The Athena Operation (15 page)

CHAPTER 25: THE DARKEST NIGHT

Seraph and his group barely managed to evade the reinforcement seythra long enough to start their long escape into the jungle. They made their way through the dense trees as fast as they could, but they were tired, wounded, and just about done in. Ret was limping every step of the way. Every bit of Seraph ached and felt heavy, but he had to press on. This would all be over soon.

After what felt like an eternity, Seraph caught sight of the ship. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the perimeter was clear of seythra.

He called back to the others and ushered them forward. “Guys! There’s the ship! Come on!” The crew ran toward Seraph and quickly began to pile onto the ship.

Drever stopped to help gather up what supplies and guns he could before Seraph motioned for him to hurry. He made it onto the ship with nothing more than a few weapons.

Kyla was at the tail end of the group. She was barely able to run, and there were seythra advancing behind her. The ship fired up within moments, though the engines struggled to kickstart. Seraph jumped into the door opening and extended his hand to Kyla. As the ship began taking off, Kyla jumped and grabbed Seraph’s hand. There was a loud scream and her weight seemed to double in Seraph’s grip.

“Help!” Seraph shouted to his crew, his hand slipping away from Kyla's.

Sadhis and Ret hurried over to help pull Kyla up. All three of them heaved together and managed to yank her onto the ship. A split second before she made it on, Ret noticed a hand wrapped around her ankle. A large seythra clawed his way up onto the ship behind Kyla before Ret could do anything to stop it. The seythra was armed with a pistol, but Sadhis was quick to disarm him and pin him to the floor. Kyla grabbed Seraph’s pistol and turned to shoot the seythra, but Seraph stopped her.

“Wait!” Seraph held up a hand. “He might know something. We have to try.”

Kyla reluctantly agreed. She lowered the gun and handed it back to Seraph.

After letting the ship pressurize as it took off into space, Seraph and Sadhis tied the seythra up at the back of the ship, using torn pieces of cable to secure its hands and feet. Seraph knelt down near it and stared into its black eyes.

“Who are you?” He asked.

The seythra didn’t raise its eyes. A few moments passed, and it spat onto the ground. “Are you ready to die, Commander?” The seythra’s voice was flat and lifeless.

Sadhis crouched down next to the seythra. “Why are you even doing this? We don’t understand. What is it you want?”

The seythra raised its head and looked into Sadhis’ eyes. “You can save us. You will all find yourselves in a dark room. There are two doors. One will be held open for you, and will allow you to continue in your selfish ways. The other will force you to enter a new world, one that you know nothing of other than that it will be better. You must choose between them. This is a choice every one of you will make. You can be our saviors, or our death.”

“What? What the hell do you mean?” Seraph asked.

The seythra didn’t respond. His body slackened.

Seraph shook his head at the seythra’s nonsense. “Fuck it. It’s useless.” He began walking away.

Seraph stole a glance back at the seythra, whose eyes had gone wide and manic. Seraph turned away, unnerved. He moved to a seat and curled up and tried to sleep through the fierce images of Maxen's death.

Drever set the ship’s autopilot to Trini 5010, then curled up on a bench and tried to sleep. He was just drifting off, images of Koval dancing before him, when he heard a loud hiss. His eyes snapped open. Standing over Seraph was the seythra, with one of its claw-like fingers raised.

In an instant, Drever shot up. “Hey!”

Drever drew a knife from his pocket and sliced the seythra’s hand clean off. The seythra screeched and turned to face him, but it didn’t fight back. Drever tackled it and dug the knife into its throat until it stopped squirming and fell limp.

“What the fuck?!” Seraph jumped to his feet behind Drever, pistol drawn.

“It almost killed you,” Drever said. “Fucking thing chewed through those restraints.” He pointed towards the cables, which were covered with teeth marks.

Seraph patted Drever on the shoulder. “Thank you.”

Drever grunted and returned to the bench.

Vinnor moved to examine the fallen seythra. He moved to the weapons pile and grabbed a machete, then began sawing off the seythra’s head.

“Vinnor, it’s already fucking dead,” Seraph said.

Ret entered the room and sat down across from Seraph.

Seraph half-smiled. “Hey Ret.”

“Commander.” Ret pulled out his pistol and ejected the magazine. “Losing Maxen was a big hit. He ran out blindly. What the hell happened?”

