Escape (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 3) Read online

  “Yes, sir. Copy that. Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  Jack patted Sam on the shoulder. “Let’s move.”

  He lifted his arm to take a look at the wrist-mounted holostage to find the next step, the main power coupling to the command deck.

  The main coupling for the twin reactors was only a few meters ahead, but the small console was dark, the power relay systems deactivated. Jack could see how simply it could be reconnected.

  “Cover me, Sam,” Jack said. He ran to the console and accessed the main power distribution node.

  The power supply to the command deck remained dark.

  Jack contacted the captain.

  “I’ve activated the main power node but nothing’s happening.”

  “You’ve connected two cores.” The captain sounded afraid. “It’ll take a bit of time to activate the system. The more reactors you reconnect the faster it’ll happen.”

  Jack heard a sudden burst of pulse pistol fire over the communication channel, and then the fiery purring of an automatic sentry gun.

  “Captain, report,” Jack said.

  “The Devex. They’ve cracked opened the command deck doors. Emergency locks holding.”

  “I’m on my way to you now. We should have power by the time I get to you. Hold them, Captain, hold them off.”

  Jack turned away from the small console and headed back along the platform between the two reactor cores. He crouched at the far end and looked for the nearest transit channel access. He lifted his wrist to check his holomap.

  In the moment he lifted his arm, he spotted movement in the shadows up ahead. Sam was already raising his pulse pistol. Jack dropped to one knee and took aim.

  The shimmering wave that came creeping forward was mesmerizing. Jack had seen them before and knew what it was. The Devex warrior behind it was distorted by the shimmering wave. In their hand was the small concussion device.

  “This way,” Jack said and turned to run in the opposite direction, away from the concussion wave moving toward him.

  They ran a few steps along the reactor cores, only to see a second concussion wave and the shimmering form of the Devex who had fired it.

  Jack looked up. The reactor cores curved out to the forward bulkhead, closing together a few meters above. There was no vertical escape. Sam was already accessing drive room schematics. A conduit that ran under the heading between every core was perfect for them to escape by.

  “Here,” Jack said, pointing at the access hatch to the conduit. He ran toward the slow-moving concussion wave, stopping a few meters short and just above the conduit access. He grabbed the hatch and pulled. It didn’t move.

  Sam grabbed with his Mech arm. The hatch came away along with a section of the deck plate.

  And the moment Jack prepared to jump into the conduit the concussion wave struck.

  The violent shaking filled his gut with a deep nausea. His head throbbed close to bursting out of his eyes and nose. And then with a final surge of violent pain, Jack fell.

  9

  Jack woke up feeling like he’d been beaten on the head with the butt of a pulse rifle. He felt the cold, hard floor against his skin, and echoing sounds of crying and angry shouting were all around. He opened his eyes and peered into the dark, but a wave of dizziness stopped him from getting to his feet.

  The cold, dry air on his skin made him realize one thing: He was no longer wearing his tactical suit. He clambered up onto all fours.

  The darkness was suddenly lit by a distant light that blinked on for a few moments. Jack looked, bleary-eyed to the light just as it blinked off. The fearful cries died as the light faded away to be replaced by the low background whimpering punctuated by sudden shouts.

  He climbed to his feet, arms out to keep his balance. The darkness was lit again by a light from behind. Jack turned and looked to the light. His eyes, accustomed to the darkness, were now blinded by the sudden bright light that struck down from the ceiling high above. And as he blinked at the light, he saw dark shapes in the beam. Then the light went out and he was in darkness again.

  Taking a faltering step forward, Jack’s foot struck something soft and heavy. He looked down as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark that was actually extremely low light. On the ground at his feet was a body. A fat, partially-clothed body.

  A light blinked on to Jack’s right—a harsh white light that lit up the ground. Jack could see other bodies lying on the floor. He knelt down next to the fat body in front of him. A man in his early twenties, but overfed. Jack checked for a pulse.

