Star Brigade: The Supremacy (SB3) (65 page)

“What?” the exhausted telekinetic wheezed out, annoyed by the judgement. “I couldn’t lift even a cotton ball right now.” Khal kept his eyes on Ghuj’aega, who continued healing far too fast for his liking.

“Can your nanocyte restraints contain Ghuj’aega’s powers?” Tyris asked Khrome.

“Do I really need to answer that question?” snapped Khrome with a look of mock insult.

“Yes,” replied Tyris evenly, clearly in no mood for jokes.

Khrome sighed. “The nanocytes can hold Ghuj’aega’s powers in check.” He walked forward, fishing around in his utility belt to pull out a cylindrical injector. Injecting into Ghuj’aega’s chest, not taking care to be gentle, the Thulican squeezed the injector to release the nanocyte payload into the Ghebrekh’s body. Ghuj’aega gasped and shuddered violently. His healing slowed, leaving the Ghebrekh alive yet still crippled.

Flying overhead, the interceptors’ weapons banks burned brighter. “Final warning, Star Brigade. Relinquish Ghuj’aega into our custody.”

Khal, without a word of complaint, fashioned a tight telekinetic shield around Star Brigade and the beings they had just rescued. Khrome floated into the fray, positioning himself between the Ttaunz and his team. Tyris nodded at Marguliese. “Get into those ships again.”

“That will not be necessary.” Marguliese turned her attention skyward.

V’Korram’s ears pricked up, a sneer tugging at his muzzle. “She’s right.”

“Why?” Khal’s eyes darted about, his limited human senses leaving him clueless.

Another set of shadows cast a patchwork blanket over Akkabe Plateau. Khrome gazed up, his smile stretching from ear to ear.
The Phaeton
, Star Brigade’s military cruiser, arrived with its own weapons banks alight. Flanking the Brigade ship were four medium-sized UComm battle cruisers, all running their weapons hot. The quintet of ships held position directly above Star Brigade.

“Ttaunz Defense Force,” boomed a sonoramped female voice from one UComm vessel. “Power down your weapons and evacuate from this vicinity.”

“Or what?” the lead interceptor fired back petulantly.

“You
don’t
want the answer to that question,” V’Korram growled through bared fangs. The Kintarian’s leonine frame twitched, longing to pounce at something.

“This is OUR planet! You get our brethren killed—”

“Actually, their incapacity to obey orders got their counterparts killed,” Marguliese pointed out.

“Your Viceroy disobeyed an order to stay out of this skirmish,” a mellow female voice addressed the Ttaunz—Star Brigade pilot Solrao Xiahl on the
Phaeton.
“Ya really want to escalate his stupidity and oppose the Union Command Armada?”

“We’re not leaving without Taorr the Lesser,” he retorted, pleased to have some leverage.

Taorr could not have appeared any more disgusted by this. “I’m returning with Star Brigade, so no thank you.” He draped an arm around Mhir’ujiid’s shoulders and pulled her close.

Another long silence followed. Now the Ttaunz had nothing to counter with.

“HAW!” howled Khrome, pointing at the ships. “Know your role and run along.”

As the two Ttaunz air interceptors wheeled around and zipped off toward the east, Marguliese turned to Khrome with an arched eyebrow. “Was your display
necessary
?”

“Course it was.” The Thulican beamed.

With that, Marguliese allowed a hint of a grin to tug at her lips, almost like a tease.

Once the Ttaunz had vanished, Tyris looked up at the
Phaeton
with a twinkle in his eyes. “Solrao!” he addressed her over the Brigade’s private comm channel. “My hero!”

“Hey, Arcturus,” she replied. “After the UComm and TDF received Star Brigade’s message from Qiidr Old-Chaeda, I saw these interceptors heading out. Something told me it wasn’t to catch some rays.”

Finally, Fiyan perked up. “Thanks for the backup.”

The pilot’s voice sobered. “Khrome-daddy, not sure who you pissed off, but you are in some galaxy-sized trouble with UComm’s higher-ups!”

Khrome cringed. “Long story,” he replied to his teammates’ puzzled stares.

“Always is,” chuckled their pilot. “Where are Reign, Crescendo and Specialist Vaas?”

The reminder hit Khal like a physical blow, chilling everyone’s relief.

“Another long story,” Tyris uttered darkly. “I’ll download you on the trip back to Magnasterium. You got the info about Corporal Uyull?”

