Ilox Saga 1: Eris Monroe: More Than Human (10 page)

“Are you
certain it’s the same type of room?” Eris wondered. She was becoming slightly fatigued. The adrenaline coursing through her body had made her hyper alert, but the hours spent investigating the base was taking a toll. If
she
was tired, then her team needed to rest.

“Everyone take ten. We’re going to
relax while Sergeant Moak’s MEK does all the work for us.” That elicited a few chuckles from her squad. With directions from the science team in the Majestic orbiting above, Moak sent the flying MEK careening over objects with all of its sensors working at full capacity. After fifteen minutes, the MEK was investigating an area with regularly spaced indentations on the floor. There were some observations and arguments from the scientists over what the holes meant. Finally, the science director spoke to Eris.

“
Commander Monroe, we need your team to climb down to that level and investigate the hexagonal room. The MEK is too limited for our purposes; we need hands in there to open up some of those boxes.” He paused for a beat and then continued, “Also, I am formally requesting permission for the shuttle to land with my science team so we can get to work. Your soldiers have cleared the base and there is nothing hostile or dangerous.”

“Permission denied. This area has not been cleared yet…there’s at least two kilometers of structure buried below us that haven’t been explored at all!”
Eris was in no mood for arguing and was about to speak when Captain Shaw’s face came over the link.

“
Uh, I’m afraid that our primary mission as a TEC vessel takes precedence Commander, I’m overriding your objections and allowing the science team to land. I feel this is for the best.” His voice was smug and he was smiling. “You and your combat team have done what was expected of you. You’ve found an intact Valdren base, opened it up, explored it, and found artifacts there. The science team needs to take over so those objects can be properly inspected, analyzed and catalogued for shipment to the Majestic.”

“Captain, I can’t guarantee the safety of
the science team if they come down here! We haven’t learned yet what caused the explosions at the elevator shafts. Whoever…or whatever caused that…could have compromised the facility in any number of ways!” Eris was angry and she let him have it full force.

“Ms. Monroe, I’ve made my decision. Cheer
up; you should be happy that all of your men are alive and unharmed. You should be congratulated on your success…” Captain Shaw turned to Director Langdon, “Proceed to the shuttle and land.”

Eris was
furious and abruptly shut off the link to the Majestic.
Shaw is a fool and he’s going to get people killed.

“Moak, keep on th
at drone and continue looking. I want to know who blasted those doors open. I don’t think it was the Valdren that destroyed them; I think it was more recent.”

“Affirmative,
Commander…I’ll keep scanning. For the record, I think Captain Shaw is a goddamn idiot and so is that science director, he’s risking his people. If something bad happens to those lab hotshots, they’re going to blame us…”

Eris could only nod her
head in agreement.

“The rest of you, break time is over, let’s get back to work. This base isn’t clear until we check every part of it.” Eris headed back out to the main corridor.

Two hours later, there were one hundred and twenty TEC science division personnel swarming all over the ancient Valdren facility. Eris Monroe had relocated to a temporary command center under direct orders. The communications link was spotty coming out of the base and Captain Shaw wanted a debriefing from her with a clear comm channel. Eris had set up her temporary command center in one of the five large ground vehicles that had been dropped by shuttle. Her combat team continued to search though the scientists seemed to resent them even being there.
There were mentions of ‘contamination’ and ‘no-nothing brutes’ whispered around her team.

Eris swore this would be the last time she ever agreed to a joint military-civilian task force. Splitting the command structure
had been a complete nightmare. She wasn’t the type to complain about it to her superiors and she certainly wasn’t going to go ranting to her own people. She was a good soldier and followed orders; even if she thought they were blindingly stupid.

Kyle Arneson was
piloting a shuttle run bringing in more scanning equipment from the Majestic to the researchers inside the Valdren base when he experienced first-hand the effects of the nuclear explosion. The shuttle he was flying was state-of-the-art and heavily shielded against such blasts so the electromagnetic pulse only fried a few non-critical systems. The nuclear explosion happened when he was five clicks off the ground. The shields were able to protect the landing craft from the brunt of the electromagnetic radiation. Before landing he saw that the ground vehicles had been blown over like a giant had picked them up and scattered them about.

Kyle found Eris barely breathing, unconscious and in bad shape.
The fact that Eris had not taken off her armored combat suit inside the
Phalanx
ground vehicle saved her life. The extra protection shielded her somewhat from the blast and heat, but the radiation she absorbed was a killer dose. No one else near the Valdren base had survived the nuclear fire. Kyle carried Eris back to the drop-ship as fast as he could and flew into orbit.

She had arrived in a
Skythunder -
a rented two-seat vehicle which hovered fifteen centimeters off the ground surface eleven meters away. It had been five hours since T’sell had arrived at the gaudily decorated starport located on the southern hemisphere of Ru-Bai. Using her prodigious mental powers had allowed her to track the thief to this run-down industrial area. She was well away from the bustling center of the city as two small yellow suns dipped low on the horizon and a third huge bright red sun stayed high overhead.

