Shedding the Demon (13 page)

A huge galley, with storerooms to accommodate fifteen guests
for an extended stay, filled the rear of the ship and was accessible from all
levels. The storerooms were completely filled, compliments of Mr. Krych’s
account.

The Decrypto reported back that he now had full access to
all ship’s systems, records, and logs. He pulled it back and sent in an
Artificial Intelligence control system to closely integrate with his own control
system. It took less than a minute to come online, but it informed him that it
would take another thirty minutes to evaluate all of the historical data in the
main core. Damon directed it to proceed, but to leave plenty of capacity for
running the ship without his intervention.

He rode the lift to the top level and the doors opened to
reveal, not surprisingly, extravagant captain’s quarters. The rooms filled the
entire upper portion of the dome and the curving wall/ceiling could be made
transparent or opaque upon command. There was a large bedroom, a bathroom with
a soaking tub, and a small private mess in case the captain didn’t want to eat
with the others.

Damon could not believe his good fortune, and he felt like a
kid with a new toy—a
big
new toy.

The tower called, indicating that he was free to start
engines and takeoff at will. He instructed the AI to handle all of the standard
procedures while he decided to familiarize himself with the soaking tub.

Twenty minutes later, Damon was drying off and feeling
great. The AI had asked for destination instructions, and Damon told it to find
an uninhabited system, centrally located, with some awesome scenery. The AI
came back ten seconds later with a destination and informed Damon it would take
approximately twenty-eight hours to arrive.

Damon decided to run through a ship diagnostic in order to
become familiar with it inside and out. He was slightly surprised to find some
military-grade hardware on board in both offensive and defensive weaponry as
well as the sensor suite which included a sophisticated Wormhole Energy Reflection
Analysis (WERA) system.

Damon had to look up information on the WERA system, which was
all new to him. Although he couldn’t work out the technical details, it was a
sensor system based upon the reflected returns of wormhole energy. The range
was astronomical (literally), and it could penetrate almost anything while
providing feedback on everything it encountered. Such systems were supposedly
only employed by the government and the military.
Why Mr. Krych, you are
just full of surprises!
Damon thought.

The Kline drive was fairly standard, although it did perform
slightly better than average. The Debar reactor was oversized to accommodate
the weapons and sensors, but otherwise normal. Overall the ship was incredible,
and Damon congratulated himself on the idea of checking the registry for any
ships belonging to Krych.
After all, he won’t be looking for it any time
soon!

As the ship moved to a safe distance for tunneling, Damon
placed a call to Gregor. “We’re about to go into the tunnel, I’ll be out again
in a little over a day.”

“Sounds good, contact me again when you get there.”

Damon cut the connection without responding. He settled back
into the bed, instructed the AI to rotate away from the sun, turn off the
lights, and clear the roof. He was greeted with an enormous panoramic view of
the stars. Due to the curve of the ship and the location of the captain’s
quarters, the view filled his entire vision, nearly taking his breath away.

 “I’ve got to hand it to you, Krych,” Damon said to the view
overhead, “you sure can pick a nice ship!”

The AI interrupted his reverie. “One minute to wormhole
creation and entry.”

“Thank you, can you fire up the galley and make me—what time
is it?”

“We can set ship’s time to any convenient reference.”

“Well then, I feel like it’s dinner time, set the clock to
six PM, and fire up some dinner!”

“What would you like to eat?”

“Surprise me!”

“Wormhole creation and entry in thirty seconds.”

“Excellent, how long until we eat?”

“Approximately thirty minutes.”

“What? Why so long?”

“This ship has the capacity to prepare real food, rather
than preprocessed rations. I assumed that would be your preference, and part of
the surprise.”

“Sounds good, I like it, thanks,” Damon felt foolish talking
to the AI like this, but it was surprisingly real.

“You’re welcome. Wormhole creation complete.” Damon looked
forward expecting to see something, but the stars looked the same. The AI
continued, “Wormhole entry underway.”

Damon’s comm system flashed an icon that an encrypted
message was coming through from Joann. He mentally stabbed at the icon, but it
was too late. The sky outside had gone completely dark and they were in the
tunnel. No communication could come through, so he’d have to wait a day to see
what she wanted to say. He growled in frustration and decided to get ready for
dinner.

 

**** ****

 

Joann was pleasantly surprised that
her friends on Mamre were excited to see her. They decided to throw a party in
her honor, and gathered many of the old group at the Woodall’s house. She had
tears in her eyes as she hugged, kissed, and greeted friends that she thought
were left in her past. Even Kevin Woodall, her former fiancé, who had introduced
her to this group so long ago, was happy to see her. He was married now, with
two little rebels running around, so there was no awkwardness between them.
It
was,
she realized,
a long time ago and we were very young.

After the party wound down late that night, Joann sat with
Kevin, his wife Lauren, and the others from her original core group of friends
from so long ago. They had spent hours trading stories and getting caught up, and
now she felt it was time to get down to business. An expectant feeling hung in
the air, as everyone wanted to hear why she was back. Someone brought in a pot
of coffee and some snacks, and the conversation turned serious.

Alyssa Peters, the group’s unofficial leader, spoke first. “So,
Joann, honey, we are so glad you’re back, but there must be a reason—something
you need to talk about.”

Joann set her cup down, and told her tale. She explained
everything she could about the situation. She didn’t hold anything back. If they
were going to help her, she wanted them to know exactly what they were getting
into. She laid it out in no uncertain terms; if they took her in and decided to
help her, they could be putting their lives on the line.

After she finished she looked around the room at each of
them, her seven dear friends. She saw compassion, anger, resolve, and most of
all, support from all of them. “If any of you want me to leave now, I
understand.”

No one moved or spoke up.

