Orion Company
By Mr. J.
CHAPTER XII: Close Calls
Anna glides through the air in her symbiote suit as she struggles to keep up with her older sister. She fumbles as she tries to stay airborne, flailing around like a chick on a test run. She takes comfort in the pistol hugging her hips—well, that and the cloak of invisibility the suit provides. At least she can go down fighting if the Vang start to shoot. But at least the suit is comfortable. The dark fabric contracts and expands as it adjusts to her internal temperature, leaving her feeling as though it’s a balmy sixty degrees when it’s anything but.
Now if only she can learn how to fly.
Dana glances at her sister lagging behind. She hovers in mid-air as she waits for Anna to catch up. She spies a camerabot approaching out of the corner of her eye, it’s red light blinking ominously as it sails towards them. Dana tenses up.
This is not good.
“Hurry up!” She shouts.
“I’m scared.” Anna wavers. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Flap your arms,” Dana demonstrates. “Like a bird.”
Anna stretches her arms in a hawk-like fashion, flapping them in a desperate attempt to achieve lift. She feels self-conscious as her arms move awkward. Her thoughts branch out into tangents as she struggles to concentrate. Miserably.
“Don’t think. Do.”
“I’m falling! Help me!”
Dana swoops in and grabs Anna by the torso, hauling her as they rocket upward—well out of sight of the cameras. They take a breather as they gather their thoughts. Flops of sweat float to the ground as they recover their senses. Anna shuts her eyes.
“That was a close one...”
Anna glances at the fifty feet or so of space separating her from the floor below. Fifty feet separating life from death. Her palms become sweaty as she struggles to hold on. Her heart races.
“Don’t look down.” Dana hugs her tightly. “Look at me.”
“I don’t think I can do this...”
“You’re the only one who knows what it’s like to go toe to toe with the Vang as intimately as I do. Without you I’m nothing. Besides, you’re my baby sister.”
“Thanks for the encouragement,” Anna grumbles. “but what if I...don’t succeed?”
“I won’t let you.” Dana moves a lock of hair out of her sister’s eye. “Now stretch your arms like I told you to—and don’t think. Do.”
Anna extends her arms. She flaps them in the air as her balance wavers. Her awkward movements slowly become more graceful as she hovers. Anna gasps with surprise.
“I’m doing it! I’m actually doing it!”
“You’re getting the hang of it. Good.” Dana smiles. “Now let’s get out there and do this.”
Her chest swells as the arms on Anna’s suit morph into wings. Her hair flows freely as she glides almost seamlessly through the air, looking more avian than human. She scans the horizon searching for any sign of Nikki or Captain Lee among the host of prisoners. A sea of faces confronts her—yellow, black, red, tan. But alas, they are nowhere to be found.
Anna squints her eyes as she examines the row of cells, trying to remember the description of the individual Dana gave her before they left.
“Who are we looking for?”
“Redhead, medium build, tattoo on right forearm. She was apprehended following a skirmish with Vang troops last month,” Dana explains. “we have reason to believe she’s being housed in one of these blocks.”
“Do you think she’ll recognize us?” Anna scrutinizes the honeycomb of cells up ahead.
“Worth a shot.”
The sisters swoop down towards a lone inmate kneeling in her cell, arms outstretched as though grasping for something—or someone. Her gaze is distant. But there’s no mistaking the curly hair and dark green eyes. Dana takes the lead as they approach.
“It’s her, alright...” Dana looks her over. “Rebecca? It’s me, Dana. Can you hear me?”
“Vang...cock...” The older woman chants. “Vang...cock...Vang...cock...Vang...cock...”
“She’s obviously under some form of mind control,” Dana tweaks some knobs on her belt. “Stay back. This could get ugly.”
The laser beams preventing her from going inside dissipate. Anna glances at the woman’s gown. The dark stains bare witness to a delirium of lust that must’ve lasted for days. Liquid trickles down the prisoner’s thigh as Dana cautiously approaches. Vague memories of being in the Vang’s thrall nag Anna in the corner of her mind. The thoughts dissipate just as quickly.
“Rebecca,” Her sister reaches into her utility belt. “I’m Dana and this is my assistant Anna. I need you to be perfectly still, ok?”
The prisoner doesn’t respond.
Dana grasps the syringe carefully as she reaches for Rebecca’s arm. The inmate’s skin feel cold to the touch as Dana probes her for a vein. If she can’t sedate Rebecca and exfiltrate her soon, she’ll be a thrall just the same—Anna too. Her shoulders tense up.
“How are we doing?” She shouts.
“All clear,” Anna plays lookout. “How long will it take?”
