Nebula (ESS Space Marines Book 4) Read online

  Anath looked at her somberly. “It’s that bad?”

  She nodded. “It’s that bad.”

  The Arkana blew out a hard breath and then pushed himself off from the wall. “Alright, then I’ll go with you. I’ll need some kind of weapon. That pipe thing I pulled from my cell won’t do well for long.”

  Dan pulled the old-fashioned rifle off his shoulder and handed it to Anath. The Arkana took it with a nod of thanks. Dan brought the Arkana rifle around as his new primary weapon.

  Her half-brother took a step, paused to make sure he was steady on his feet, and then walked to the other wall. He knelt beside Lisa and put his hand on her shoulder. “Thank you,” he said quietly. It was only just loud enough for the others to hear. The tactical crewman nodded weakly and managed a faint smile.

  When Roxanna stood, her skin was swirling and her purple eyes held an unexpected tinge of emotion, and Andy wondered what she was feeling...or what the others were feeling.

  Chapter 15

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Andy asked Anath as they moved out of the brig foyer.

  He cast one more look over his shoulder then sighed and faced forward, walking along with Alpha Squad. “Yeah, I’m alright,” he said. “The head was the worst of it. I can push through everything else.”

  Andy thought he sounded like a Marine, and she was glad to have her brother with them. She didn’t say anything, though, and just kept them moving toward the next access hatch to get onto the ladder. They managed to make it down the rest of the hallway without encountering any more resistance.

  “Roxanna,” she ordered simply. The Selerid moved to the hatch, while Dan pulled out the micro jack to open the door. The sergeant leaned in, checking around before climbing in. Dan followed, then Jade and Anallin. Andy nodded for Anath to go next. He hesitated, like he wanted to argue that she should go first, but a pointed look made him change his mind.

  He followed the others through the hatch, and Andy brought up the rear. She checked down the hallway in each direction before shutting the hatch as much as possible and retrieving the device. She put it in one of her pockets to return to Dan when she had the chance.

  Eight decks to climb down, assuming they didn’t find more trouble that spurred them into a different deck crossing. And with the way that things had been going, she had absolutely no confidence that that wasn’t about to happen. The open question was just in what form it would take.

  Maybe she was just being pessimistic.

  By the time Andy was able to start moving down at a decent pace, Roxanna had almost reached the next deck. The line was even longer with the addition of another body, especially one that was tall like Anath was. That was one gene that Andy had apparently not inherited, not being particularly tall herself. What she lacked in size, she had learned to make up for in speed, flexibility, and guile.

  Andy’s optimism was starting to return as she estimated that Roxanna was passing the hatch for deck eight as Andy passed seven.

  They continued downward amid the flickering of the emergency lights. Andy looked around at the dim glow as it came and went, wondering if those lights were about to go out too. It didn’t bode well for engineering being free to work on the ship if even the emergency systems were struggling this much.

  After a few more rungs, Andy felt herself growing winded. She began to chastise herself for being out of shape, somehow, until she remembered that life support was on minimum.

  Nothing like an eight-deck climb in thin air.

  Andy looked at the access hatch to deck eight, and kept on climbing...

  Until the abrupt sound of energy weapons fire shattered what had otherwise been silence, followed by an inarticulate sound of angry surprise from Dan. Unlike the last time someone had opened fire on them in a tunnel, there was no call of friendlies. This time, there was just more energy weapons fire. Andy cursed inwardly that she was trapped in this single line, attached to a ladder that any of them could be thrown from at any moment.

  Peering down as best she could, she could see her Marines and her brother trying to dodge...while attached to a ladder. This usually equaled then holding onto the rungs with one hand and foot while swinging the others to the side and getting as much of their bodies as possible out of the line of fire of the tube itself. Within moments, Andy was joining them.

  “The next level is blocked,” Anath said, relaying the information that he had been slightly more able to see than she had.

  “Well, damn it then,” Andy returned in a rather unprofessional manner. “Stun grenade and close that hatch.”

  She couldn’t be heard over the noise, and even if she could be, Andy didn’t want the enemy to hear her plan. Anath passed it down and it went that way until it reached Roxanna.

  A few moments later, Roxanna called out, “Fire in the hole!”

  The concussive noise and the light from the explosion was enough for Andy to hear and see even from where she was, but not enough to affect them. The weapons fire stopped and she knew that Roxanna and Dan would be working to close the hatch that separated their current level from the next one down.

  It sealed off any Arkana who avoided the effects of the stun grenade, but also cut them off from the rest of that ladder pathway. The Arkana would be able to follow the corridors, but the stun grenade would have slowed them down.

  Andy tried not to think about how they had managed to get into the access tunnels, because that wouldn’t help her current task or her current chances of survival.

  “Proceed down the corridor to the next exit onto deck nine,” Andy ordered, not as annoyed by the change of plan this time because she had been entirely expecting it. Her optimism had not gotten much of a foothold before they’d been fired upon.

  There had been a saying on Earth about something called “Murphy’s Law,” where anything could go wrong would go wrong. Andy felt like she was having a “Murphy’s Law” kind of day.

