Infamy (The Mythrar War Book 2) Read online

Jason moved his arms back and forth against the armrests of the seat, hoping the friction would help damage the restraints enough to let him free. He did so carefully, however, keeping his eyes focused on the marine behind the console just a few feet away. If the man saw what he was trying to do, he'd likely kill him for trying to escape.

  Behind the traitor, he noticed movement by the consoles lining the rear wall. Crawling on the ground, Midshipman Rayne moved towards the marine. Jason knew what he had in mind, but he also knew it wouldn't work as the marine had made a habit of scanning the room between shots.

  Jason shook his head, hoping Rayne would look at him, but the man was focused on his target. Without any better options, he acted on his own. He leaned forward, pushing the plastic restraints as close to the front of the chair as he could manage. The movement causing the restraints to tear into his skin with every jerk. By the time his wrists were where he needed them to be, they were covered with a growing layer of blood from dozens of tiny cuts and scrapes. But it didn't matter. Only stopping the traitors mattered.

  Jason inched his feet away from the chair, his back arching unnaturally with every step. The muscles in his lower back ached with every movement as if begging him to return to the relative comfort of the chair. He pushed past the pain until his body was spread as far as it would go without him tumbling to the floor.

  He looked up, getting one last look at the man before putting everything he had into a kick. The blow struck the back of the traitor's knee, the joint failing to hold his weight causing him to drop to the floor.

  Noticing the fall, Rayne wasted no time closing the gap. Running at a full sprint, he tackled the marine, knocking his weapon free as they crashed to the floor. The men rolled around, each taking a few jabs as they could while they tumbled.

  Jason pushed himself back towards his chair, his outstretched arm screaming in pain with every movement. He was halfway there when one of his wrists broke free. Forcing his arms to cooperate, he pushed himself to his knees only to see Wilson standing off to the side, cutting the remaining restraint.

  "Thanks," Jason said, rubbing his bleeding wrists.

  Wilson nodded before sprinting across the bridge to Rayne's aid. While Rayne wasn't a match for the marine in size, he made up for it in sheer willpower. Straddling the marine, he belted the man with a flurry of vicious blows to the jaw, screaming as he delivered every bone-jarring punch. He went to deliver another only to have his arm grabbed by the traitorous marine.

  Using Rayne's momentum against him, he flung the smaller man against the wall. He was on him within seconds, returning the favor to the kid.

  Jason went to help Rayne but stopped when he noticed Tegan Bradly swoop in. She nailed the marine in the jaw with the butt of the blaster, shattering it in a bone shattering crunch. Before he could react, she hit him again, this time just below the temple, denting his cheek. She went for a third but was stopped when Wilson pushed the gun out of the way.

  "It's over," he said gripping the blaster. "He's done."

  Tegan glared at the marine, then back at Wilson. "Fine." She pulled the blaster away.

  Bremerton motioned to the pilots. "Detain the marines. Take them down to the brig."

  Chapter Forty

  Medaca Sector

  Flight Deck, NECS Endeavor

  Richards leaned against the walls of his makeshift workshop as the medical staff worked inside. They had long since taken out the bodies but were still working on patching Fireball's leg. He closed his eyes as they worked, trying to erase the vision of death from his mind. Joining the NEC he knew it was possible, but never once did he believe he'd have to see it firsthand.

  At least not like that.

  Death in space was supposed to be a quick affair where your body lost a fight against the elements. Regular stuff like the vacuum sucking the air out of your lungs or being ripped apart in an explosion. Not being shot with a gun. That was a death reserved for the ground crews fighting to take over a planet or ship, not for people surrounded by those who were supposed to share the same cause.

  After a few minutes, a medic entered the room with a wheelchair and after a struggle, and some cursing from the pilot, they were wheeling him out of the flight deck. Richards waited a few moments, still trying to clear his head before entering the room.

  The panel to the device sat awkwardly along the side, its sharp edge sticking in the air like a deadly spike. Other than a small portion covered by the panel, the innards were exposed. Wires were tangled in every conceivable direction and in every imaginable color. Figuring out what wire did what would be arduous at best. Still, the device looked vaguely familiar, though as if it had been put together as an elementary school science project.

  Richards grabbed a scanner from his toolbox and ran it across the device. If the device had been hooked up to a power source, the scan would've been pointless as most the wires would've been hot. But by using it now, he was hoping to find any areas where it might be holding power. He started by running the scanners along the side in hopes its designer had done things the easy way, but after three separate passes, it became clear they hadn't.

  Slowly, he ran the device further and further inside. He stopped when the device let out a faint beep, then moved it back and forth until he heard it again.

  "Find something?" Petty Officer Lola Gray asked as she stepped into the workshop and placed her toolkit on the floor next to his. Gray was one of the first engineers assigned to the Endeavor, brought on the ship the same time as Richards. But unlike him, her expertise was with electronics and wiring, which made her a perfect partner for the job.

  "Just scanning the device for thermal signatures. Hoping I can find a power source in this damned thing."

  She smiled and leaned in as she watched Richards wave the scanner around searching for the signal again. "Have you tried a thermal scan? If the thing is powered by electricity, it has to be emitting heat somewhere."