Steve Bahena, their legitimate-business front man, cleared
his throat to speak. “We’ve called ourselves rebels all these years. We’ve
studied how it’s done in books and in movies. We’ve been to meetings, listened
to speeches, and complained about the status quo. We’ve done a whole lot of
posturing, pretending, and play-acting. Maybe it’s time we actually put some of
that book-knowledge into practice. Ted—”

Ted Khasan, always excitable, jumped up and said, “I have an
up-to-date kit for you. You won’t believe some of the new technology we have! I
can set up a communication network that—” He cut himself off and his eyes
darted around the room and dropped to the floor. “I’ll run home and get it.”

“Thank you,” Joann said, “please don’t put yourself at risk.”

“Too late for that isn’t it?” Lauren Woodall said and
everyone looked at her. “I mean we’re already involved whether we want to be or
not. Now that you’re here and you told us everything we can’t exactly step away
anymore.”

“Lauren!” Kevin said. He looked like he might say more, but
stopped at her glare.

Lauren sighed, “I know, I know, we have to help her. I just
wish we’d had a choice. I mean, the children—” She looked at her hands folded
in her lap. No one spoke for a few moments.

Alyssa tried to smooth things over. “Lauren, we all
understand and share your concerns. I know the rest of us don’t have kids, but
we’ve all trained for this. Together, we can keep everyone safe.”

Lauren didn’t look up. “Training is a far-cry from doing.
But go ahead, Steve, you were saying?”

Steve continued where he left off, “Ted has some brand new
software for you, near-military grade. However, you will be going up against
high-level stuff, so don’t rely too heavily on it.”

“That’s great, I can’t thank you enough,” Joann said. “Besides
the kit and the software, I’ll need a bunch of one-time links. They are the
only way I can talk to Demon. Most of all, though, I need contacts. I’m in over
my head, and so is Demon. I need to find some big-time names in Biolectrics,
crypto, intelligence, and weapons. Can you help me with these?”

They spent most of the night comparing notes and gathering
supplies and contact info for Joann. By the time they were done, the sky
outside was already lightening.

Only a few hours later, Joann took stock of her supplies.
Most of her friends had left or were sleeping around the Woodall’s living room.
She started packing quietly when Kevin spoke from the hallway.

“Leaving so soon?”

“You know I have to. The first two or three days are the
most dangerous as the trail is still fresh.”

“So you
were
listening through those training
sessions. I thought you were asleep.”

She stifled a laugh. “Well, I slept through most of them,
true. But with the incessant talking and plotting, I was forced to learn a few
things.”

“Take care of yourself,” he said.

She looked around the room at her friends and sighed. “You’ve
given me so much; I can never thank you enough.”

He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.

“Really,” she continued. “I left here thinking I was so much
smarter than all of you. I was off to make my fortune, and look what it got me.
But now, without your generosity, and forgiveness, I’d be completely lost.

“I want
you
to take care of yourself, and the kids.
And Lauren.”

“Yeah, sorry about her—”

“No.” She stopped him. “Actually, I think she handled my
sudden reappearance pretty well, all things considered.

 “Now I really have to go.” She gave him a quick hug and her
gaze lingered on him for a moment before she hurried out the door.

She fervently hoped that her friends would be safe.

Her thoughts shifted to Damon as she walked down the street,
and she didn’t look back.

 

**** ****

 

“Gone! What do you mean they’re gone?” Alexander yelled at
his subordinates. “Where are they, and when did they disappear?”

No one in the room dared to answer, or even to look up from
their feet.

“Get out of here, and don’t come back until you’ve got some
answers!” he screamed at them, face glowing red, and spit flying with every
word. He turned away from them as they scrambled out the door.

It’s so close,
he thought,
the perfect weapon
running loose, just asking for someone to take control, and yet I can’t quite pull
together all the pieces that I need to make it happen.

“Ah-hem.” Someone was still in the room.

Alexander spun around, drew his gun and trained it on the
man’s face. The barrel of the blaster pistol hovered mere inches from his
forehead.

Alexander said with a brutal calmness, “I
told
you to
leave.”

“Yes sir, but I got something that might help.” He stared
past the gun directly into Alexander’s eyes. The only crack in his demeanor was
the sweat on his scarred brow.

Alexander paused, sorely tempted to pull the trigger.
Reluctantly, he lowered the gun and asked, “What? What is it?”

“There’s one person still out there. They didn’t get them
all. Whoever made the sweep missed this one.”

“Really,” Alexander was interested now, and he holstered his
pistol to the man’s obvious relief. “Who?”

“Dr. Tashus, the SecForce colonel.”

“I don’t know her, do we have a file?” he asked, even though
he knew the answer.

The man’s gaze wavered. “No sir, we don’t. But we’ll have
one soon,” he added.

“All right, I guess that’s
something
. However, if we
don’t have a file and some leads very soon I will be disappointed.” Alexander
paused, and then asked, “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Reave Nachman, sir.”

“Mr. Nachman, this is a big opportunity for you. Give me
what you’ve got so far.”

Reave took on an unfocused look that indicated he was
reading from his HUD. “She’s a mid-level scientist in SecForce research branch.
The rank is honorary due to her doctorate in Biolectric Engineering. Not much
practical experience, no publications outside of her doctorate work on virus
development. Appears to be on the team mostly by luck. She’s the one that found
the test subject, the Demon.”

Alexander sat down and waved Reave to a chair as well. He
was reviewing Reave’s personal file as he listened to the assessment of Dr.
Tashus.

“Where do you think she’ll go?”

“Um, I don’t know.”

“Where would a young woman in trouble go for help?”

“Um, I—”

“Don’t tell me ‘I don’t know’ more than once in a
conversation. Think! Do you know any young women, Mr. Nachman? Do you have any
female children, perhaps?”