  One by one, they moved from the ladder into the tunnel heading along the length of the corridor. They crawled onward until they found the hatch onto deck nine. Roxanna opened the hatched, peered through the opening, then exited. Andy waited as each one of the group moved down and then out into the corridor, joining Roxanna where she had her gun up guarding their exit.

  They started moving down the dark—and quiet—hall. There were no signs of any Arkana up ahead.

  As they moved, they found clusters of people. There had been a battle in this corridor and there were dead Arkana lining the wall. They didn’t look like they had killed themselves but had died in the fight. She saw a couple members of the tactical staff, who must have covered this section since there hadn’t been any Marines active in this location. Andy stifled a sigh at the sight, wishing they could do something for them but knowing there wasn’t time. They had to keep moving.

  There would be time to grieve later.

  Chapter 16

  This time, they managed to reach the next access hatch, get in, and make it down to deck thirteen without meeting further trouble. It was nothing short of a minor miracle, Andy thought, having moved from pessimistic to downright cynical.

  Once they were on deck thirteen, it took the major a few moments to reorient herself. They had moved from one service tunnels to main hallways so many times that she had to remember which direction engineering actually was. Once she had her bearings, she took the lead and brought her squad cautiously but quickly down the corridor and around two turns to reach engineering.

  As they walked, she realized that some of the emergency light fixtures along the floor were not working. Others were flickering. It certainly did little to help decrease the tension, which had continued to grow since they had left the bridge.

  “How much longer can your ship keep functioning like this?” Anath asked in a low voice from directly behind her.

  “I have no idea,” Andy replied, turning her head slightly to speak over her shoulder. “I’m not an engineer. I will say that I’ve never been on the ship whe
n she was in this bad of shape. I have seen her pretty beat up, but those times were after a battle that had ended. We managed to limp back to a base. Now...”

  “Where are we now?” he asked.

  “The C-19 Nebula,” she replied. “It’s hiding us from the Arkana. Three of their ships were after us and may still be waiting just outside. Our sensors were down, and the same interference that works against them works against us.”

  “I presume a distress call was sent.”

  “Yes, and hopefully reached...someone.” Andy sighed.

  They came to a corner and slowed, moving around it carefully. Seeing no hostiles ahead, they kept moving. The hall curved ahead and they followed it. Andy knew that they would be coming upon engineering soon. They crept around the corner...

  ...and saw several people, all sitting on the ground.

  Andy’s brows knit. Some of the people looked up as the Marines approached. One man in an ESS uniform pushed himself to his feet, along with a Marine. Andy immediately recognized Krall, leader of Delta Squad. A moment later she recoginized Lieutenant Norrell, the chief engineer. One side of Krall’s face was covered in drying blood.

  “Situation report,” Andy said, coming to a stop before the two of them. She gestured to the other four Marines to cover each direction of the corridor. Anath came to stand beside her, but his attention was on the Arkana soldiers also sitting on the floor.

  “We were stationed here when the attack came. We defended our position, which resulted in the group you see here,” Krall reported, although it didn’t look like his eyes were focusing very well.

  “Why are you out here in the hall?” Andy asked, although she spoke a little slower, concerned for the sergeant.

  It was Norrell that answered. “Ma’am,” he greeted, sounding hoarse. “One of the hits the ship took just before we got into the nebula caused the tanks to the ercium converter to blow. It leaked ercium gas and flooded the bay. We had to evacuate or die. Some of us still were burned or inhaled it and that’s why we’re resting while we are figuring out how to evacuate the bay of the gas so we can go back in and do our jobs.”

  “That’s...” Andy sighed. “That’s just great. Have you had any ideas about how to do that yet?”

  Norrell sighed and hung his head. “No good ideas.”

  Before either of them said anything else, Anath spoke. His words weren’t directed at them, however.

  “Why are you still alive?”

  When Andy looked back, she saw that he was looking at one of the Arkana prisoners. It was then that it dawned on her as well how odd the sight was. Since the beginning of the war, Anath was the only Arkana that hadn’t committed suicide after they were captured. With his help, the ESS scientists had an idea of the mechanism but still couldn’t figure out how to stop it. He had explained that preventing it was not a high priority for the Arkana.

  The soldiers were expendable. Little more than the currency of war. Once the war had actually started, the leaders of the Arkana decided that keeping them from giving out information was more important than keeping them alive.

  There were always more soldiers.

  This attitude was deeply ingrained in every soldier. They were eager to die for their cause...except Anath. He was different, and that was why he was there with his half-sister.

  From the floor, the Arkana woman glared daggers up at him. Her icy white lips, streaked with blood from where someone had broken her nose, were pursed and that made it pretty clear that she had no intention of telling them anything at all. That wasn’t in the least surprising, but Andy wouldn’t have minded at least one thing going easily.

  “Where did you say we were again?” Anath asked, turning back to her. He had clearly come to the same conclusion.

  “C-19 Nebula,” she replied, wondering why he had asked.