Th
e area she had tracked the thief to was industrial, frayed and dilapidated. There was no foot traffic on the streets and no vehicles passing by along the cracked roadway. Worn down buildings with faded exteriors shaded her from the ever-present light of three suns.
Something about the magnetic storms that plague this planet caused unusual and fast acting decay in structures
. The human that was slumped in front of her reeked of desperation and his mind smelled of fear. T’sell loathed that she had been forced to rip the location of her prey from his sub-conscious, but it had been too well hidden for her to use less subtle methods.

Lakos had been the name she had recovered from his cortex and an apartment location in the city
. It was not honorable but it was necessary.
I must find the shipment before it is sent to the Holdfast.
The mental compulsion she had used against the human agent would wear off in seconds and he would begin to stir. She drew her
Darisu
from its sheathe and held it with both hands by the hilt, point straight up. Zari were an ancient race and held solemn traditions in the martial arts. Her stance was ceremonial and indicated she would kill. The
Darisu
blade edge was lined with carbon nanotubes; so sharp it could slice through durasteel...

T’sell offered a silent prayer as she cut
off the head from the man in one swift stroke of her blade.
I am sorry I must do this. May the Eternal guide your path in the green-lands.
The agent had been working for a criminal enterprise, the
Vortex
mercenary group that dealt in all manner of illegal activities. She had been sent to the Saiph system by her employer, the CEO of Dynamic Space Development, to recover certain Valdren artifacts before they were shipped off to the Magellus system and locked up tight in the hands of the Alliance. Her investigation had landed her on the world of Ru-Bai, a lawless planet that catered to criminals, mercenaries and those seeking respite from the strictures and codes of Republic space.

Under the triple suns of the Saiph system, shadows were few, which meant there were few places to hide while out in the open air. T’sell T’
savri had lived to be ninety years old by taking bold action when it was called for and evading her enemies if she needed to lay low. Now was a time of bold action. Zari could live to be two hundred and fifty human years, so she was in the prime of her life. Her instincts had served her well over the decades. The dead human agent should offer few clues to any that attempted to retrieve information about her mission here. Most likely no one would care or notice on this world of lawless scum.

She
slipped into the driver’s seat of her ground vehicle, engaged manual control over the computer and sped off from the cluster of dilapidated buildings. Her target was located in a tower complex off the main thoroughfare. After four minutes the small ground vehicle topped a hill and T’sell saw the gleaming blue and silver towers of Ru-Bai’s largest city ten kilometers distant. She accelerated to the maximum speed the vehicle was capable of achieving, ignoring the warnings from the car’s computer that she was driving at an unsafe velocity.
She prayed she would arrive before her target had an opportunity to flee once again, leaving a cold trail for her to follow to another star system.

Arriving
near the city center a few minutes later, T’sell was forced to decrease the velocity of the vehicle as she avoided an increased stream of traffic at the center of the city. She parked the vehicle and hurried to the building.

Apartment 7915 on the seventy-ninth floor of the Harra Building
contained her target
. Reaching the right floor was not straight-forward because of the gated and keyed elevator system. The people that lived here had paid for extra security and only those that lived here could gain access through biometric keys. Seated at the front desk behind an encasement of clear plasteel was a human security guard. He looked at her unsmiling.

“Can I help you?” he asked.
The human was dressed in ordinary garb for his kind. Since T’sell had modified her surface facial and body features using
Nanite
modules she looked human herself, and would not be recognized in any database found on planets throughout the Verge.  The security guard saw a long haired blonde human woman with big boobs wearing a black mini-skirt and thigh-high black leather boots.

Reading the thoughts of a human was not
a challenge but compelling obedience was tricky. Humans were mentally undisciplined and scattered in their thoughts. T’sell likened the experience to swimming in a low tech sewer system – random thoughts clogged their brains. Weak willed humans were easily manipulated yet those rare individuals that possessed strong psyches were almost impossible to control. Fortunately for her objectives, most humans she met belonged in the former category. She confirmed her target’s name was attached to apartment 7915...and that he employed four armed guards.

She reached into his mind and took control
of his cerebellum.
Open the elevator door and then forget I was even here. Erase the last five minutes from your surveillance systems.
The guard mechanically obeyed and the nearby elevator opened. She told the elevator to take her to the seventy-ninth floor. She checked her laser pistol one final time, examining it and noting that the power pack was fully charged. She was an expert shot with sniper rifles, but in the close quarters of an apartment a gauss sniper rifle would be too unwieldy and slow to use. Her psionic power to control minds, pistol marksmanship, martial arts skills and surprise would have to do for now. She arrived in front of the apartment door and rang the buzzer.
Her mental abilities reached out in front of her and she confirmed there were five humanoid males within
. The viewplate beside the door showed a face with a scruffy beard.

“What do you want
bitch? We don’t need whatever you’re sellin’!” snarled the mercenary.

All T’sell needed was to see him in order to
reach
out with her mental compulsion.
Unlock the door and move to the side
. Her power could only compel subjects to perform simple tasks to the exclusion of all other functions. Anything more complicated would allow the domination to be rejected. She entered the room with two swift strides carrying a modified laser pistol in her left hand and
Darisu
in her right.