Fiyan blinked and turned away. The wound was still fresh. “A ship picked up his body outside Quud territory.”

“Perfect,” said Tyris, “transmat down a prisoner-containment tube.”

“Can do,” Solrao cooed. A bluish-white shimmer later and a copper containment tube sized for an above-average-sized humanoid materialized before Tyris.

“For Ghuj’aega,” he explained. “We’re taking him back to Magnasterium…alive.” He typed in a few codes and the tube’s slim door slid open mutely.

Khal wasn’t liking this change in orders. A glance around CT-1 revealed he was not alone. But Tyris was ranking officer, so Khrome readily gathered up Ghuj’aega’s crushed body and dumped it in the containment tube. Marguliese had no interest in obedience. “That is not our directive, Arcturus.”

“I’m aware, but things change.” Tyris kept watch as Khrome secured the Ghebrekh into the containment tube. A few clicks and Ghuj’aega was completely restrained in forcefield bands. The Thulican slid the tube door closed to seal in its contents. As the containment tube beeped shrilly to confirm a subject inside, Marguliese marched right up to Tyris’s face. “Why?” she demanded, her glare just as piercing as her tone.

Tyris remained steadfast. “In Captain Nwosu’s absence,
I’m
in charge.” His high, cold voice carried a new authority Khal had never heard before. “Meaning you will do as ordered.”

Marguliese’s eyes narrowed into azure slits. For a long, tense moment, she said nothing. Khrome moved forward, fists clenched, in case
this
didn’t end well.

“Understood,” she nodded in succinct acknowledgment, taking a few steps back. “You still did not answer my inquiry. Why keep Ghuj’aega alive?”

“We need to figure out how to kill him.” Tyris pointed to Ghuj’aega, but his eyes stayed on Marguliese. “And I’d rather not stay out in this heat to do it.” The Tanoeen gestured at the nearly melted spikes on his head. “In the meantime,” he gestured at Khrome, “if Khrome’s alive, then Reign, Crescendo, and Vaas may also be.”

“Khrome’s survival could have been a lucky break,” Fiyan said. Her craniowhisks trembled in hostility. “The others might not be as fortunate.”

Tyris placed his hands on his hips and shook his head. “We have to explore if Ghuj’aega knows where to find Reign, Crescendo, and Vaas.”

“You mean
where and when
,” Khrome corrected him.

All eyes turned to him. “When that lightning struck me,” the Thulican’s flat, noseless features looked mystified as he spoke, “I ended up in Coiroque…a few orvs in the past.”

Marguliese frowned starchily. “Time travel?”

“Like those starliner passengers...” V’Korram growled through a curtain of sodden ginger hair.

“Bullshit!” Khal objected. He’d seen crazy things on this mission, but Khrome was venturing into fiction territory.

“
By the Maker
,” gasped Fiyan. “A lot of those passengers are still missing. And some reappeared on different worlds…
days
into the past.”

Tyris shook his head. “Time/space hijinks!” he muttered under his breath. “We better start, then. Fiyan, go back with UComm and debrief them. The Brigade will drop Mhir’ujiid back off in Quud territory, then head to Magnasterium with Taorr and Zojje.” The Tanoeen jabbed a dispassionate finger at Ghuj’aega’s containment tube. “After UComm MediCorps work on Ghuj’aega, we interrogate him.”

“Even if Ghuj’aega reveals anything,” Marguliese added, “we must find a way to destroy him.”

Khrome banged his fists together. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

“Alright,” Tyris nodded tersely. “Let’s find our teammates.”

Zojje, Taorr, and Mhir’ujiid were the first to shimmer away, transmatted onto the
Phaeton
. The containment tube holding Ghuj’aega followed suit. Fiyan disappeared in a blink of light onto one of the UComm vessels. The four UComm cruisers then broke formation and soared northeast. Khal, Tyris, Marguliese, V’Korram, and Khrome remained—the leftovers of Star Brigade’s 1
st
Combat Team.

“Solrao,” Tyris ordered, “get us out of here.”

After his first mission, Khal had anticipated the sweet taste of victory. Now, staring at the thick white fog and the silhouettes of ruined geysers, all he tasted were regret, loss, and fear.

The earthborn felt a familiar tingle of
Phaeton’s
transmaterialization. As Akkabe Plateau’s ruined landscape shimmered into white, Khal only hoped that Captain Nwosu and Lily were alive, and somewhere safe
.

