Legacy (Heroes of the League Book 12) Page 14

  Harm made a few adjustments. "It has two uses. First, we can use it to create a planetary wide InterWeb inside a day and connect it to the League's, or we can use it as an Alue nursery. Its battery will last six months, but with the Logash's help, who knows how long it'll run. I forgot completely about it until just an hour ago when I remembered Roscoe and me testing it. I guess I've been a little preoccupied."

  Ruby put her hand on his shoulder with a frown on her face. "Are you OK?"

  "I'm peachy as pie."

  Caleb looked at Harmon, tears rolling down his cheeks. "My people..."

  "Yes, your people can now have babies until the cows come home, assuming you have cows. Now, everyone, go non-corporeal and get inside. I'm getting you off this station."

  "Then what?" Ruby asked.

  "Don't you worry. I've got a plan."

  "Plan, shman. Promise me you'll come back to us."

  "I promise, I'll return."

  "You'd better."

  ###

  Aboard the LTV Marta McMurphy, it was the middle of the graveyard shift, which meant all but Chasm were asleep. He was on the Bridge, running load simulations when someone signaled they wanted entrance through the main personnel hatch. Chasm checked the video feed and saw Marta standing there, so he ran down and opened the door. "General, how..."

  "Where is he?" Marta asked

  "He who?"

  "Harmon. Where is Harmon?"

  "I have not seen Harmon since our return," Chasm said.

  "Are you hiding him?"

  The black elf tilted his head sideways, his green eyes flaring bright green. "Does he need to hide? Has something happened?"

  She walked inside and sat down on a crate before explaining what had occurred. "Should you be walking around?" Chasm asked as he handed her a tea.

  "That elf calculated the minimum charge needed to knock me out for no more than ten minutes, then he called the damn medics." She rubbed her face. "I never knew he could react that quickly. One second he was smiling, the next his weapon was going off. Look, Losi put her foot in it this time, and she was helped by the Directorship. I'm worried about Harm, especially in his present state of mind."

  "And that would be?" Losira said as she walked through the door with Royce following close behind. "Permission to come aboard."

  "I don't know, My Queen," Shenda said, her eyes squinted. "Are we worthy of your presence? Our father wasn't."

  "Shenda!" Marta yelled. "Show respect for your queen."

  "Or what? She'll throw us away like she did Dad?" Aerith said while stepping protectively between Losira and everyone else.

  "I never threw him away!"

  "He thinks so," Marta said. “He told me about Atmar. Did you know about his dying in four days if he doesn't reintegrate with Atmar?"

  "What?" Shenda asked, shocked.

  "No, I only found out after I extracted my foot from my mouth. I don't know what to say. I..." She was interrupted by alarms going off around them. Shenda walked over and typed something into a console. "Security alert. The Alue prisoners have escaped." She looked up with her eyes burning with anger. "What Alue prisoners. Have you arrested Ruby, my friend, my children's teacher and protector?"

  "I had nothing to do with that," Losira said as she stepped away from the angry elfling. "That was the Directorate. They felt the Alue posed a threat."

  "The members of the Directorate have their heads up their arses. No wonder dad is stressed. He's been working with the Alue for years. They're his friends."

  "Shenda," Marta said, "listen to me. You have to let us know immediately if you see your dad. He's my husband, and I am worried sick about him. He needs medical attention, which he can't get gallivanting around the universe. Promise me you will call the moment he shows up."

  Shenda nodded. "I promise I'll call." She turned toward Losira. "I may not be carrying a demon any longer, but I still have a temper. Get off my ship!"

  Losira winced. "I’m truly sorry for what I have done to your father, my brother. I will do everything in my power to fix this. I hope you all can forgive me some day." With that, she got up and exited the ship with Marta in tow, leaving the crew staring at Shenda.

  "Hey, you guys having a party and didn't invite me?" Harm said as he walked in carrying a rucksack. "Permission to come aboard."

  "Dad!" Shenda yelled as she ran over and hugged him. "The station is in an uproar trying to find you. What the hell is going on?"