  "Yeah, in the wires," Richards scoffed as he continued waving the scanner around. "Not going to see a heat source through plastic and insulation."

  "To the naked eye, you wouldn't, but the scanner can look past all that and look at the wiring itself. If it emits a pulse, the scanner will find it."

  Richards waved the scanner around the device for another minute before giving in. "Fine. Try your scan." He sighed as he turned off his scanner and placed it back in his box.

  "Don't want to sound bossy, but can you put your toolbox outside? The last thing we need is for the electrical impulses in your scanner to give us a false positive."

  He stood there, biting his tongue to keep from giving Gray a piece of his mind. Not only did she come in here and practically call his method worthless, but she had also insisted hers were better. And now to make matters worse, she was telling him what to do. The only thing that was keeping him from speaking his mind was knowing he was doing this to save the captain. For that, he was willing to swallow his pride.

  Grabbing his box, he placed it outside the door before closing it behind him. He waited as she set up her device on a table overlooking the anomaly. Unlike his scanner, this was far too large to hold in her hand. Fully assembled, the device took up most of the table, leaving just enough room for her datapad. She punched in a set of commands on her datapad before placing it outside the door and turning off the light.

  The device beeped as it worked, growing louder the longer it scanned. The darkness seemed to amplify the noise as well as every single motion in the room. Two minutes into the scan the device howled.

  "What the hell is that?" Richards asked, plugging his ears with his fingers.

  "It found your power source," she shouted before turning on the light. She turned off the scanner, ending the incessant beeping before picking up her pad. "The device you are looking for is in the lower left quadrant, below three sets of interlocking wires. She leaned into the anomaly to point out the spot the best she could.

  Richards grabbed a driver and used it to pry the tan
gle of wires out of the way. He found the device under the final layer, a cylindrical object attached to the anomaly by a much larger tangle of wires. He ran his hand along the larger wires, following it the best he could as it weaved between the smaller ones. He found the end just below the corner of the top panel terminating in a square plug.

  "Holy shit this thing is ancient," he said holding the end up in the air. "They stopped putting those outlets in decades ago."

  "At least." Gray laughed. "We should call Vaughn and see what he thinks it's for."

  "No need. I already have a good idea," he lied. "I just need to find a place to wire it into the ship to know for sure."

  "Are you sure that's wise? You don't know if they designed those things with one ship in mind or not. That plug suggests it wasn't meant for us."

  "It's just wiring. It's all universal." He immediately regretted the words as he remembered the odd colored wires inside the anomaly. He smiled and pulled a pair of wire strippers from Gray's box. "I'm just going to pull this end apart. If the wires inside are black, red, and white, I'll wire it to the ship. If it's not, I'll call Vaughn." Gray's mouth opened as if she were struggling for words. But to her credit, she nodded before handing him a knife to cut the first layer of insulation.

  Richards ran the blade around the wire, careful not to keep from cutting into the wires underneath. He made a similar cut a few inches up before cutting a straight line between them. He pulled the flap of rubber from the wiring and smiled when he noticed the color scheme underneath.

  "Can you pull off that panel for me?" he said as he stripped the wires.

  She sighed before doing as he asked. She had the panel off a few seconds before he had the wiring exposed and ready to splice. He untangled the long wire, adding a good five feet to its length allowing the end to reach the panel with room to spare.

  One color at a time, he removed the screw holding the wires in the panel before wrapping the new wire around it and fastening it down. White went on without a hitch. Black was more of the same. He loosened the screw to the red wire in the panel, then brought the wire in close. Nearly a foot before it was attached, the wire arced, nearly blinding the pair of them with the flash before plummeting the room, and the ship, into darkness.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Medaca Sector

  Bridge, NECS Endeavor

  "Status?" Bremerton after as the lights went out, taking all the active computer systems with it. He knew nobody would have an answer for him, especially seeing how most of the bridge crew was busy moving the bodies of the dead into the hall.

  "Looks like ship-wide power loss, mainly impacting lights, computers, and from the looks weapon systems."

  "Communications?"

  "They seem to be online, though I would believe everyone on the ship is trying to do the same thing you are about to."

  Bremerton couldn't help but grin, but the man was right. He knew everyone on the ship was wondering the same thing. What the hell happened and how long until it was fixed?

  "Bridge to Vaughn, priority access alpha niner six zero."

  "Priority code accepted," the computer chirped before connecting the call.

  The next voice he heard was Commander Vaughn's, though it wasn't directed towards him. He heard curses and yells in the background as Vaughn and his foremen directed orders to the engineers. After a moment Vaughn responded.

  "Commander, we've detected a massive power spike from the flight deck. I'll be heading down there soon to figure out what the hell is going on, but we are working to reroute power away from that area for now. We should have power restored to the ship shortly."

  Power was back before Vaughn finished. Most of the bridge crew were hard at work rebooting their consoles to bring the ship back online. "Already back on up here. Good job Commander. Let me know what you find down there."

  "Will do. Vaughn, out."

  Bremerton didn't have a chance to say a word before his console beeped from an incoming call of his own. It was coming from Richards, who was down on the flight deck the last he had heard.