“Good boy,” she whispered, “Now go to sleep…” She
pushed
him to do so. The man walked unsteadily over to a nearby black leather couch, lay on it and was unconscious in seconds. As he did so, another two mercenaries wearing gauss pistols on their belts emerged from the kitchen.

“
Xem, who the hell was at the door?” Both were human and wore plasteel combat armor but were not wearing their helmets. Startled at the scene before them both hesitated for a fraction of a second, which was all the time she needed to act. T’sell reached out to the one on the right…
shoot the man beside you in the head with your pistol.

As both mercenaries brought their weapons to bear, T’sell
dodged behind the leather couch, taking cover. Two things happened almost simultaneously, the sharp tearing sound of gauss flechette projectiles ripping into the couch and one mercenary’s head exploding. She could sense the human was struggling under her domination and would soon break it.
She ordered him one more time
–
kill yourself
. As the man brought his gauss pistol just under his chin and pulled the trigger, an Orvod clad in plasteel and also not wearing a helmet burst into the room carrying a heavy plasma rifle.

In the close quarters of the apartment, T’sell was faster than the Orvod at swinging her pistol than he was at aiming his
much more massive plasma rifle. She got off her shot first, hitting him in his neck. As he collapsed he fired his rifle wildly…spraying the apartment in all directions with lethal fire. Several high energy shots blasted massive holes in the clear transparent plasteel that was the living room’s window. The mercenary then fell twitching in a large heap on the floor. She knew Orvod’s regenerated their cells and recovered quickly from injuries. Moving to stand over him, she hefted her
Darisu
with both hands and performed a final stroke, severing the head from the torso.
Try to regenerate from that
. Killing these men had been necessary as they would have killed her. She had been lucky there had not been more of them. She still had her target to interrogate and he was hiding somewhere in the apartment. She
reached out
and detected a mind inside the master bedroom’s lavatory. However, without actually seeing the target, she could only detect a rough location; she couldn’t read his mind or control his mind. He was expecting her. Approaching the closed door, she made sure to stay to the side near the walls.

“
Lakos, why don’t you come out? I promise I won’t hurt you. I only want the artifacts. You can be free to leave after you give them to me.” She rapped on the door with her
Darisu
held at arm’s length. Holes erupted through the bathroom door from a continuous stream of laser blasts.
Let’s try something a little different
. She didn’t have much time left. Working the last fifty years for Zari Protectorate Special Forces, T’sell had learned a variety of methods for killing, incapacitating, and interrogating enemies. Of course, she needed to know where he had hidden the Valdren artifacts; and for that, she required him alive and relatively unharmed. Taking a small electronic probe from her belt-kit, T’sell attached it to the wall. Within seconds, her neural implants interfaced with the probe to see a short human crouched at the back of the room. He carried a pulse laser carbine with a fifty round charged capacity. All she needed was the ability to see an organic sentient for her psionic abilities to come into play, as long as the target was within ten meters distance from her.

Put your weapon down now
. Her mental domination seized control of the human’s mind long enough to force him to obey and he dropped the rifle. As he did so he kept muttering to himself.

“Wha…what’d you
do
to me, ya goddamn freak!” the man spat the words. Whenever she tampered with the mind of a living sentient the target had a rudimentary awareness of what was happening. That is why her compulsions could never last more than thirty seconds and usually only six seconds or less. She leaped against the door, kicking the already weakened portal apart with her armored heel. Splinters and large chunks of the artificial fiber door burst into the closet.

“Get down on the floor! Put your hands behind your back!” She barked orders at him and the cowed human obeyed.
Producing handcuffs from her belt-kit she bound his hands and arms behind his back. She kept him covered with her Armand AV-21 laser pistol pointed straight at his head.

“Sit up,” she ordered, keeping her pistol trained on him.

He sat up and glared at her, a sullen look of defeat in his eyes.

“
Give me the artifacts and I’ll let you live. Are they here in your apartment?” Her posture indicated she was ready to kill him in an instant.

“Nah, if I do that, you’ll just shoot me anyway,
and then take ‘em and run away.”

She immediately shot him in the
meaty part of the right arm where it joined at the shoulder, deliberately missing his bone. The shot went clean through and the smell of burned flesh filled the air. He yelled and started cursing at her while holding his shoulder with his left hand. She knew he would be in agony once the adrenaline and shock wore off in a few minutes. He continued to scream obscenities at her.

“Fuck! Goddamn it! Why’d you do that?”

“To get your attention.”
She had another reason as well
. “Tell me now, or the next shot will be between your eyes. Fear widened the man’s eyes as he fully understood the implications. She would do it.

“If I tell you, Vortex will hunt me down like a dog! Ya gotta offer me something else…”
Snot was running from his nose and his eyes were leaking water.

His will is fairly strong for a human and i
t would take too much time to delve into his mind and extract the information - I must find another way.

She motioned for the human to stand. “Get
up; go into your living room.” The man stood unsteadily. Shock from the wound she had given him was beginning to start. Purple blood stained his shoes as he walked by the decapitated Orvod. The giant alien’s blood was pooling all over the hardwood floor. Lakos paused and looked at his dead bodyguards, his eyes tracking all of them one after another. His mind began to radiate doubt.