  Harm put the sack down on a table and removed the contents. "I have come to a parting of the ways with the League and your Aunt Losira. The League wants to inter the Alue while your aunt thinks I'm as useless as an appendix. They're wrong and she's right, so I have to fix both problems."

  "Mom inadvertently told us about Atmar. You're not going to die, are you?" she asked. Harm looked at her, then the others, and saw children afraid for their parent.

  "No, I am not going to die," he said while extracting an autoinjector from his pocket. "This will fix everything. I just have to grab Atmar and hold him while injecting the contents into my body." He replaced the injector and made some adjustments to the device.

  "What is that thing?" Torren asked.

  "It's a portable InterWeb unit," Christa said. "I thought they were myth."

  "I thought you were back on Tralaska."

  "Vacation. Bobby and I hitched a ride with Aerith's ship. We thought we would all come a visiting."

  "Cool," Harm said as he pressed a button. Immediately, the drive lit up as its status lights flared in a thousand sequences. It stopped and turned itself off after a couple of minutes of fireworks. "Shenda, I want the Marta to deliver some software to a friend of mine on Smuggler's Cove. The software is fully contained in the Marta's network. He'll know how to extract it. I've already transferred the money into your receivables account."

  Christa walked over and typed some commands. "Dad, what kind of software are we talking about?"

  "Private stuff, young lady. It gets angry if you poke at it," Harm replied as he put the unit back in its pack.

  Christa quickly pulled her hand back from the keyboard.

  "Sir, what are you not telling us?"

  Harm placed the unit back in the rucksack. "Everything, Chasm. Everything. I am currently guilty of disobeying orders, aiding and abetting an enemy of the League, sedition, defying the Queen of Ventos Prime, and grand theft. If I tell you anything, then you become complicit in my crimes. The money in your account is from a Cove corporation set up for just this purpose. Now, I have to go."

  "Go where?"

  "The Alue universe to grab Atmar and bring him back, but not before giving their people this InterWeb device. Hopefully, this gesture will stop the insanity."

  Harm stood up. "I've got to go. Do me a favor?”

  "Sure," Shenda said as she wiped away tears.

  "Call security and tell them I was here, then call Losi and tell her you love her. She adores each and every one of you, and right now, she's feeling mighty lonely."

  The whole group surrounded Harm and hugged him goodbye. "Will do, Dad," Shenda said. "Just come back."

  "I will," he said as he walked out the door with the unit slung over his shoulder.

  Once he was out of sight, Shenda walked over to the comm unit to make the call. "Hold up there, granddaughter. We need to talk for a moment before you finish that.”

  "Grandma? What are you doing here?" Torren asked.

  "I'm here to discuss the Alue problem with some knuckleheads. What did your father say?"

  They told her.

  "It's funny. I've always thought your father would be a better king than Losira was a queen. I may have to have a talk with your aunt. You know, get her head on straight." She looked at her chrono. "Shenda, now would be a good time to make your call."

  "Yes, grandmother," she said. After she finished, she asked. "Aren't you going to try to stop him?"

  "Hell no, girl. Your father has more smarts in his pinkie than the rest of us have combine
d."

  "What about Atmar?" Bobby asked.

  Lenora laughed. "You five met him, right?"

  Torren, Christa, Bobby, Shenda, and Aerith nodded.

  "How did that turn out?"

  "I think we busted his arm," Torren said. "But we had Cleth, the demon..."

  "You controlled Cleth; you sent the clone for a tumble. Your dad has known Atmar since day one. He can handle him." I hope, Lenora thought to herself.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Ciara glared at the two guards as the medics worked on them. After a few moments of withering stare, she turned to the now-empty room they were guarding. "They're gone, Director," Clint said as he finished his scan of the area.

  "You think? Where did they go?"

  "They can switch between corporeal and non-corporeal at will, so one would think they returned to the 'webs except there is no trace of any Alue anywhere in the League."

  "You can check that?"

  "Yep."

  "And they aren't there?"

  "Nope. Nobody's home."

  "Dammit. None of this makes sense. We've searched the station and there is no sign of Harmon or the Alue. What the hell is he up to?"

  Clint's comm bleeped. "Simms... What? When? OK, keep me apprised. Simms out."

