The Awakening (The Hyperscape Project Book 1) (20 page)

Kyrk’s voice
broke the deathly silence. “I’ve picked up a Dragoran Dreadnought on an intercept
course! We need those guns back on-line!”

From somewhere
in the ship, a young male crewmember responded. “Snark here. I’ll try to make
my way there. Maybe I can bypass the main power conduits. Wait...all the
freking doors are jammed. Can you override them from the bridge?”

“I’ll try,” Kyrk
responded.

The monster
inside Arya scoffed. “It won’t be long now. Sorry I won’t be here to see the
action.” She waved her gun at Nick. “Turn around.”

Nick hesitated.
Surely, she wasn’t going to kill him. The knowledge he possessed was too
important to the Dragorans for her to kill him. Sure, they may get the module,
but they would want Nick as their backup. He had to do something, and quick.
Faced with few options, Nick tried to take her by surprise. Using his limited
knowledge of Tae Kwon Do, and a bit of improvisation, he attacked. He deflected
the pistol with one hand while he moved in to force her off her feet.

He didn’t count
on Arya’s blindingly-fast left elbow to his chin. The blow flung him to the
floor and left him unconscious.

Arya sneered
down at him. “As if there were ever any doubt who would win at hand-to-hand
combat.” Leaving him on the floor, she quickly boarded the module, closed the
canopy, and blasted out of the hangar bay on a course to rendezvous with the
Dreadnought. Once clear of the Ashok, she radioed the approaching ship.
“Forty-seven reporting in. Mission objective completed. Requesting pickup.”

Back aboard the
Ashok, Nick roused to find Karg standing over him. “Karg?” He squinted up at the
big ghoul looking down at him, then placed one hand on his head as if that
could ease the pain burning through his cranium. “Damn, what a headache.”

Nick readjusted
his neck so he could see Karg better.  As Nick became more lucid, his eyes
flew open wide. “Karg!  It’s Arya! She’s the spy.  She’s the one who
killed Argos. We have to stop her!”

Karg stared out
of the open hangar door into space. “She’s disabled half the systems on the
ship and there’s a Dreadnought closing fast. We’ll be lucky to even survive the
next twelve chronits.”

Nick stood up
with effort.  “Come on, Karg, buddy, don’t give up so easily. We can use
the Admiral’s ship to go after her.” He pulled on Karg’s muscle-bound arm to no
avail. The behemoth didn’t budge an inch.

“It’s too late.
We’d never make it in time. Right now a strategic retreat is the best we can
hope for.”

“But what about
Arya? And what about my module?” Nick’s brain raced to come up with a plan.
There had to be something they could do. The Admiral had mentioned something
about a way to eradicate the spy nanites. That meant they might still be able
to save Arya and his precious module.

“No!” He pointed
a finger in Karg’s general direction and shook his head emphatically. “I’m not
going down easily.  No way.  Not this space cowboy.  It ain’t
over til the fat lady sings, and I don’t see any fat ladies singing around
here.  We have to stop Arya!  No question about that.  And we
will.  You and me.” Nick made a move for the Admiral’s ship.

Karg reached
over, grabbed the back of Nick’s shirt with one hand, and yanked him off the
floor so he couldn’t take another step. He spun Nick around in mid-air and
looked him in the eye. “This isn’t the time. Not here. Not this way. I don’t
like it any more than you do, but we’ll have to find some other way to rescue
her.”  

Nick hung
uncomfortably by his shirt and stared up at Karg. Something about Karg’s face
just didn’t look right. He cocked his head to get a better look as he swayed in
the air. A huge tear ran down the big lug’s cheek, pausing in its path for just
a moment before dripping onto the floor. The sight of emotion on Karg’s face
shocked Nick. He hadn’t known Rakozians
could
cry.

“We won’t give
up on her. We will find a way. We owe her that much,” Karg said as he tried to
hold a stiff upper lip.

“Karg. 
Buddy.  Put me down.”  When Karg silently refused, Nick became more
insistent. “I mean it! Karg?” Nick reached up and put one hand on Karg’s arm to
stop his incessant swaying. “Karg?” Karg’s limb was as solid as an Oak branch.
Judging by Karg’s stubborn stance, Nick wasn’t going anywhere.