  The man was alive but asleep. He tried to rouse him with a shake. Nothing.

  The far light blinked off again. Again, Jack heard the wailing and crying die away. He stood up and looked around. There seemed to be no boundary to the dark space, only the floor, the hard and cold floor littered with bodies of sleeping naked or partially-clothed men and women.

  A light blinked on far in the distance. Jack shielded his eyes but looked at it, trying to judge the distance. It seemed to be a hundred meters away, at least the full length of a sports field.

  Jack peered into the bright shaft of light. The dark shapes were small but looked like bodies falling upward, tumbling chaotically with arms and legs flailing and hands reaching and grasping.

  Then the light went out again.

  He looked above him. The ceiling was lost in the darkness. Jack saw a light come on just behind him. He turned and saw people standing, others sitting, many lying, all sobbing and staring upward into the light.

  Then the wailing peaked as six people within the shaft of light lifted off the floor and drifted upward. They tumbled as they thrashed about, reaching and screaming.

  Then the light was gone, and so were the people who’d been within it. A low level of sobbing remained.

  Jack checked himself. He had no equipment on him, no weapon, and no boots, and the cold ground stung his bare feet. He wore only his pants and an undershirt.

  He walked toward the area where the light had just come on. He walked into the darkness, careful not to trip over or kick any of the prone, sleeping bodies on the cold deck.

  After another moment, a light blinked on far ahead. Jack had been walking straight forward for a minute, but the beam of light that appeared was still many meters away. He walked toward the light and the dark shapes of people falling upward in the shaft of cold white light. He began to get a sense of the space he was in. As the light blinked off, he continued to walk, determined to find the edge. He knew there had to be an edge. And at that edge would be a way out.

  Jack saw a light blink on far behind him. He turned and looked. The shaft of light was harsh and white, but smaller, and the bodies mere specks. From the size of the bodies being lifted in the beam, Jack judged it to be around five hundred meters away. The light blinked off and Jack carried on his walk to find the edge.

  A woman standing in front of Jack was staring upward. She had been crying, tear tracks glistening on her cheeks. She was shivering. Although the floor was cold, the air was not. She was not shivering from the cold. Jack guessed she was in shock. He touched her shoulder softly.

  The woman fell away shrieking in fear and distress. Jack went over to her as she scurried away, clambering over sleeping bodies.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay,” Jack said as he followed the woman, but she stared at him in fear, tearing her eyes away from him to glance upward.

  Then the light burst upon her and others sitting and standing in the area. A half-dozen bodies were drawn into the light, pulled against their will by some unseen force. All those being pulled were grabbing at the fallen, wailing their fear, all pulled up into the beam of light.

  Jack watched as the wailing woman was pulled up. The beam of light was emanating from an opening high above. The bodies tumbled upward into the bright white space inside the circular opening. Then, with all bodies drawn inside, the light went out and all was dark again.

  Blinking and temporarily blinded by t
he bright light, Jack staggered forward, rubbing his eyes as they quickly readjusted to the dimness.

  Another light came on and Jack saw the dark shadows fall across the floor as a light far behind him flashed on. A distant wailing as the bodies were drawn upward. He focused on the dark shadows in front of him, preserving his low-light sight. The distant light blinked off. Jack walked on, stepping over the bodies laid out over every square meter of floor.

  Jack began to count. It seemed as if the lights were blinking on at regular intervals. Always six people were drawn upward, but only the conscious. The sleeping were left, presumably until they woke and then would be available to the light, drawn up to some unknown end.

  He pushed the thought from his mind that he might be taken at any time. He was trapped in this vast, dark storage area. He was trapped, for now.

  A line of people before him were all sitting on the floor, all looking toward him as he picked his way through the bodies. Jack realized they all had their backs to the outer edge.

  He stepped up, hand out. He touched the wall. It was cold and dark like the floor.