  "What now?" Ciara asked.

  "Shenda just called. Harm visited her aboard the Marta a few minutes ago. He just left."

  "I want two security squads down there on the double!"

  "Already done. They're on their way as we speak."

  "Anything else?"

  "Dr. Zornen just reported an autoinjector of neurobprazine is missing from the dispensary vault. In its place was a hula girl bobble-head."

  Ciara went white. "That crazy elf is going to fix the problem his way. He's going to go to the Alue universe, find Atmar, then inject the neurobprazine. He's going to undergo a dangerous procedure in enemy territory with only his mad clone for company.”

  The comm panel beeped for attention. Clint ran over and slapped the activate button. "Simms here..."

  "Chief, this is Landing Bay Twenty-Two. We have eyes on Harmon Aymar. He's inside the Space Vixen II."

  “Lock it down, now! Get Dr. Sornen and his team down there, stat. I'm on my way.

  Ciara ran over to the comm unit and slapped the activate button. "This is Devlin. Initiate a station-wide lock-down. Nobody in, nobody out."

  "Director, this is Clint. I have eyes on Harmon. He's inside the Space Vixen II in landing bay twenty-two."

  ###

  Ciara joined Clint at the observation window and looked inside. At the center of the small bay sat the Space Vixen II. She could see Harmon in the ship's cockpit. He was waving at her, motioning at her to call him. She tapped the comm panel. "Harmon, what the hell are you doing?"

  "I've stolen a mark 19 InterWeb unit and an autoinjector filled with neurobprazine. I plan to go the Alue universe to deliver the IWU to the Alue as a peace offering, then I'm going to integrate with Atmar."

  "No, you are not. You need a team with you. If you try to do this yourself, you could die."

  "You are such a worrywort. Hey, Losi."

  Losira walked up to the window. "Harm, don't do this. I didn't mean to say those things I said."

  "You did, and you were right, but I can change all that." He reached down and killed the connection.

  "Harmon..." Losira whispered.

  "What the hell is he thinking? He's locked in there."

  Alarms sounded. "Warning. Warning. Warning," the computer announced. "Landing bay twenty-two. Explosive detected. Module ejection system armed. Ejection in ten seconds, mark!"

  Harm was now waving goodbye.

  "No, no, no, no!" Ciara yelled "Clint, clear all traffic around this module..."

  Clint looked at the comm status screen. "All traffic cleared within three miles. Modules above, and below this one are clear. All utilities disconnected."

  "One! Module ejection system engaged."

  As Ciara, Losira, Clint, and the security team watched in horror, the docking bay and its contents slowly separated from the station and headed away at low speed, pushed by small thruster packs. When the module was a thousand feet away from the Cube, it flared. A moment later, pieces of it tumbled away. The Space Vixen II was gone.

  "What just happened?" Losira asked.

  "That crazy elf jumped from a standstill." Ciara said. She leaned against the window and started to laugh. "The greatest engineering minds of the League have been trying to jump a ship from a standstill since the League was founded. Sure, there are systems that can do that, but not other-space drives." She pounded her fists on the windowsill, then turned her wrath on Losira. "And you drove him, my friend, to die in another universe. Do you have even an inkling of what you have done? The greatest inventive mind the League has produced, and you sent him to his death..."

  Losira reached over and slapped Ciara. "How dare you..."

  Ciara went full Venlanten on the Queen, baring her fangs and extending her claws while her eyes went black on black. "You want to dance, sweetie?"

  Clint fired a low-power blaster round into the ceiling. "Enough! I swear to all that's holy that I'll stun the two of you and shove you into a holding cell where you can settle your differences. No more plarking incriminations, dammit. We need to help Harmon, not argue over who's going to sing at his wake!"

  Ciara returned to human, deeply chagrined by her reaction. "Sorry, Clint, Sorry, Losira. Clint, how do you suggest we get to where Harm is?"

  "Ever hear of the Algonquin?"

  ###

  Three hours later, Losira, Clint, Ciara, EMEF Team Eight, and a med team waited as the techs put the final changes on Algonquin. Ciara walked over to Engineering Supervisor Jacobs and asked, "Saul, How much longer?"