  "Richards, what the hell is going on down there. Vaughn tells me there was a massive power spike your way."

  "Yeah, about that," he said sheepishly.

  "What did you do?" he said in a condescending tone.

  "I got the anomaly apart like you said. Inside we found a massive tangle of wires covering some sort of device designed to hold power. Massive amounts of power from what I can tell, much more than it should."

  "Get on with it, Lieutenant." Bremerton was growing impatient.

  "Long story short, I found another wire coming from the power source. It had an ancient plug attached, so I figured I could hook it up to the ship to see what it could do."

  "So you're telling me your dumbass decision nearly crippled the ship?" Crippled was too harsh, but he had to make a point. If this had happened during combat, the result could've been devastating. As it was, the delay was allowing the scavenger to gain valuable ground on its trip to New Earth. As it was, they were now having to wait for the systems to reboot before jumping to the Lebrea sector.

  "Something like that."

  "Vaughn is heading your way now. I want you to have that damned thing unwired from the ship before he gets there. Am I clear?"

  "As day, sir."

  "Good," he replied. "Next time before you do something that could risk the ship, at least get my opinion on the matter."

  "Will do, sir. It won't happen again."

  "I don't believe it will. Bremerton, out." He cut the transmission and glanced over at Ensign Price. "Is your terminal back online?"

  "It is sir. I've already sent our confirmation codes to the gate. Just waiting for your command to execute the jump."

  Bremerton stood up, his legs aching from the movement as he addressed the crew. "Before we make the jump, is everyone's station back online and ready to go?" He waited as each member of the crew confirmed they were ready. "Very well, Ensign. Initiate jump."

  "Initiating."

  The familiar wave of nausea washed over him as the ship made the jump. The viewscreen shifted from a view of Medaca Seven to the vibrant blues of Lebrea Two. His eyes barely had time to adjust when an explosion rocked the ship.

  "Sir, we're under attack. Three scavenger class vessels."

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Unknown Space

  Cargo Bay, Scavenger

  Wellard watched as the marines struggled to pull Johnson and Reeks away from the device. Every time anyone got within a couple meters from the damned thing they became violently ill. For a while it looked like the two men would be left to suffer until Black pushed through the crowd.

  The man worked like a machine, pushing through the sickness to get to Johnson, who was resting in a pile of his own vomit against the wall. Black bent over, placed his shoulder into Johnson's chest and lifted him up in a fireman's carry. It took him some effort to get the man into the air, but when he did, he turned and rushed the man to his comrades.

  Walker helped Black put Johnson down. They placed him against the wall close to the door while Black returned to save Reeks.

  Johnson was out of it. Whatever the device was, it had done a number to him. Through the pain Wellard bent over and placed the back of his palm on Johnson's head. He held it there for a moment, noticing the slight warmth and pulled it away.

  "Sergeant, do any of your men have a way to detect radiation on hand?"

  "Always," Walker replied as he pulled the scanner out from a pouch on his belt. "Never know what kind of shit we're going to find ourselves in."

  Wellard nodded. "Scan the room. Focus around the device on the floor."

  "You think that's what's happening over there?"

  "It would explain a few things," Wellard noted.

  Black was rushed back across the room, his pace slowed by whatever was happening on the other side. With help, he placed Reeks' body on the ground next to Johnson. Side by side it was clear whatever Johnson had, R
eeks had to. Even more apparent was the moderate symptoms Black was showing. The marine was in the corner of the room bent over at the waist dry heaving against the wall.

  Walker strode across the room, pointing his scanner towards the device in the corner. He made it halfway across the chamber when it picked up traces of radiation that grew larger with every step. He stopped just shy of the last set of people in the room, jaw agape at what he was seeing.

  "Radiation signature is through the roof and rising. Whatever that thing is doing, it certainly doesn't like being touched."

  "Doubt that had anything to do with it. Reeks and Johnson just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'd be willing to bet the device does this every time it builds a certain amount of power. Perhaps these people were restrained in here as a way to determine when levels of radiation were getting too high."

  "How could you possibly know that?"

  "Call it a hunch. Why else would they lock these people up down here without a single guard? It almost looks like these people are being used in place of a sensor." The more Wellard thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. "I'll prove it to you."

  Wellard limped across the room towards the closest person to the device. An odd, heavy feeling washed over him and got thicker with every step. By the time he reached the man, he felt dizzy and nauseous. Not only that, his body was screaming for him to sit down and rest, as if the short stroll had taken every ounce of energy he had.

  Struggling through the sickness, he leaned in and pulled the man's wool skullcap off his head. With the cap no longer able to hold it in place, the man's once thick hair fell to the ground. Wellard rubbed his hand along the man's head, ripping even more of it free.

  "Well shit," Walker said, stepping away.

  The door to the room opened, and nearly a dozen Klyptons stormed inside before any of the marines could act.

  Damn, that sickness is affecting their perception. Not that it mattered. Being surrounded by so many of the aliens in such close quarters was a sign of the end. They could try to fight back, but the cost of such a battle would be high. Not worth it to his eyes.