Broken Horizon Read online

  “No!” Oshiro yelled as he tackled Koizumi to the floor.

  The sidearm went off. The bullet ricocheted off the steel corridors with a metallic twang.

  Oshiro’s face was dripping with blood as he repeatedly punched Koizumi. Oshiro quickly stood and retrieved the key from his pocket. He released Riko from her handcuffs. “Get out of here! Security will be here any second!”

  The shocked Riko nodded and ran up to Teresa and her crew. They escaped down the corridor.

  Koizumi felt the side of his face. “You! You are ruining everything!”

  “I’m sorry, I tried to fight it,” Oshiro said.

  “You are a defect! I should kill you right now!” Koizumi yelled as he stood back up.

  Oshiro shook his head. “No, no, it will be okay. It’s all under control.”

  Security rushed to the two men. “Sirs?!”

  “We have intruders on board. Two women and a man are with Maeda. Kill them all. They want to destroy our FTL capability,” Oshiro said.

  Koizumi slowly nodded. “Yes... That’s right. Kill them all.”

  “We have to abort!” Denys yelled. “The engine room will be crawling with guards now!”

  “Listen, old man, I make the calls,” Teresa said.

  The mercenary group and Riko continued hustling down the corridor. They turned a corner and a group of security were at the other end and began firing upon them. The mercenaries ducked back behind the corner to dodge the incoming weapon fire.

  “As I was saying...” Denys said.

  Teresa groaned, “Yeah, yeah.”

  “It’s too late,” Riko insisted. “We have to get off this ship!”

  Teresa sighed. “Dammit, I wanted to stop this! We have to protect the President!”

  “This way!” Riko yelled. “We’re heading to a maintenance shaft to the hangar bay! Do you guys know how to pilot Kitsune fighters? There’s enough room for two people in each–we can get out of here on two of the fighters.”

  Switched nodded. “I know how.”

  “That wasn’t the plan,” Denys said. “We were going to use the escape pods!”

  They continued down the corridors, running past confused crew members that were taking cover from the sound of weapon fire.

  “I’m sure they’ll send troops to guard the escape pods,” Riko said. “Beyond that, they probably have the pods on lockdown.”

  Riko went up to the side of a wall and removed a grate. “We go through here.”

  A shaft went into the darkness.

  The security turned a nearby corner and began firing upon the group. Teresa Day took aim and fired back. “Get down there! Move! I’ll cover you!”

  Riko went first, followed by Switch and Denys. Teresa kept firing as she slowly made her way to the shaft opening. She then jumped into it.

  They slid down the metal down to another level of the ship. They landed in a cramped supply room. A computer panel was on the wall. A small, pulsing light on the ceiling barely illuminated the room.

  Teresa pointed at the panel. “Switch, we’ll need the outer shielding frequencies if we’re gonna get the eff out of here.”

  Switch nodded and connected her personal computer to the small panel on the wall.

  Riko kicked a grate on the wall repeatedly until it broke off.

  “This way.”

  “One second,” Switch said. “Okay, got it. Set frequency and mode to 342.6 A. Let’s hope they don’t change it.”

  “342.6 A! Got it!” Teresa shouted. “Let’s go!”

  They maneuvered themselves down the cramped maintenance shaft that ran along one of the main access corridors to the hangar. They made it to a hatch and opened it up slowly. The hatch opened up into the hangar.

  The group made their way across the hangar. They ducked and weaved between containers and resting spacecraft. Crewmen put their hands up as the group passed by.

  Two Kitsune starfighters with open cockpits were ready to fly. Boarding ladders led up to the cockpits. Riko and the mercenaries hurried over to the fighters.

  A crewman that Riko knew as Badger yelled at her, “Hey! Riko... What’s with the guns?”

  Switch climbed up one of the ladders. “I don’t think it’s big enough for two, Riko.”

  “It will be a little cramped, Switch. Oh, it’s nothing, Badger.” Riko smiled. “Just taking these birds for a spin.”

  “I can’t let you do that. These birds are cleared for something else entirely.”