  On the ground in front of Jack was an old man. He looked up at Jack.

  “They don’t take us from the edge,” the man said, pointing up.

  Jack looked along the length of the wall. Huddled against it were people stretching out in both directions.

  “How long have you been here?” Jack asked, looking along the wall.

  “Don’t know. Couple of hours, I guess. My wife always said I had a good body clock. Could tell you when an hour had passed, dead on every time. Well, maybe a few minutes out. I’ve been here for so long that I’ve lost track of time. How long have you been here?”

  Jack thought for a moment. He had no idea. “I haven’t been awake very long. Twenty minutes maybe. Don’t know how long I was asleep.”

  “Not very long,” the man said. “They don’t stay asleep for long.”

  “But all these sleeping people,” Jack said.

  The old man pointed upward. “They don’t take the sleeping ones. But they know who’s asleep and who is pretending.”

  A light flashed on nearby on Jack’s left. He shielded his eyes. He couldn’t shield his ears from the anguished and terrified cries of those caught in its grasp.

  “The lights come on every three or four minutes,” Jack said.

  The man on the ground nodded. He pulled his knees closer to him and shivered.

  “Any pattern to the lights?” Jack asked.

  The man shook his head. “They come on all over.” The old man pointed into the dark. “It seems random to me, but I bet it’s not. They know what they’re doing.”

  Jack rubbed his hand along the wall and walked off to his right, moving clockwise around the massive, dark space.

  “I’m going to find a way out,” Jack said and walked off.

  Another man sitting against the wall nearby laughed a single, humorless grunt. “There’s no way out, except…” The man pointed up.

  Just then a light came on nearby and the screaming and wailing grew until the light blinked out and a soft piteous whimpering replaced it.

  “I’m not accepting that,” Jack said. “I’m a Marine, I’m on my feet and I’m fighting. I’m not going to stop until I get out of here, one way or another.”

  “A Marine,” the man laughed. “Another one. Fat lot of good you were when they attacked. Now you’ve been taken too. Not so tough, eh, Marine?”

  Jack ignored the insult, but he couldn’t ignore the news of another Marine.

  “The other Marine?” Jack said. “Where did he go?”

  The man snorted a sarcastic laugh. “No one is going anywhere,” he said.

  He grabbed the man’s collar and pulled him up off the floor, anger welling up inside.

  “Where did the Marine go?” Jack pressed his nose close to the man.

  The man tried to push him away, but Jack had him in a firm grip. The man relaxed and avoided his stare.

  “He went that way,” the man said, pointing into the dark along the outer wall.

  Jack released his grip on the man and let him slip down the wall and back to the deck. He walked off in the direction the man had pointed. Jack knew he stood a better chance of escaping if he had an ally, and if that ally was a Marine, so much the better.

  The wall was a press of people all the way along—many sitting, some standing, all nervously looking upward or glancing to the distant lights that came on every few minutes, lights that showed the bodies floating up and out of the dark space.

  Jack moved swiftly along looking for the Marine. There were only two possible people it could be: Squad Leader Hawke that Jack had last seen unconscious on the deck of the drive room, or his old friend and strongest ally, Commander Sam Torent.

  Moving quickly and skirting the edge of the massive space, Jack saw a person walking along the line of the wall up ahead. He was scanning the wall, up and down, searching for something.

  Jack would recognize that person anywhere, just from the way they moved, deliberate and steady.

  “Sam,” Jack called out.

  Up ahead, the person stopped and turned. Jack instantly saw the frame he knew so well. It was Sam, dressed in Marine pants and a torn shirt.

  Jack ran over to Sam.

  “Jack, you old scroat. I knew I’d find you.” Sam walked toward Jack, pressing the people standing in his way aside.

  Jack walked over. The dark seemed a bit lighter now that he knew he had company and an ally. He knew that finding a way out was just a matter of time now that he had a fellow Marine with him.

