to watch the vid again. Topanar was in a
room in the lowest level of the building's basement, assuming he would have privacy.
Ordinarily he would have
, he thought. To the best of his knowledge, there were no recording devices down there. He hadn’t even known there were transmission capabilities there, but he was looking at the proof right in front of him. Topanar was arguing with a pirate captain named Janus. The best part, the line that sealed his fate was coming up.

“I delivered the Mayor to you on a platter. All you had to do was put

a blaster bolt between his eyes. It’s not my fault you were too

incompetent to complete the job.”

The shot was perfect; Topanar’s outraged face was in full view of the camera. Mayor Valinor put a copy of the vid in his office safe and sent another copy to both his home system and the Chairman. Sub-Mayor Topanar was going down, and that made him smile.

______

Jesse had come up with his plan. He was in the storage room with Josiah and Kimi to go over the details. “No one has seen the actual map fragment or the artifact yet, have they?” He asked.

“Wennagal has seen the map fragment, but only briefly,” Josiah corrected. “Why, what do you have in mind?”

SAMMI interrupted, “I have completed the task you gave me yesterday, Colonel Marcos. I have recordings of Reece, Captain Reed, Kora and Wennagal all behaving in ways I consider suspicious. I have sent the files to your portable display unit to view at your earliest convenience.”

“Th
ank you, SAMMI. Well done,” he replied. He then turned his attention back to his crew. “Do you remember when we first found the key?” He asked, hoping this idea would be viable. “We made a copy, but the copy didn’t exactly come out right.”

“Yeah,” Josiah was slow to reply because he wasn’t sure where his friend was going yet.

“In the original chest,” Jesse continued. “We found a couple small stones; one or two of them were the same type of green stone that is in the key. We mount one into the fake key and make a fake artifact as well. No one has seen either, so a copy should be able to fool the mole.”

“Unless the mole is Cassie,
with her background, she could spot a fake fairly easily,” Josiah admitted. “But I have been making duplicate artifacts all along, in case we were to lose any of the ones we have.”

"Duplicate artifacts, is that difficult?" Jesse inquired. "How did they come out?"

"Pretty good actually, the only difference is the material used in their construction was a metal we have never encountered and could not be duplicated. Other than that, they are flawless representations and should be able to stand up to a quick inspection. With SAMMI's three dimensional holographic scans available, it was a fairly easy project. Much easier than the key."

Could the fakes fool the mole? Jesse asked thinking ahead.

"Probably," Josiah replied.

“Okay,” Josiah exclaimed. “I think I'm starting to get it. We make the key and the artifact. SAMMI should be able to help me get it done quickly. We bring them out, and as a show of trust, we reveal the existence of the key to the rest of the crew. Whoever it is that’s working with Topanar will have to take the bait. Topanar will know that you can’t get to the treasure without the key, and he’ll have to have it."

“Perfect,” Jesse replied. “We’re ready then. Oh, can you make another key, Josiah?”

“Sure, I still have the mold, why?” Josiah asked as he tried to figure out the Colonel's thinking. He had always been amazed at the way Jesse’s mind worked. He seemed to see things that other people didn’t, and the logic behind many of his conclusions could be mind numbing at times, but he was usually right.

“I just have a feeling Garrinoras will make it a requirement for us to get Enso back.
" he answered. "Oh, and put some explosives in it, too. Now, I’m going to get some sleep. I took a bit of a beating. Josiah, you should get some sleep, too. You look terrible. No offense.”

Josiah laughed, “None taken, but I still look better than you. I’ve got about three hours of work to do here, and then SAMMI will be able to have everything ready for tomorrow morning. After that, it’s off to bed for me, too.”

“I look better than both of you,” Kimi teased, hoping to brighten the mood. “But I’m going to stay up for a while and keep my eyes open for anything that looks suspicious.”

______

The next morning, Jesse had the crew gathered around as Josiah revealed the “artifact” they had procured the previous day and the existence of the key. Cassie was genuinely happy that he had trusted her people enough to show them the key, and he almost felt bad that it was a ruse to figure out who was giving Topanar the information.