  “Please, Badger.”

  Security ran down a nearby set of stairs from an upper catwalk.

  Teresa yelled, “We have to go! Denys, fly with Riko! I’m with Switch! Let’s get out of here!” Teresa began firing at the security and made her way up the Kitsune’s step ladder.

  Several security members collapsed as bullets pierced through them.

  Denys took cover behind a crate near the Kitsunes. “We gotta go! Now!”

  Badger ducked behind a container and looked at Riko with concern. “Riko...”

  “Get away, Badger. I’ll be okay.”

  “Don’t get yourself killed, Runt,” Badger said.

  Riko nodded and quickly climbed up the boarding ladder.

  Switch hopped into the Kitsune she had claimed. She placed a helmet on her head that was already resting in the fighter and began tapping on the console.

  Teresa continued firing upon the security forces from the top of the boarding ladder. She then jumped into the Kitsune as well.

  The cockpit began to close.

  “This god damn back seat is too cramped!” Teresa said. “I didn’t even know they had these effing things! I miss my corvette! Dammit!”

  Switch chuckled. “Sheesh. You’ll be okay.”

  Riko hopped into the other Kitsune.

  Denys started climbing up the ladder as a hail of bullets impacted all around.

  “Hurry!” Riko yelled.

  One bullet struck Denys in the back. He fell backward onto the steel floor of the hangar.

  Teresa looked out the cockpit. “No! Not the old man! Dammit! Open her up! We gotta...”

  “We...” Switch shook her head. “We can’t. We have to get out of here.”

  “Dammit!” Teresa yelled.

  Blood began to pool around Denys Tauran. “Go,” he mouthed.

  Riko nodded. She closed the cockpit and placed the helmet on her head. “342.6 A,” she input into the console. The Kitsunes moved to the runway that was running down the hangar and then powered up their main engines. Blue energy started to emanate from the thrusters.

  Weapon fire kept impacting the side of Riko’s Kitsune as it started speeding down the hangar area, its thrusters burning a bright blue. Both Kitsune’s shield systems came online. They exited the hypership safely.

  “Well. Now what?” Teresa asked.

  A corvette with “MADCAT-2” painted on its side streaked by the fighters.

  Riko’s fighter was smoking from the side.

  Switch smiled. “Don’t worry, I called the cavalry.”

  The hypership began launching fighters of its own. Its weapon batteries started to come online.

  Space started warping in front of the moving corvette.

  Riko called out over the fighter link, “I don’t know. My fighter took some hits before I got the shields online. I don’t know if I can make a jump.”

  “You have got to try!” Switch yelled. “We don’t have much time!”

  The corvette and the two fighters jumped into hyperspace.

  Warning sirens blared in Riko’s fighter.

  Riko yelled, “She’s not going to make it!”

  “You’ll be okay!” Switch replied.

  “No, no. One of the bullets hit the shield generator!”

  “Oh god.”

  A wave of gravitational turbulence came across the vessels in hyperspace.

  “I–”

  Riko’s fighter dropped out of hyperspace as Switch’s fighter and the corvette continued through the
heavy turbulence.

  Teresa sighed. “Dammit.”

  “We lost her,” Switch said. “There’s no way that fighter could have survived dropping out of hyperspace.”

  “Dammit,” Teresa said. “We have to get to Artemis. We have to help Jacob Carpenter and his crew stop the assassination. We failed once; we can’t fail again.”

  Riko woke up.

  Did I crash?

  She surveyed her surroundings. A red planet.

  She examined her readings.

  No breathable air in the atmosphere.

  Her fighter had crash landed on some world. The Kitsune was broken. One wing was shattered into pieces.

  Nearby, Riko saw a dome. Smaller buildings were under the dome, as well as what looked like a water tower.

  She looked at her oxygen gauge.

  Oh crap.

  Riko woke up again.

  She was surrounded by grimy men. She was on some sort of table. A small light flickered above her. The stench in the dark room was unbearable.