  He reached out to shake Sam by the hand and saw the dark gray hand reach out toward him, the arm built from the Mech tissue. Jack hesitated. The rest of the man was his old friend, but this alien limb was not. It had grabbed him around the throat recently and he wasn’t sure how it would react to him now. He looked up at Sam, hesitant.

  Sam saw the reluctance in Jack’s eye and couldn’t hide his disappointment that his old friend didn’t quite trust him enough to shake him by the hand.

  He stepped up next to Sam and patted him heartily on the shoulder. He covered his suspicions of the Mech arm with a smile and a confident greeting.

  “Found you,” Jack said. “Good. Now we can get out of here.”

  And then the light burst around them.

  10

  Jack felt the tug of some invisible force pulling him upward. He reached out to steady himself and inadvertently grabbed Sam by the Mech arm. The arm was warm like flesh, but hard like steel. Jack steadied himself and floated upward. Around him and Sam, another four people floated up, two men and two women. They struggled and tumbled and wailed as they were drawn up.

  The youngest of the men was little more than a boy. Tall and afraid, he twisted and reached out for something to hold. He grabbed the ankle of one of the women. She had short hair and flesh-colored underwear, and she kicked out in fear as the boy caught her leg. She freed herself from the boy’s grip and tumbled away, rolling head over heels, her arms flailing.

  The other man and woman were holding on to each other, hand in hand. They were wrinkled and gray, but still fit and alert. They smiled at each other as they floated upward. The look was one of young love that had lived for many years. They were both crying and smiling, eyes fixed on each other.

  Jack looked up, the opening in the dark ceiling awash with bright white light. It was impossible to see any structures, any shape, just the fierce white light. He floated up and was surrounded in light as impenetrable as the dark below. Jack looked toward Sam, but his old friend looked nervous and waved his left arm about in circles to hold his balance, falling upward head first as if standing.

  Then the six passed through the circle of white and were above a dark circle looking down at the holding area they had just come from. The sounds of wailing from below were cut off suddenly as the circle closed and all was white.

  Jack’s head hit the ceiling hard, and then he collapsed
to the ground. He took a moment to orientate himself. The white space seemed to be as big as the dark space below, but Jack soon found he could touch a wall. It was white and practically invisible in the harsh light all around.

  In a moment, Jack saw an apparatus imbedded in the wall opposite. A squared frame with rounded corners. Fine needle-like points came out of the side of the frame and pointed in toward the center, marking out a roughly humanoid shape of a head, torso, arms, and legs.

  No sooner had Jack seen the apparatus than the short-haired woman was pulled toward it. She shrieked as she was lifted from the floor. Her arms were stretched out to her sides, her legs slightly apart and below her. She drifted toward the apparatus.

  Once in position within the frame, the needles began to move and suddenly her right arm was clad in a piece of dull gray metal. A gauntlet was thrust over her hand. The needles twitched and danced around the arm as the first part of the Devex exoskeleton was put in place.

  The left arm was clad a moment later, then her legs, followed by a chest plate. The needles moved quickly and once all other parts were attached, a helmet came down over the head of the shrieking woman.

  As soon as the helmet was in place, the shrieking stopped, and the woman dropped to the ground, released from the frame. A Devex rapid-fire blaster slid out from the side of the apparatus and she gripped the weapon. The needles pulled aside. A rounded, oval hatch opened in front of the woman and she marched out into the dark beyond.

  The hatch closed, and in that instant the boy was lifted into a standing position. His arms pulled out from his body, his legs slightly apart. He floated directly toward the apparatus with its twitching needles. Once within the outline formed by the needles, the Devex armor was again applied. Arms, legs, torso, and finally, the helmet lowered into place.

  It all happened so fast Jack could barely keep up, but he knew his time would come very soon, unless he could find a way out.

  With the helmet in place, the boy dropped to the floor, gripped his Devex blaster, and marched through the open oval.