In the meantime, Josiah, Kimi, Cassie and SAMMI had fi
gured out the next destination; Xalaa. Even more exciting was that Josiah had figured out that counting the clue they were about to go after, there were only two more clues before the treasure. Jesse could feel the crew getting excited as the thought of the hunt being over and the treasure of Ameteo being found finally seemed like a possibility. As Collin set the next coordinates and the ship was preparing for the jump to light space, Cassie approached Jesse and asked, “Can I talk to you in the common room, Jess?”

“Sure
, Cassie, what’s on your mind?” His kind smile was so different from that first day when he was so angry with her over the pheromone incident.

“It’s Enso,” she started. “I know Garrinoras is going to be contacting us soon to trade what we have for Enso’s life and the
Catamaran
. What are the plans?”

He looked at the concern etched on her face and replied, “I am prepared to do whatever we have to do to get Enso back, Cassie. I’ll give it all to him without question and without regret, but what you have to understand is that Garrinoras is not going to play fair. He might kill Enso just to spite us for the trouble we’ve been. He might kill him even if we do everything he asks, so we are also coming up with contingency plans to cover what we do when Garrinoras breaks his word. Our first priority is Enso.”

“I guess that’s about as much as I can hope for at this point.” She replied as she turned away, her worry evident.

He put his hand on her shoulder and gave a slight squeeze. “Cassie, I promise we’re going to do our best. I’m not going to do it any differently than
I would if it was my own cousin, and I only have one. I also want you to know, you and Enso have a place here on
Endeavor
if you want it.” He smiled and stood to go back on the bridge, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that they were jumping into trouble.

______

Jesse had just finished an energy supplement, and he actually felt pretty good as they were exiting light space around Xalaa. Before Collin could cloak the ship,
Endeavor
had already taken its first hit from one of the weird, snail-shaped pirate ships which Jesse had found out were called
Xenul
-Class gunships. A dozen pirate starfighters, also known as
Razzers,
were on their way towards
Endeavor
.

“
Raise shields, battle stations,” he called out. As he looked out the viewport, he noticed three of the gunships, which alone
Endeavor
could take, but he also noticed the
Pillager,
a fairly powerful Heavy Frigate. This was going to be a close one for
Endeavor
.

“Should we prep the net,
Colonel?” Kimi asked as she slid into military precision, just as the rest of the crew did whenever the situation demanded it.

“No, Officer Tamanorra, I want to save that for a rainy day. Take them out with the lasers; they can’t hurt us. Lieutenant Jackson, prepare to fire main weapons at the closest gunship. Let’s clear
these gunships out quickly before we take on the
Pillager
. Lieutenant Torrensede, evasive maneuvers, in three, two, one, mark. Give ‘em Kimi’s good side, Collin.”

“Let’s get their attention, people,” he called over the ships automated battle klaxons. “Lieutenant, fire main weapons,” he ordered.

“Firing main weapons, Colonel,” Josiah repeated as he fired.

Endeavor’s
plasma beam quickly overwhelmed the gunship’s shields and scored a direct hit, causing major damage. 
Endeavor
took two more hits as Josiah yelled out, “Shields holding at ninety-four percent.”

“Hail the
Pillager
, Lieutenant,” Jesse called as he stood from his chair.

“On screen,” Josiah replied as the
Pillager’s
bridge came to life on their view screen.

“Destroying us at this point would seem ill-advised
, Janus.” He began as Kimi destroyed her third
Razzer
.

A Farannsian male replied. “Captain Janus is unavailable right now, and I think destroying you is always a good idea.” As he spoke, two more shots hit
Endeavor’s
shields.

“That’
s because you’re an idiot,” he countered as Josiah had just destroyed the first gunship with
Endeavor's
torpedoes. “If you destroy us, and we have most of the treasure clues and artifacts, how will you find the treasure? Don’t you think old Garrinoras might be a little upset with you if that happens?”

The F
arannsian simply looked at him as he gave the order for the
Pillager’s
main batteries to open fire. He smiled a smile that looked pure evil, and Jesse thought he recognized him.

“Hey
, Red,” He taunted. “Didn’t I punch you in the face and knock you out in that restaurant a couple weeks ago?” Both crews looked genuinely surprised by his comment, but he knew by the way Red stiffened slightly that it was him, and he smiled.