Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (9 page)

             
"I think he's on the other side of the camp with Bessa, Sarah and Mathias." Reece replied while he was wiping blood from his eye.

             
"We need to get there quickly. They'll definitely be after Bessa." Ariel began to run towards where the others were while Reece and Suzy followed her.

             
When the men started firing, the first thing Bessa noticed is that no one moved to help them. The second thing she noticed was that Sarah was not wearing her battle suit." She pulled out her blaster and fired alongside Mathias and noticed the men weren't going down. "They're wearing battle suits," she called out. Sarah stood to run, and one of the men took aim. Bessa tackled her, taking a hard shot in the back and then helped her behind the clothing cart. "Where's your battle suit?" She yelled over the commotion.

             
"I forgot it; I didn't think we would need it." Sarah replied. "Thank you for saving my life." She tried to manage a smile, but Bessa could see how frightened she was.

             
"You are family," she smiled as she took her jacket off and gave it to Sarah. As they stood again, the assassins were already upon them. Bessa spun into a kick that took the first man off his feet, while Mathias took out a gralium knife and plunged it right into the second man's chest. Confusion filled the man's eyes as Mathias withdrew the knife and the man slumped to the ground. Dmitri tackled the third man while Bessa squared off against another. Two more shots rang out as one hit Sarah right in the chest and another took Bessa off her feet. Sarah barely had time to register that Bessa was hurt because she had given her the battle suit jacket before the man Bessa had been fighting was upon her. She cried out as a savage right took her off her feet, but before the next shot could be landed, Reece was trading blows with the man. Ariel arrived to see two men kicking Bessa on the ground and taunting her with anti-alien slogans. She took the first one with a knife to his throat and Bessa put the second on the ground with a desperation kick to his knee. Suzy could see she was in rough shape as Ariel finished off the other man.

             
Mathias had just taken out his third foe, when another man jumped on Dmitri. He was a big kid, but he was still only seventeen and probably not trained well enough yet to take on two adult assassins. He jumped on one of the men while Reece knocked the other man off. Dmitri was up quickly, but he looked scared. Their attackers had been defeated for now and Suzy was on the ground helping Bessa. She had taken a good beating after being shot. Everyone sported the signs that they had just been in a fight. Even Suzy had a couple bruises, but they stood around Bessa for her protection.

             
"Everyone, stay together. As soon as Bessa can move, we have to find Manny, Zoe and Jason's group." Ariel was tired, but she had her eyes open for any more problems. Off in the distance she heard the police sirens and she only hoped that help wouldn't arrive too late. She opened up a channel to the
Vanguard
to have them send reinforcements. "I want a full battle group down here as soon as possible," Ariel yelled into her communicator. "There are at least twenty-five assassins, maybe more and we have wounded. I don't care what it takes or what ship they come from, get them here now." She put her communicator away and the frustration on her face was evident. "We need to get out of here, but we can't move Bessa, so we're stuck."

             
"Go without me; get Collin's sister to safety, please." Bessa painfully wheezed.

             
"No," Sarah yelled as she knelt on the ground next to Bessa. "We all go together, we're family." She took her sister-in-law's hand and smiled to reassure her that she would be fine even as Suzy continued to work on her shoulder.

             
Jason finally caught up to his sister in time to see four more men attacking Tara. Raina kicked one of them in the face, but it only seemed to make him angry. He hit her hard and she went down. Before he could press his advantage, Jason was on him, and he showed him no mercy. "You want to hit someone? Hit me!" He yelled as he rocked the assassin with shot after shot. He finished by stomping on the man's neck as he saw Tara go down. He didn't even have time to check on Raina as he jumped on one of the men attacking Tara. The distraction allowed Tara to regain her advantage. She spun one man around with a hard left to his eye. Waiting for him was a knee to the face by Raina while Sun swept his legs.

             
Tara was finishing off the last man when he loosened a grenade. Raina covered Sun and tried to run, but they weren't going to make it. Tara dove on the explosive and hoped the battle suit would hold. The grenade was far more powerful than she had anticipated as it tore through her suit and through her. Some of the shrapnel buried itself into Raina's shoulder as she protected Sun. Some of the shrapnel also hit Jason's leg as it tore through the man he had been fighting. He ignored the pain as he quickly limped over to Tara. He could immediately see she hadn't survived. She had given her life for her daughter and his sister. Upon seeing her mother, Sun began to sob uncontrollably as she cried out, "Mom, no," over and over again. Raina just held her tight, crying with her even as she felt the blood running down her back. Jason limped over to them and vigilantly stood ready for anything else the assassins might have in store for them.

             
Manny heard the explosion as he and Zoe continued to run from the four men after them. It had been six, but Manny had quickly dispatched two. One of the things he loved most about Zoe was how gentle she was. That was not, however, a trait that would help her today. She tripped and went down, and as Manny helped her up, he knew he would be fighting the other four men. The first man came at him with a very sharp knife made of gralium. A sharp gralium knife applied with enough pressure could go through a battle suit. Manny disarmed the first man, rolled and picked up his knife and plunged it into the chest of the second man. He kicked the first man in the face as he withdrew the knife and planted it firmly in the abdomen of the third assassin. He used the forth man's own momentum to send him flying as he squared off against the first man. He had just about finished the first assassin off when he heard Zoe scream. The fourth man had plunged a knife into her chest. He charged the man in anger, rolled through his swing, coming up behind him where he snapped the man's neck and then ran to his injured wife. He sat there with her head in his lap yelling, "Somebody help me, Suzy, somebody..."