He wasn’t one to
give up easily, but he was very familiar with strategic retreats. Nick’s
rational brain struggled to overcome his emotions even as he considered
surrendering to Karg’s plan. It felt as though his brain would rip in two from
the war being waged in his mind. Arya was out there somewhere. He couldn’t
leave her, abandon her without trying to free her from the nanites and the
Dragoran tyranny. And what about the hyperspace tech? They had to stop the
Dragorans from getting their scaly hands on that kind of power.  Was Karg
really thinking about any of that?

Slowly and
reluctantly, Nick pushed back his own emotions and realized Karg was right.
Going after her would be suicide. The crew would end up dead, and he’d likely
become a prisoner. “I guess you’re right. It wouldn’t do her any good if we
were captured or dead.” Nick looked up at Karg from his awkward position. Karg
raised him a little higher so he could get a better look into his eyes,
apparently to determine if Nick were being truthful with him. 

The thought of
Arya in the hands of the Dragorans was almost more than Nick could stand.
What
would they do to her?
 Would they discard her when they had gotten
what they wanted?  Space her?  Torture her then kill her?  The
idea cut him to the core.  It was torture not being able to run after her,
grab her, and haul her back to the Ashok, whatever it took. It was going to
kill him to sit still and let someone else devise a plan of action.

Karg stared deep
into Nick’s eyes.  “I’ll put you down when I know you won’t run after
her.”

“I swear,
Karg.  I won’t go after her.  You’ve delayed me too long
anyway.  Besides, I don’t want my butt to fry at the hands of the
Dragorans.”  Nick rubbed the right side of his jaw.  It was still
painful as hell from Arya’s sucker punch.

“You can let me
down now,” Nick said.  “Anytime now, buddy.”

Karg
grinned. 

Nick
frowned.  “Seriously.  You can put me down.”  As Karg grinned
back at Nick, something suddenly dawned on him.  “Wait a minute, who let
you out, anyway?”

“Remember that
isolation chamber door?” Karg asked.

“Yeah.”

 “We’re
going to need a new one.”

“You didn’t.”
Nick winced. “Ow!” Talking was still painful. The ache was probably going to be
there for awhile.

Karg was already
using a free hand to call up to the bridge even as he lowered Nick to the
floor. “Kyrk, get us out of here.”

“I’m trying. Two
of the engines are disabled. The Meths are working on them now, but even if
they get them back online, I fear it will be too late.”

“Shit. We’re
screwed!” Nick exclaimed, squinting in thought. “Dammit!  Think, brain,
think.  There must be something we can do.”

Karg lumbered to
one of the bay’s consoles and brought up a tactical display. The display
clearly showed Arya’s trajectory in Nick’s module as she left the Ashok. 
Peering around Karg’s arm, Nick watched as the module sped toward the advancing
enemy ship.

Nick stared
hopelessly at the display. “We’ve practically handed the hyperspace technology
over to them. I should have destroyed the module while I had the chance.”

“No. Argos was
right. Sooner or later the Mok’tu would have recreated it from their scans,
anyway,” Karg replied.

“I can’t believe
Arya is the spy.” Nick shook his head in disbelief. “I feel like I should have
known, should have been able to see it somehow. If I had, we may have been able
to help her.”

Karg still
followed the module’s trek toward the approaching Dreadnought. “None of us
knew. I can hardly believe it myself.” He glanced at Nick, one brow lowered.
“Wait a minute, if Sirok’s not a spy, where the hetek is he?”

“The coward
probably ran and hid when he saw the Captain was dead.” Nick frowned, his mind
still on saving Arya. They needed to get this tub moving.  The quicker the
better.  “Shouldn’t we try to help with the engines?”

“All access from
here to the engineering section is sealed. I’ve already checked. We couldn’t
get there in time.”

Nick peered at
the display screen.  “Uh…Karg? Why does it look like the module has
stopped?”

Karg used the
tactical display to zoom in on the module. The display reeled off a line of
words that indicated various readings about the module’s speed and trajectory.
“It
has
stopped. It’s starting to drift now.”

Nick’s eyes
widened. “Arya must be trying to regain control.”  He stared at the
display, jaw clenched as he watched the module drift.  “Come on, Arya,
fight it,” he muttered, as if he could will her to beat the nanites from his
position so far away. “Get out of there. Come on! Turn around!” he yelled,
staring hopefully at the screen.

The craft
pitched and yawed erratically, then finally turned and accelerated back toward
the Ashok.

“I have an
idea!” Nick slapped Karg as near to his shoulder as he could reach. “When she
lands, I’ll need to take the module back out, so get her out of there as
quickly as you can.”