“Just one minute...”
Rebecca pushes Dana violently as she tries to insert the syringe. Her head throbs with pain as Dana writhes on the floor. Her eyes become fearful as the syringe rolls away. Oh shit...
Rebecca smiles creepily as she straddles her.
“Vang cock...” She chants. “Vang...cock...Vang...cock...”
Drops of sweet liquid are smeared on Dana’s lips as Rebecca probes her mouth. Dana struggles in vain to wiggle away, but Rebecca’s vise-like thighs pin her down even harder. Anna looks on in horror. She glances around frantically, wondering what to do. Her hands tremble.
“Save...mmmph...yourself...mmmph...” Her sister’s garbled words ring out.
Anna looks on helplessly as Rebecca has her way with her sister. Dana’s tongue swirls around Rebecca’s come-stained hands as she suckles. Yet despite the unwanted attention, she feels strangely calm. She sighs contentedly. Maybe it’s the pheromones the Vang have added to the air to make their subjects more compliant, or maybe it’s something else...
Anna can’t help feeling aroused as Rebecca caresses her sister’s breasts. Feeling left out, Anna does some exploring of her own. She twists her nipples, moaning and sighing all the while. If only Vanessa was here to enjoy this...
What kind of person am I? Anna snaps out of it. I got to do something...
“Vang cock...” Rebecca continues to chant. “Vang cock...Vang cock...Vang...”
She growls as Anna jumps on her back. The two women wrestle as Dana recovers her senses. Anna manages to put Rebecca out of commission with a well-placed right-hook, but not before the prisoner has some fun of her own. Anna barely escapes with only a few gropes to show for it. She barely controls her breath as she grabs hold of her sister, eager to get the hell out of there.
“Where am I?” Dana scratches her head.
“Doesn’t matter,” Anna tells her. “Do you know how to adjust the knob on your utility belt?”
“Yeah, just twist it towards the right. Why do you ask?”
“We have to get out of here fast,” Anna’s eyes dart around nervously. “before the sentinels get here.”
“We can’t leave her behind,” Dana glances at her fiery-haired friend. “After everything we’ve gone through...”
“We’ll come back for her later, sis.”
“But...I never got to say goodbye.”
“Hold on tight.” Anna tweaks the knobs on her sister’s utility belt. “This is going to be a bumpy ride.”
The sisters vanish into whiteness as the sentinels approach, barely escaping with their lives intact.
“Anomaly detected.” The technician’s garbled voice echoes through Vanessa’s headset. “Analyzing wavelength now.”
“Do you have a twenty?”
“We can’t pinpoint its exact location,” The technician cautions. “Our best estimates are that somewhere near the Gamma quadrant. Once we know it’s precise coordinates we should be able to have a lock on it.”
“The Gamma quadrant...” Vanessa raises an eyebrow. “Isn’t that fifty light years away?”
The technician nods.
Vanessa pours over the files on Anna’s tablet. The dot-dot-daaaaaash of pulsating noises sounds like little more than nonsense as she listens attentively. But at least it’s more to go on the the vague eyewitness accounts of disoriented captains and crew members. The pulses differ in rhythm and tempo—but they are unmistakable just the same.
Her ears pick up as a series of tones rings through her headset. The dot-dot-dot-daaaaash pattern repeats ad nauseum. They last only a fraction of a second before the recording stars all over again. Vanessa replays it over and over in her head. It has to mean something—but what?
“Are you there, ma’am?” The technician asks.
Vanessa pays him no heed.
The idea of using sound to track objects seems anachronistic in the futuristic world of the 25th Century. Researchers were still using radio to search for intelligent life over a half-millenia earlier, when warp drives and fusion generators remained the stuff of science fiction. Five hundred years later, the CSF may have faster than light travel and quantum arrays, but locating an enemy vessel is far from easy. Especially against the Vang, whose superfast orbs and ability to hide behind background radiation make them difficult to track—or anticipate. But just as every ship has a distinctive “wake”, the orbs the Vang use to pillage and plunder each have a distinctive signal that could be traced. With the right equipment and personnel, finding the perverbial needle in a haystack is much easier.
And today is Vanessa’s lucky day.
“I think I got something.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“The notes,” Vanessa gestures toward her tablet. “They sound familiar to me, but I can’t place them. I’m sending the files to you right now.”
“It doesn’t sound like any ship I’ve encountered,” The technician studies the files closely. “The pulses are more spaced out, for starters.”
“Do you think it’s some kind of code or beacon?”
“Hard to say. But it’s definitely like any of the recordings we have in our archives.”
The techie’s face is ashen as he listens to the recording.