  “He doesn’t get first dibs just because he found her!” yelled one of the men. “Like he could even do anything anyways, right?!”

  Another one replied, “Yeah! We should take turns!”

  “Who’s first?” another asked.

  “Should we draw straws? Fight for it?”

  Riko had a hard time focusing and could barely understand what the men were saying.

  “I don’t know. She’s pretty,” said one of the men. “An angel fell from the sky.”

  “I hope she’s a devil in the sack, if you know what I mean.”

  One of the men let out a guffaw. “You’ll get your chance.”

  “She’s so tiny. I hope I don’t hurt her.”

  A door creaked open and the men all looked toward it.

  A voice shouted from the doorway. “Get away from her! She’s not a piece of meat!”

  The men moved away from the table.

  Riko slowly sat up.

  A bald man with a scruffy black beard walked up to her.

  “Be careful. You were hurt in the crash,” said the bald man.

  “I crashed?” Riko asked.

  “Yes, we can go over things later. What’s your name?”

  “Riko Maeda.”

  “That sounds Japanese. You Confederate? You part of the Orbital?”

  “The what?”

  The man looked at the other men in the room. “Get out of here! Stop staring!”

  “How come you have first dibs, Zebediah? Just because you found her? Just gonna use yer tongue or yer fing—?”

  Zebediah growled, “Get out of here! No one has dibs!”

  The men funneled out of the door of the small room.

  Riko looked around. The room looked like a gritty, makeshift sickbay.

  “The Orbital Guard,” Zebediah said. “They make sure the prisoners stay here on Mars.”

  “I’m on Mars?” Riko clutched her head. “I guess I dropped out of hyperspace. We were near Sol.”

  “Yes ma’am. Mars... The prison planet. Prisoners across the galaxy are sent to this penal colony to rot. Male-only. The boys haven’t seen a woman in a long time.”

  “I have to get out of here.”

  “Off the rock? That’s not happening. I told you about the patrols of the Orbital Guard.”

  “I’m not supposed to be here.”

  Zebediah smiled. “That’s what they all say. Get some rest, Riko.”

  March 20, 0270 AC - 12:30

  Azrael Research Station

  Urbania, Galactic Union Space

  “He’s arriving soon.”

  Liam Fornax bowed his head. “Yes, I know, sir.”

  “The time is not yet right.”

  “He will find out! There’s nothing we can do about it!”

  “I know times have been rough lately with the passing of your fiancée, but you can’t just surrender. The time is not yet right for the subject to know the truth. We have a weapon to use against the vampires. A true weapon. We must continue testing to make sure the plan will work.”

  “Initial tests are conclusive. The modified strain of the vampire disease does not seem to be spreading easily and does not appear to be harmful in any way. The disease itself could be packaged as a weapon to eliminate the vampires. We lucked out with the circumstances. ”

  “It’s not entirely luck.”

  “Still, we had no idea he would come this far,” Liam Fornax said.

  “I suppose.”

  “You are right; tests must continue. We still don’t know the interaction between the subject and an imp. I don’t suppose you have access to any of those, do you?”

  “No, the station on Cortes has been dismantled. We have no data on other imp production or storage areas. I’m sure there are others. We’ll keep an eye out for one for the tests, but we cannot harm the subject; we have to make sure everything else is perfect before exposing him to an imp. We cannot risk everything at this point.”

  Fornax sighed. “I understand. What would you have me do?”

  “When he arrives you must plant new false memories to keep the integrity of the experiment intact. I’m sure I can depend on you.”

  “Yes sir, we’ll get started on that here. We should have a memory matrix ready for implantation. We’ll capture the subject. Is he alone this time?”

  “Luckily, he did decide to take the trip alone.”

  “Alright, you can count on us, Michael.”

  “Good. It was wise to put my faith into you. Continue the tests. I’m sure the weapon will be ready soon.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Do not disgrace the name or work of my brother.”

  Dome 4, Chryse Planitia

  Mars

  Orion Confederation Space

  “Where did you come from?”

  “I don't have to talk to you.”