             
By this time, crowds had gathered. Seventeen security personnel were dead, six civilians were dead and another eight injured, but the shuttle that had just landed was only interested in getting the SSE personnel and families back safely to the
Vanguard
. They could hear the planetary emergency vehicles arriving as they loaded all thirteen of their people up and took off. Zoe was the first in the recovery pod, followed by Jason, Ariel, Raina and Reece. Bessa couldn't go in because only the recovery pod on
Endeavor
had been calibrated to heal a Qualoosh. Manny had Sun in his lap, still sobbing uncontrollably and put his fear for his wife aside to console his eleven-year-old friend.

             
"I'm so sorry, Sunshine, I'm so sorry I couldn't get to you guys. It's all gonna be okay, your mom really loved you." Over and over he tried to comfort the girl, but she cried for hours until she finally fell asleep.

             
Nina was in shock when she found out and Jesse didn't take it well when she called him. Kimi's mom was dead, and several of their friends were injured in a concentrated attack on them at one of the refugee camps. "We can't even be seen helping people, Serge. Do we have to send an armored escort to hand out food and clothes now?"

             
"I do not know. I just can't bear to tell Kimi." He replied.

             
"Jesse will, but he's angrier than I've ever heard him, Serge. I'm not sure what this is gonna do to him. I feel like every Coalition betrayal is pushing him closer and closer to the edge, Serge. When he reaches his breaking point, I don't want to be around to see what happens."

             
"Me, either." Serge whispered sadly. "Come, we need to see how Dmitri is doing. I heard he took a bit of a pounding."

             
"I'm sorry about that, too. If I hadn't encouraged him to go..."

             
"Nonsense, this is all on Rhodes." Nina could see the fire in her husband's eyes and silently wondered if he was close to his breaking point as well.

______

              "How are you feeling, Bessa?" Suzy asked as she looked at her readings, thankful they were safely out of the line of fire.

             
"Better, now that I see you, Suzy."

             
"Did you think it would be someone else? No one in this galaxy would have any idea how to treat a Qualoosh." She smiled again and checked Bessa's temperature. Everything was normal. Bessa looked over and saw Sarah sleeping in a chair. Bessa loved Suzy's bedside manner, she always felt so safe when Suzy was taking care of her.

             
"Is Sarah alright, Suzy?"

             
"Sarah is fine; she won't leave your side until her brother gets back. She says you saved her life, and then gave her your battle jacket. That was very brave of you."

             
"I could not bear to think of how sad Collin would be if anything happened to his sister. It was an easy decision, Suzy."

             
"Maybe for you, Bessa, but it might not have been so easy for some." Suzy smiled as she continued to check Bessa's condition.

             
"She's right," Collin's father called out as he came into the room. Bessa stiffened slightly at the sight of Collin's parents, but Suzy was sure they hadn't noticed. "Bessa, I haven't been fair to you, and I want to apologize. When Collin first brought you home, it was a huge shock to us and I couldn't get past it at first. I didn't want to be the only man in the Coalition whose son married an alien, but I was wrong. Our own government has betrayed us while you nearly died saving my little girl." He looked upset as he spoke. "You make my son happier than we have ever seen him and that should have been enough, Bessa. It shouldn't have taken you almost dying for me to realize how great you are. I know this is a little late in coming, and I hope you can still accept it, but if you can't, I understand. Welcome to the family." Sarah had woken up at the sound of her father's voice, and held her hand as he spoke.

             
Bessa looked like a giant weight had just been lifted from her. "Thank you, Mister Torrensede..."

             
"None of that ‘Mister Torrensede’ nonsense, you’re my daughter-in-law, you can call me dad or you can call me Will. Whatever you choose will be fine."

             
"And I'm Gwen, dear." His wife offered as she adjusted Bessa's blankets. Suzy could see the smile getting bigger on Bessa's face as Collin's family began talking with her and getting to know her.

             
"I can give you guys an hour or so, but after that Bessa is gonna need her rest." Suzy announced as she winked at Bessa and left the room.

Chapter three

______

              Josiah exhaled as Kimi reported the strike team had landed at the depot without incident. It didn't appear that there was anyone guarding the cargo ships. He had chosen to only keep Collin, Tanna and Charlie on board
Endeavor
, along with twenty-four soldiers. Kimi, Xanu and Maria were each leading a team of twelve. They each had eight Special Forces soldiers and four pilots, one for each of the twelve cargo ships. Ten of the ships had already been boarded, each by a pilot and three soldiers that would serve as the crew. Kimi, Xanu and Maria would board their shuttle when all twelve ships were ready to take off.

             
As the last two ships were boarded, the lights came on and dozens of soldiers surrounded the area. A loud voice carried by amplification began, "Associates of the Marcos family: you are under arrest for the attempted theft of government property; shut off the engines and come out with your hands up or we will open fire."

             
Kimi spoke softly into her communicator. "Josiah, it would appear we have been discovered. We are surrounded and the ships will most likely be destroyed if we do not comply."

             
"How many men do you still have, Kimi?"

             
"There are six waiting in the shuttle; Xanu and Maria are with me, caught out in the open."

             
"Stall them Kimi, give me time to drop off a couple dozen more men and get
Endeavor
into position. Have the men in the shuttle prepare to open fire on anything that looks big enough to hinder our cargo from making orbit."

             
"I shall do my best," she whispered. She then looked into the bright lights of her would-be apprehenders and yelled, "We have not attempted to steal anything, these ships belong to Sea Side Enterprises and we have used the proper codes to enter them. Their flight plan is already on file, you are illegally attempting to detain us."