“By Jove. This is the one that took the Darwin!”
Vanessa raises an eyebrow.
“Did you say the Darwin?”
“Yes ma’am!”
Vanessa stares into space.
“What is it?”
“Nothing,” She waves a hand dismissively. “Do you have a lock?”
“I’m pinging it right now...”
“What’s the coordinates?”
“414.90, -016.20”
“How soon can you dispatch a probe team?”
The technician hesitates.
“We can dispatch a craft immediately, but it’d take us twenty years to catch up with them. I’m sorry ma’am.”
“Told ya!” Caitlin’s bitter voice rings in the background.
“Have your best men on standby.” Vanessa stares into the screen. “I’ll be in contact with your commanding officer shortly.”
“I don’t understand, ma’am...
“Thank you for your assistance.” Vanessa signs off.
The locket glows brightly as she stares at the tablet for several minutes. Her gut tells her she made the right decision, but her mind...
“What was that all about?”
Vanessa glances at Caitlin splayed in the captain’s chair, looking nothing if not bored. Her insouciant face and more than casual attire belie the reverence with which she once treated the comm. She might as well be sitting in Academy, for all that. Vanessa gazes back at the tablet.
“Plotting a rescue.” She answers cryptically.
“You’ve really lost it now,” Caitlin snorts. “you really think the two of us can go up against the Vang by ourselves?”
“Of course not. But we are going to help.”
“We?” Caitlin shoots a look. “How?”
“By acting as bait. We need to distract the Vang while the CSF swarms the vessels—er, orbs. Once we’re safely inside the ship we can help beam the prisoners off while the raid gets underway. We’ll be in and out before the Vang realize anything.”
“Do you realize what you’re talking about? This is suicide!”
“I know how this sounds,” Vanessa is resolute. “but we have no other choice.”
“Are you crazy?!” She charges towards Vanessa.
The two grapple for several minutes. Vanessa winces as Caitlin slams her against a wall. But no sooner does she recover her senses does she realize her most treasured posession is missing. Caitlin dangles the locket from her fingers, grinning mischieviously.
“Looking for this?”
“Give it back...” Vanessa wheezes.
“Not until you call off this manhunt.”
“I said,” Vanessa emphasizes every word. “give it back.”
“You can’t make me.”
Vanessa gasps as a well-placed knee to the stomach sends her falling to her knees. She glances at Vanessa with a mix of surprise and terror. Who knew she had it in her?
“You may not believe it,” Vanessa towers over her. “but I truly believe that Anna and the rest of the crew are on that craft.”
“What makes you believe they’re on that orb?”
“I can feel Anna’s presence through that necklace—guiding me, telling me where to go. I can’t explain it. It just is what it is.”
“Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.” Vanessa helps Caitlin to her feet.
Caitlin blinks.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Even enemies need friends.” Vanessa dusts herself off. “How soon can you hail the Vang?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Tell them we’re independent contractors who are sick of working for CSF and want to defect.”
“You think they’ll buy it?”
“They have to,” Vanessa furrows her brow. “otherwise we’re back to square one.”
“We’ve got something!” The technician’s voice pipes through the intercom in Finch’s office.
Finch listens half-attentively as he lights up his cigar. He inhales deeply as he wonder whether it is a serious lead or yet another false alarm in the weeks-long hunt for Anna and the mystery woman who escaped with her. He stares into the speakers, hoping for some bit of good news—any bit at all.
“What is it?”
“We’ve detected some heat signatures from the vortex a moment ago, sir. Our probes captured them on camera as the two fugitives were fleeing towards it. We’re examining the data right now, but we’re positive it’s them.”
“You sure?”
“Positive, sir.”
Finch grunts.
“What are they doing inside a wormhole? Wouldn’t the pressure eviscerate them?”
“Apparently not, sir. We examined the structure of the vortex. It appears to be made of some form of exotic matter that seems stable enough to support life. That’s all we can say.”
Finch shakes his head incredulously.
“How long did this wormhole exist?”
“Approximately sixty seconds—long enough for the fugitives to escape.”
“I see,” Finch grazes his chin. “and did the women have any special equipment on them at the time? ERP Materializers? liminal”
“I don’t follow, sir.”
“Did they manufacture the wormhole themselves? You know these things don’t materialize out of thin air.”
“We weren’t able to detect anything on their person, sir. Sorry.”
Finch bangs his fists against the table.
“Damn!”
“What do you want us to do, sir?”
“Dispatch some sentinels through the next time they try to flee. I want to know where they’re going. I’ll be damned if any prisoner tries to escape this vessel—current or former.”
“Yes sir!”