Karg’s big,
boney brow lowered as he looked hard at Nick. “What are you up to? If you think
I’m going to let you blow up the module and kill yourself, you’ve—”

“Relax, Karg.
It’s nothing quite that noble. I’m going to open a hyperspace window.”

“You’re going to
run, leave us behind? I don’t think so!” Karg grunted.

“Is that what
you think of me?” Nick was half pissed, half hurt. After nearly three months on
this boat, he’d proven his loyalty.  He expected a whole heaping helping
of trust from these guys, not distrust.  “I’m not leaving you behind.
Besides, I wouldn’t last a day out there on my own.”

Karg still
puzzled over what Nick was planning. “You know the Dragorans won’t let you get
close enough to destroy their ship. They’ll disable your module and capture
you.”

“I’m not going
to take them out. I’m going to take
us
in. Into hyperspace,” Nick
explained.

“That’s insane!
Didn’t you say that you don’t know how to navigate in hyperspace? There’s no
telling where we would end up! If we could even make it back out at all. I sure
don’t want to spend the rest of my days trapped in hyperspace.”

“It’ll be okay.
I think I have it figured out. From the data I have collected, I’ve noticed
there’s evidence of gravity wells. Probably from nearby stars and planets.
Anyway, I can use that to fix our position relative to those anomalies. I can’t
really navigate, but I can use it to plot a short jump. We can hang out in
hyperspace while we make repairs, then jump back to normal space. I
think
I can place us in the general vicinity of this region of space. When we jump
back in, we should be able to get our bearings again.”

Karg’s distaste
for the idea was abundantly clear by the look on his face. “And what if you
can’t
get us back? What if you put us in some other freking part of the galaxy?”

Nick bobbed his
head and grinned.  He almost felt like his old self, back home, old
risk-taking, flying hard Nick Bannon, the prover of hyperspace theory.  “I
know it’s a risk. But what are our chances against a Dreadnought?  Not
good, I reckon.”

“Point taken,”
Karg reluctantly admitted. “I don’t know why I’m agreeing to this, but…alright,
what do you want me to do?”

“Just tell Kyrk
to follow me in. I don’t think he’ll listen to me, so I’m going to need you to
convince him.”

Meanwhile, on
board the Dreadnought Grok….

“Captain, the
craft has turned around. It’s headed back to the Resistance ship!”

“Yes,
lieutenant, I see that. No matter. We will soon have them all. There is nowhere
they can run now,” D’rog replied, his long, sharp teeth showing through his
confident sneer. He would soon have his prize. The Commodore would be most
pleased with him. His station back on home-world would surely rise.

“Sir, the craft
has reentered the Resistance vessel.”

“Patience,
lieutenant. All in good time. Ready the forward batteries. I want that ship
disabled only. Is that clear?!”

“Yes Captain.”
The lieutenant quickly and efficiently coded in the commands then reported
“Sir, weapons are at your command. Targeting engines only. Estimate 5 chronits
to optimal range.”

D’rog grinned as
he waited to sink his teeth into his prey.  It wouldn’t be long now. 
The Resistance would feel the sting of his power, and he would forever be a
part of the songs of his people.

On the Ashok, Karg stood ready
with a plasma rifle in hand as he waited for the module to touch down in the
bay.  His entire body went tense as the canopy opened. This was
Arya.  He hoped she wouldn’t force him into a position of having to
shoot. 

After a tense
few seconds, Karg shifted his weight impatiently.  So far, there was no
sign of a pilot.

“Where the hell
is she?” Nick murmured.

 Together,
the two of them approached the craft slowly and peered over the edge of the
cockpit. Arya lay unconscious in the seat, slouched over to one side. Sirok sat
in her lap, grinning back at them.

“Sirok! What the
hetek are
you
doing in there?” Karg exclaimed.

“Slimy! 
Dude!  You saved my module!” Nick simultaneously crowed.

Sirok’s grin
widened as he raised a short, metallic rod into the air.

Nick’s
enthusiasm waned, and he jumped back, ready to take cover.

Sirok gave a
short, wry laugh. “What’s the matter? Never seen a Dragoran slaver’s prod
before?” Sirok’s face scrunched into something resembling a frown, and all four
of his eyes faced Nick.  “I’ve seen many in my day. Unfortunately, it was
always from the wrong end.” Sparks flew from the rod as he pressed a button on
the handle. “A good jab from this can render a slave unconscious for some time.
Those Dragoran baskurts tortured so many of my people. I wasn’t about to let
them get their hands on this module!”