Seraph exhaled. “He spotted the seythra who murdered his family. I . . . can see why he acted so irrational. I tried to get him to stick with us, but he was blind with vengeance. He was a good man, he stepped up on Jhalin when we needed him. I hope he can finally rest.”

“Yes, I hope he can be with his family now.” Ret glanced out the window. “Not long 'till we're at Trini 5010.”

Seraph figured this was the best chance he was going to have to reveal his plan.

Seraph nodded. “Should be soon.” He hesitated for a moment. “But you’re not going.”

Ret looked up. “What? Why not?”

Seraph sat up. “This plan may or may not work. I’m not going one way or the other here. But Ret, I need you and Kyla to start the real plan here.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Seraph?”

“After we land, you and Kyla are taking this ship. I advise you two to get back to Danae Pilus. There’s still military there. You’re going to start the revolt against the seythra. Whether we pull this off or not, there will still be seythra. We need to band people together, people who are ready to fight to stop these motherfuckers. She may want to continue, may not. But you’ve got the most important job, kid. Can I count on you to do that?”

“No, Seraph. I need to be there; I need to do this.”

Seraph sighed. He knew Ret’s intentions were good; he knew Ret only wanted to serve what he thought was the best cause. Seraph wished the kid could see that the revolt would be more important in the long run.

“Let him go.”

Seraph turned to see Sadhis walking toward him.

“Seraph, I trust you,” Sadhis said. “We’ve been through hell together more times than I can count. You have my word; I’ll take Kyla, and we’ll secure a space and start building a resistance. You and the rest, do what you can at Trini 5010. I believe in you.”

Seraph thought for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. You’re right. You handle the military side. You’re good at that. We’ll take Ret.”

Kyla entered the room to see Vinnor carefully dissecting the seythra’s brain. As disgusted as she was, she moved closer to the doctor and peered at the mangled tissue. Vinnor had torn the brain almost to a pulp, but Kyla didn’t see what she was expecting to see among the mess.

“There’s no chip or some sort of device in there?” Kyla asked.

“Nothing!” Vinnor chuckled.

Sadhis had been ignoring the doctor’s grotesque experiment, but now he was interested. “What chip?”

“On the Baryon, Maxen, Diam, and I met a seythra,” Kyla said. “He was different. He didn’t know anything about the uprising. He’d . . . something was different. There was a chip in his brain. Literally in his brain. It wasn't a neural augmentation.”

“What . . .” Seraph started. He felt his jaw drop. “What does that mean?”

Ret furrowed his brow. “Are they being fucking controlled?”

“The one with the chip seemed rational,” Kyla said. “He wasn’t even aggressive. Maybe it’s the reverse. Maybe they’re out of control with these chips.”

“Or that particular chip didn’t activate.” Ret added.

“But this one doesn’t have a chip. What the fuck?” Seraph closed his eyes. “Oh, what the fuck . . .”

Drever shook his head in disbelief. “Okay. Then there’s something else going on, which means the seythra are only a pawn in a bigger game. And we’re going to find the people running it at Trini 5010. We still need to end them.”

The group looked around at one another. This changed things, they knew. But they’d been going in blind the whole time anyway. They’d chosen to fight the seythra without even knowing why the war had started. That hadn’t stopped them. The objective had been clear then, and it was clear now. They nodded to each other, silently vowing to move forward

CHAPTER 26: BATTLE LINES

Seraph composed himself, then brought Kyla up to speed on the Resistance plan. Kyla had no interest. She'd given up completely on fighting the seythra. Once she got back to Danae Pilus, she planned on taking shelter and letting herself heal. She said she was done with fighting, that she’d be useless anyway. Seraph understood, but he was disappointed.

Trini 5010 was in view soon enough, and everyone felt a wave of fear as they grew closer. An uneven circular shape, white all over with splattered gray and black blotches. Trini 5010 was a planet that few had stepped foot on. The military reference said that the planet had been undergoing an industrial redesign for the last fifty years and that it was now operating more like a giant ship than as a place of residence. The file on the seythra and Trini 5010 was noticeably lighter than that on all the other planets and species, and now Seraph knew why.

No cruisers were waiting to destroy them. No guns were expanding from the industrial planet, opening fire. Nothing. It was almost eerie.

A dock opened up for them as they approached, pinging their ship to land.

