Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
T he rumble of the shuttle’s engine thrummed softly through the deck beneath Roan’s boots. The cabin air carried the lingering scent of drying paint and the faintly acrid smell of soldering fumes, evidence of the hasty work done in preparation for their mission. His fingers worked steadily, connecting the final wires on the console. Sparks flickered as he tightened a connection.
“Any minute now, we’ll know if La’Rue’s miracle paint will save our asses or leave us floating in space like shiny, reflective corpses,” Sergi quipped from across the cramped cabin, his tone laced with forced nonchalance. “Nothing like testing an unproven system during a suicide mission. Did I mention the paint might not be dry yet?”
Roan didn’t look up. “It’ll work.”
Sergi chuckled, his eyes glinting with humor. “You sound like Julia. Calm in the face of imminent doom. Fortunately, I was pretty out of it when she and Mei stuffed me into the escape pod on the Gliese before it broke apart.” He leaned against the bulkhead, folding his arms. “I wasn’t always so calm. I used to thrive on chaos—until I met her.”
Roan continued working, but he felt the weight of Sergi’s scrutiny, the unspoken question hanging in the air between them.
“If you’ve got something you want to know, just ask,” Roan muttered, not pausing in his work.
Sergi straightened. “You sure? It’s not exactly a light conversation.”
Roan glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. “We’re about to fly an invisible shuttle into the center of a Legion battalion. How much worse could it get?”
Sergi gave a wry smile and began talking, his voice steady and clinical, as if recounting a routine mission. “I was sent to the Gliese 581g mission by the FSB—the Russian Federal Security Bureau. My orders were clear: infiltrate the mission, document everything about the alien object, especially if there were advanced weapons… and if necessary, eliminate the crew.”
Roan’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing, letting Sergi continue.
“The plan was simple.” Sergi’s inflection didn’t waver, though his eyes darkened with old memories. “If the alien tech was too valuable, I was to take control of an escape pod, destroy the Gliese, and return to Earth with the data.” He paused, his lips quirking in dry humor. “I had even mapped out where my escape pod would land.”
Roan’s fingers stilled, his knuckles turning white around the tool in his hand. “Good thing you didn’t make it back.”
Sergi nodded. “It’s a very good thing. But not for the reason you think.”
He pushed away from the bulkhead, his voice softening. “I made the decision long before things went sideways that I wasn’t going to follow my orders. Julia changed that. All of them did. I started to see the mission differently—bigger than my government or any thirst for power. In space, there wasn’t one government or one world. There was just… us. Humans. Trying to survive. Together.”
He exhaled slowly, his gaze sharpening. “Julia knew who I was, what I was sent to do, and yet… she never judged me. She never betrayed me. She gave me her trust, even when she had every reason not to.” His voice softened. “That trust changed me. She gave me back my humanity. The crew became the family I never had. And for that, I’ll fight and die to protect them. To protect her.”
The air grew heavier between them. Roan could feel the unspoken warning in Sergi’s words. This wasn’t about physical protection; it was about something deeper. He was telling Roan not to hurt Julia, his family.
Roan set the tool down and rose to his feet, standing face-to-face with Sergi. For several seconds, neither man spoke.
Finally, Roan dipped his head in understanding. “I’ll protect her with my life,” he said quietly. “I’m not blind to how special she is. I know what you’re saying.”
Sergi studied him for a heartbeat longer before nodding, a hint of approval in his eyes. “Good.” He smiled faintly, his old humor returning. “Now let’s see if we’re about to become space dust.”
* * *
Roan followed Sergi to the front of the shuttle. La’Rue sat at the controls, her eyes scanning the instruments. The tension in the air was palpable, a mix of anticipation and controlled anxiety.
“We’re ready,” Roan said. “Activate the system.”
La’Rue nodded, her fingers dancing across the console. “Activating reflective coating now. Shutting down all non-essential systems. Environmental support and forward thrusters only. H, I need feedback. How does it look to you?”
The little service bot beeped out in response, drawing a chuckle from those inside. Outside the viewport, the stars shimmered and blurred as the reflective paint took effect. The shuttle seemed to dissolve into the fabric of space, fading from sight.