  His blue eyes seemed to lose focus as he looked off into nothing. Andy knew they had things to figure out, but she had to wonder what he was thinking.

  After a few moments more, he spoke. “I will need to talk to your scientists...” He paused and smiled ruefully. “...assuming we survive this. But the gaseous mixture in this nebula that obscures our sensors could have something to do with them being alive. It could interfere with the suicide device.”

  “Traitor!” the Arkana soldier shrieked, picking that moment to speak. She tried to get to her feet, but it wasn’t easy with her hands tied behind her and little room to maneuver. Anath dropped to his knee before her as she snapped like a rabid dog, trying to bite his face. “You are traitorous filth! How dare you work against your people! Against your own father! He will have you pulled limb from limb when he gets a hold of you.”

  “I guess I better just not let Father find me then,” Anath said, then knocked his head against hers. She swayed and then fell back against the wall.

  He got to his feet again and looked at Andy, who was staring at him.

  “What?” he said, blinking. “I have a hard head.”

  “I should say. You probably just re-injured it,” she pointed out. Adrenaline would only get him so far, after all.

  Anath shrugged. “We can worry about all that later. There are other things to worry about right now.”

  “How do we get into engineering?” Andy asked rhetorically.

  Chapter 17

  Andy told Krall to sit back down. He looked like he was going to pass out.

  “Tell me again what happened,” Anath said, turning away from the other Arkana on the floor. The woman was still out cold.

  “The ercium tanks were damaged during that last attack,” Norrell said. “It vented gas into the entire bay. It’s filled up the space, like smoke. We can’t get under it, and we can’t get through it without being burned inside and out. We don’t have our protective gear.”

  He was quiet for a moment, looking between Andy and Norrell. “No offense, but shouldn’t you have some sort of failsafe for that kind of thing? I mean, if you have this substance on board, shouldn’t you be prepared if it breaks?”

  Andy looked at the chief engineer, wondering if this was going to turn into a fight during a survival situation, but Norrell didn’t look offended. He was a pragmatic man.

  “We do,” he said, “but they’re damaged too.”

  The major snorted. “Of course they are.”

  Anything that could go wrong...

  “Can it be vented from inside the bay, then? Are those systems working?” Anath asked.

  “Yes,” Norrell said. “They are tied into the ship’s emergency power and will still be functioning. But we can’t go in there. We would probably be incapacitated before we finished.”

  Anath nodded slowly and took a deep breath. He dropped his head and looked at the floor as he spoke again. “Ercium gas is a lot like the emissions of a race called the Aloah. You haven’t met them yet.” He glanced up without lifting his head. “I looked for them in your databases and they aren’t there. The ESS has missed a lot species, considering how long you’ve been out here, but that’s neither here nor there.” He waved a hand before either of them could have an issue with that. “The important thing is the similarity.”

  “Why is that important?” Andy asked.

  “It’s important because the Arkana met the Aloah two generations ago,” Anath explained. There was a tension in his voice and around his eyes that Andy didn’t understand, but felt an instinctive discomfort with. Something that made her nervous. “You should recall what happens when the Arkana meets a new special with biological abilities.”

  “You create a resistance to it,” she said.

  “Yes. Which means that I have a resistance to it,” he said with a sigh. “Our resistance isn’t perfect, but it is considerable. You have it too, but less so than me since you are also half-human. So if it’s going to be one of us...”

  Andy blinked as his meaning dawned on her. “What do you mean, one of us?”

  He met her gaze with a dry look that said he knew that she knew exactly what he mea
nt, but he explained anyway. “Someone has to go in there and vent the gas so the engineers can get back into engineering and start repairing the ship. None of you can go in there. If anyone can, it’s someone with a genetic resistance that’s at least close to what’s in there. You’re less qualified than I am. I am going to go in there and get the bay cleared.”

  “You said yourself that it’s only like it,” Andy pointed out in a low, tight voice. “It could just as easily kill you as anyone else.”

  “It might, but it will kill anyone else,” he retorted. “Do you have a better plan?”

  She didn’t, and they both knew that.

  Anath took her silence for agreement and he turned to Norrell. “Tell me how to vent the gas.”

  Norrell looked at him and then at Andy. “We can trust him?”

  “Yes,” Andy said flatly.

  Taking her word for it, Norrell turned to Anath. The engineer took a deep breath and then began explaining the exact sequence of actions Anath would have to take in order to get the gas vented to a place where they could safely enter and get back to work. The Arkana looked like he was listening intently, nodding and asking questions at points. Most of it was beyond Andy, since this was not an area she spent a lot of time on.

  They went through it a second time before her brother said he understood.

  “Wish me luck, my sister,” Anath said with a faint smile.

  “Good luck,” she said quietly.

  He slowly walked down the corridor. The safest way to enter without letting the gas vent directly onto the group of survivors outside the main doors was to go through an access hatch, and so armed with a micro jack, he left them and hurried to the hatch. She watched until she saw him vanish around the corner.

  “Do you think he can do it?” Norrell asked, leaning back against the wall and look exhausted as he hung his head.