Drever glanced back at Seraph. “Well, here we go,”

Seraph shook his head. “This isn’t right. They’re just opening up the doors for us?”

Drever shrugged. “Their mistake.”

Drever brought the ship to the docking bay and set it down gently. While the loading door was still open, Seraph armed everyone with a rifle and an aceso shot as they filed out of the ship. When everyone else had left the ship, Seraph and Sadhis came face to face.

“You do what you do best,” Sadhis said. “Take care of them.”

Seraph nodded. “Whatever happens to us here, don’t lose sight of the big picture.”

Sadhis clapped Seraph on the shoulder. Seraph sighed and walked off the ship, rifle in hand.

Sadhis started the engine, and soon the ship left Trini 5010 behind.

Seraph breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the ship jump to hyperspace and clear the area

They were on their own now.

The loading bay was similar to the one on the Baryon. Large and empty. The group started toward the only door they saw: center of the wall, other side of the room. No other ships were in the hangar.

The door opened before they came close to it, and they were too far away for a proximity sensor to automatically open it.

Someone was watching them.

“Ah, they don't want me to show you the way. They want you to show yourselves.” Vinnor chuckled.

“Come on, we have to keep moving.” Seraph moved onward through the door.

The door led to a lobby to accept deliveries. There was a reception desk, a waiting area, and dollies ready to assist with loading. On the other side of the room there was a large window that opened on a lush garden, complete with a fountain and a walkway lined with many different kinds of flowers. It didn’t quite achieve the calming effect Seraph guessed it was meant to, but it came close.

A door opposite the reception desk opened and revealed a hallway.

The group continued on, rounding one of the corners which led to an extension of the hallway. Inside, there were containment cells like in a mental institution.

Ret tried one of the doors, but it wouldn’t budge.

A single door at the end of the hallway was their only possible destination. As they approached it, they noticed a camera in the top corner of the ceiling.

“Fuckers are watching us.” Drever raised his rifle and fired a shot square into the camera.

“This doesn’t feel right.” Ret glanced around as the door in front of them opened.

“I know,” Seraph said. “Let’s just keep moving. We can’t go back now. Someone knows we’re here. We could be attacked any second.”

“Aydrian, if they wanted you dead you'd be dead by now. Trust me, they at least want to talk to you before they kill you.” Vinnor said.

The next room was a bit more like Seraph had originally envisioned Trini 5010. The walls were a grungy black. There was a catwalk with a long fall down either side. Lining the circular walls were vertical red lights, some blinking. As they reached the middle of the catwalk, they could hear gears whirring and the lights turned blue.

A computerized voice came over a loudspeaker: “Phase two of the Athena Operation has now commenced.”

Ret peeked over the side of the catwalk at the long fall down. “Uh . . . are we phase two?”

“I bet we find out soon enough,” Seraph said as they reached the other side of the catwalk.

They passed into the next room and found themselves surrounded by glass cages. Inside the cages were surgery rooms with a few dead seythra inside.

“What the fuck happens in there?” Ret asked.

“Ah, they've changed this around,” Vinnor noted.

At the end of the room there were several doors, but only one opened. Seraph approached it, but Ret put out a hand to stop him.

“Wait, Seraph. Why are we going wherever they want to take us? If it’s a trap, we’re walking right into our own deaths.”

“Where else are we supposed to go? It’s not like we can leave. We don’t even have a ship.” Seraph said. “Vinnor's got a point. Whoever's here, they want us alive.”

Ret, not satisfied with Seraph’s answer, tried all of the other doors to no avail.

“Vinnor, who are the people running this place?” Ret asked.

“They never disclosed their identities to me, I never got to meet them. They're shadows.” Vinnor continued into the next room.

They entered the room they’d been led to and found themselves back in the white layout from earlier. A blinking video screen on the far side of the room displayed the text “WE WILL PROTECT & PRESERVE THE UNIVERSE.” There were two desks in the center of the room, each flanked by a door. There was another door near the video screen, and this was the one that opened.

The group stepped forward and the message on the screen changed to “THE FINAL APPROACH.” Seraph glanced at the rest of the group and nodded. The door behind them slammed shut, locking them in.

The doctor laughed. “No going back now!”

“Never planned to.” Drever stepped up beside Seraph. “Let’s do this.”

The group entered the room, ready to finally face the truth.