  Zebediah smiled and placed a warm, dirty cloth on Riko’s head. “How did you get here? Things will go much better for you if you just talk.”

  Riko sighed. “I escaped. There was an issue and I crashed. That's it.”

  Zebediah nodded. “Yes, you did crash. Do you think you can get that fighter working again?”

  “I doubt it. I just want off this rock.”

  “We all do. If you got that fighter working, it'd be a step in the right direction.”

  Riko sat up. “There are fighter patrols around the planet. If you scum built or found a ship, the patrols would just shoot you down if you tried to escape.”

  Zebediah laughed. “Scum? That's not nice.”

  “You are just a bunch of convicts. I've had a rough few days, forgive me.”

  Zebediah rummaged through some medical tools in a cabinet. “I'm protecting you. Some of the men here– they'd do really bad things to you. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. We need to get that fighter working.”

  “I'll try, I guess.”

  “Good. Well, watch yourself, this place isn't pleasant.”

  “I can tell.”

  “Say, what did you say your name was?”

  “Riko Maeda.”

  “Alright. Well, Riko...”

  “Yes?”

  “Welcome to Mars. Just stick with me. You’ve been unconscious for a few days. You may still be sore. Crash landing a fighter isn’t the best of ideas, you know?”

  “Believe me, none of this was my idea.”

  Zebediah laughed. “I’m sure. What was rough about your past few days?”

  Riko jumped off the table and looked at her clothes. “Don’t worry about it. Wait, this isn’t what I was wearing.” She glanced at Zebediah, “Did you...”

  “I looked, but I did not touch. And sorry, we don’t have many clothes your size.”

  “These are barely clothes, they are more like rags.”

  “Yes. But believe me, I didn’t do anything to you.”

  “Your words do not put me at ease.”

  “Trust me. I wouldn’t. We won’t get anywhere if we do not
have trust.”

  Riko sighed. “I put my trust in people that betrayed me. Forgive me if I’m not the most trusting of individuals right now.”

  “I understand. I’m sorry, I should not have done it. However, you were wounded and I—”

  “No, no. I believe you. It’s okay.”

  “Truth be told, I’m not equipped for...” Zebediah sighed. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m a eunuch.”

  “What? Really?” Riko asked.

  Zebediah nodded. “Not my idea, I assure you. So don’t worry about me. I am castrated. A few other prisoners are castrated as well. Still, you should just pretend all the men here are horny pigs. You’ll fare better that way.”

  “All horny pigs. Except you.”

  “Except me.”

  Riko smirked. “Okay. Well, Zebediah. Let’s say I get that fighter working. Then what?”

  “Then we both finally can leave a place we don’t belong.”

  “How do I know you don’t belong here?”

  Zebediah smiled. “Trust me.”

  2

  December 1, 0270 AC – 08:20 Local Time

  USS Empyrean, Judgment-class Heavy Cruiser

  Edge of Galactic Union Space

  “We need to get up.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “We don’t want to be late.”

  “But I’d rather stay here with you,” Jacob cooed.

  Sharon grinned. “I’ll be there too, you know.”

  “Sure, but you’ll have clothes on then.”

  Sharon snickered. “Yeah, probably.”

  Sharon Rose Turner cuddled up next to Jacob Carpenter. They were both in bed in their quarters onboard the Judgment-class heavy cruiser HSC-7 Empyrean.

  Empyrean. That name won the contest for the christening of the ship. Jacob wanted to call it “Rapture” or “Jerry” in honor of Jerry Turner, Sharon’s dad, who was killed in the Exodus tragedy. Empyrean was nearly christened Freedom, in honor of the fallen warship. However, the final decision from the higher-ups was to call the nearly six hundred meter long cruiser Empyrean.

  Jacob still didn’t know who was behind the destruction of Exodus. He had his ideas; his friend Trevor Reynolds complained about the continued peace talks between the Blood Dynasty and the Galactic Union. Trevor believed that Regent Drake Mabus, the leader of the vampires of the Blood Dynasty, was actually behind the tragedy.