  "Twenty minutes, Director, I promise."

  Ciara grimaced, but returned to the window to watch the teams work. Clint joined her. "Sorry about that. I thought you two were going to kill each other."

  "I'd give you a medal if you weren't my husband. You did the right thing, so thanks."

  "I hear you and the queen mixed it up," Marta said as she strolled up.

  "Where have you been?" Ciara asked. "We're mounting a rescue mission and hoped you would join us."

  "I was taking a call." Marta looked at Clint who nodded in Losira's direction. "What?"

  "I think my husband wants the two of us to grow up," Ciara said. "Come on."

  She and Ciara walked over to bracket Royce and Losira. "Beat it," Marta said to Royce. He looked at Losira who nodded back. Royce got up, but gave the two women the universal "I've got eyes on you," sign.

  Once the big elf was gone, Ciara and Marta sat on either side of Losira. "Hey," Marta said.

  "Hey," Ciara added.

  "Hey," Losira replied.

  "I found the Alue," Marta said.

  "Where?" both Losira and Ciara exclaimed.

  "They're living over at the Smuggler's Cove. Harm paid the Marta to deliver them without telling the kids what they were delivering. My husband is such a sneak. Great idea, though. He's been upgrading their computers for years, and now, they get to use all that power. And Losira, the kids, especially Shenda, apologize for the way they spoke to you. You have to understand how tight Harm is with those four and Chasm, not to mention Breanne and Aerith. Elflings are notorious for having short fuses."

  Losira struggled to hold back tears. "Damn, I plarked this up. Queens don't screw up this badly."

  Ciara and Marta took a hand and comforted her. "Trust me, I've done far worse," Marta admitted. "I abandoned him when he needed me the most. He's forgiven me, but I haven't."

  "And he did almost die while he worked here. I'm still filling out reports," Ciara added.

  "We are a set, aren't we?" Losira said. "Are we OK?"

  Ciara and Marta scrunched-up their noses then shrugged. "Yeah, we're OK."

  Ciara's assistant, Zen, walked in with Royce's sister, Gloria, in tow. "Ah, Zen, Gloria. Ze
n I'm leaving you in administrative charge while I'm gone. Gloria, I want you to keep an eye on the Directorate and our Logash friends."

  "Keep them in line?" Gloria asked as she flicked her hair back.

  "Yep. You know the routine."

  "Ciara, bring him back, please."

  "Roger that."

  "Gods help them," Royce whispered as his sister walked out.

  "Those two? They'll be fine."

  "No, gods help the Directorate and the Logash. The hair flick is her way of preparing for battle."

  "Lovely," she said as she watched Saul approach. "Well?"

  "She's ready. Director, you are go for launch."

  "A million thanks, Saul. People! We have a go! You two ready?" she asked Marta and Losira.

  Marta pulled out one of her pistols, the ones Harm had given her for her birthday, and handed it to Losira. "You know how to use one of these?"

  Losira took the pistol, removed the power pack, checked a few things, and replaced the pack before setting it to heavy stun. "Nice balance," she said as she shot a fly on the wall.

  "Damn, I've been hunting that one for a week,” Ciara said. “It got away when I was feeding Clevon. You'll do, My Queen."

  "Thank you," she said while putting the weapon in her belt at the small of her back.

  Now locked and loaded, they headed into the ship to prepare for launch.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The Vixen materialized in the midst of hundreds of saucers. Harm activated the cloaking shields before anyone noticed the alien ship amongst their fleet. "Computer, discrete scan of nearby ships."

  "Working... Ships show no life signs. Systems are on standby."

  "They must be waiting for something. Computer, spherical scan out to one light-day."

  "Working... Planetary body dead ahead. Conditions similar to Ventos Prime. Life signs present. One million five hundred thousand Alue, one Tralaskan, one elf."

  Harm rubbed his face. "Computer, am I nuts to try to reintegrate with Atmar."

  "Please rephrase the question."

  "Never mind. Set course to planet. Scan for transport pod."

  "Course set. Pod located near large building complex. No life signs."

  "Copy that. Adjust course to land us near the pod."