Liliana Cortes floated in endless dark, grasping blindly for the light of consciousness. The first thing she noticed was a nonstop, annoying whistle. Then there was this numbing cold seeping through her insulated field uniform and into her very bones. Lily’s eyes fluttered open, finding that light and blinking away tiny, white flakes. She was greeted by dreary monochrome skies, certainly not the dazzling white of Qos eclipsing Faroor’s sun. How could Akkabe Plateau suddenly get so cold?

Akkabe Plateau.
In a flash, the mission, her team, and everything else thundered back into memory.

Lily sat up and heaps of powdery snow tumbled down her slender frame. Before she could digest this change, her rushed movements met icy shock. Lily trembled in surprise and hugged herself. Mercifully, her field uniform responded to the temperature changes, heating her body quickly.

She rose to a standing position and rubbed both arms feverishly to get warmer. At least the cold had dampened her splitting headache to a dull ache. Liliana’s heavy sighs condensed into cold clouds while she assessed her location. A snow-white wasteland stretched out as far as Lily could see, bordered only by the uneven teeth of silhouetted mountains in the distance. Mild drafts buffeted her face and scattered snowflakes in every direction but down. That explained the whistling.

Liliana was afraid. But letting fear paralyze her wouldn’t fix this dilemma. The doctor skimmed over the facts.
Did that singularity toss me on one of Faroor’s polar caps? North? South?
She had researched the starliner incident where passengers had appeared on different parts of Faroor.

Lily tapped her wristcom. “Crescendo to CT-1.” Static. She tried another channel. Static, again. Maybe that singularity had pulled CT-1 in, too. Recalling the vortex’s power sent a shudder through her…

“Hello! Captain Nwosu!!” Her words echoed across empty white plains. “Marguliese!” She almost called Khrome. Then she remembered, and her heart broke all over again.

Then Lily got a response from a gale-force wind, plunging the temperature further.

“GGAAH-AH!!” she cried, buffeted from every angle. Her knees buckled, ruthless flurries slashing her face even through her low-level uniform forcefield. She lowered her head and hugged herself as tightly as possible, fighting to stay upright. But as thousands of freezing needles stabbed at her uniform, Lily might as well have been naked. The shivering grew convulsive as the winds kept pummeling her.

Right when she swayed, nearly falling over in defeat, the winds calmed.

“D-Dulce M-M-Madre,” she hissed through chattering teeth. Her field uniform flooded her body with effusive heat. Once feeling returned to her legs, Lily climbed slowly back to her feet.

No use staying in one place, since movement helped the field uniform keep her warm. Liliana started trudging through the snow, which sometimes reached past her ankles. She focused on the uneven, far-flung silhouettes ahead. If she could find higher ground, then Lily might get a better signal for her wristcom. Star Brigade could be at different parts of Faroor, or still at Akkabe, fighting Ghuj’aega without her.

Two small shadows running—no,
gliding
across the snow toward Lily made her wheel around. She pointed both hands like a gun in case. When the figures glided into view, the doctor blinked with surprise and let her hands drop. Two beings also nearly tripped over themselves, stopped, and stared.

Tanoeens.
Liliana had never seen any member of this species besides her teammate, Tyris Iecen.

Both looked carved out of ice with a faint blue shade, one standing a head taller than the other. Their bodies were lanky and lean, studded with several spiky icicles distinct to each Tanoeen. The pair gaped at Lily with wide cobalt-blue eyes, the only feature visible on their blocky faces. Looking at each other, they skated away across the snow at top speed. In moments, they vanished behind a curtain of white flurries.

Lilian stared after them, confounded. Tanoeens, with their unique crystalline ice biology, could only exist naturally on their homeworld Titanoa. That was why Tyris had to wear a special device to keep his temperature artificially cold… And Titanoa was nowhere near Union Space.

Liliana stepped back to steady herself. This was impossible. Despite all that Liliana had experienced during her brief Star Brigade tenure, she could not wrap her head around her current location.

Maybe verbalizing it would help the insane notion sink in.

“I’m on Titanoa, in Kedri Imperium Space?!” Her voice echoed across the snowy plains for a few moments, before the whistling drafts swallowed it once more.

Now Liliana felt sick with terror. Voicing her situation aloud made it worse. Getting transported halfway across the galaxy? Her brain nearly imploded on principle. The winds were picking up again.

Lily hugged herself tighter as she tried to figure out what the hell to do next…