Sergi whistled low. “Well, I’ll be damned. It works.”
In the distance, the Legion fleet loomed like a wall of death, a line of massive Battle Cruisers flanking the ominous bulk of the space lab. Their dark hulls gleamed in the reflective light of the nearby sun, their weapon systems ominously quiet—for now.
Roan’s focus locked on the space lab. His chest tightened with a surge of determination and dread. This was it.
The shuttle floated silently in the shadows, invisible to the world around it.
Roan exhaled slowly, his voice steady. “La’Rue, get us into position. Once the first battle cruisers past, follow the fleet’s wake. Let’s not draw attention if we can help it.”
La’Rue’s eyes sparkled with defiant energy. “Roger that, General. Time to give them hell. H, I need you inside, bud. Things are about to get serious.”
The shuttle moved forward, slipping silently into position, its engines fading as La’Rue shut them down. In the distance, the space lab loomed larger, its dark structure filled with deadly secrets waiting to be exposed.
Roan felt Julia’s hand against his lower back, grounding him in the moment. He reached down and wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing strength from her presence. This was their chance. One shot to destroy the weapon and stop the Legion’s madness.
Failure wasn’t an option.
* * *
The shuttle floated in space above the planet. The only sound was the low hum of the life support system. The cockpit was bathed in dim red light, signaling that their systems were on standby, running silent to avoid detection.
Roan sat in the co-pilot’s seat, his eyes locked on the holographic display in front of him. The blue outline of the space lab hovered like a ghost, its labyrinth of corridors and containment chambers glowing faintly.
His jaw tightened as the memories of his time inside that monstrous creation resurfaced—the cold sterility, the eerie glow of the containment units, and the suffocating sense that something had gone horribly wrong from the start.
“This is where the weapon is contained,” Roan said, tapping the hologram. A cluster of rooms lit up in red. “Each containment unit is designed to hold the parasite samples. If there’s even the slightest breach, the labs will lock down first. As a last resort, if the internal security measures fail, the system will vent everything through the conduits and out into space.
“Dr. Mella didn’t like that idea,” he added grimly. “He didn’t want to lose the parasites he had grown, but he also didn’t want to chance being stuck in the lab or sucked out into space with the parasites.”
Julia leaned forward, her focus sharpening as she studied the layout. Her mind worked through the problem with the precision of someone used to solving impossible puzzles.
“I’m positive he has another way to neutralize the parasite,” she said in a contemplative tone. “It would be too risky to develop something like this and not have a way to stop it in case it fell into the wrong hands. He would want an antidote. I learned during my years teaching at the university that scientists who work in Parasitology have a special code of survival… them first then everyone else. I swear they are closely related to the parasites they study,” she joked.
Roan nodded. “There is. Each containment unit has an emergency neutralization system—a chemical dispersal agent designed to kill the parasite on contact. The problem is that it only works if you can access each, individual control panel and trigger it manually. This was done as an attempt to preserve the parasites. If one or two containment units failed, they would still have the others. If the lab locks down, each containment unit is locked down separately.”
“And that’s where we come in,” Julia murmured, her eyes narrowing. “If we can get to those panels and activate the dispersal agents, we can destroy the parasite before it has a chance to spread.”
Roan’s fingers tightened around the edge of the console. He hated the idea of Julia being anywhere near those containment units, but he also knew she was the only one who could figure out the appropriate order required to release the dispersal agents. There was a lock out sequence. The wrong combination would trigger a lockout and release. It had been an added lockdown measure to prevent what they were planning. Most military missions like this didn’t include a skilled scientist.
“Once we’re inside,” he said, his voice low and steady, “stay close to me. We’ll have to move fast. The ventilation system will be crawling with security sensors, even if Bantu manages to disable them. If we’re caught?—”
“I know,” Julia interrupted, her eyes meeting his. “We won’t be.”
Her confidence sent a flicker of warmth through him, easing the tension in his chest. He reached for her hand, squeezing it gently. “You are an amazing woman.”
Julia’s lips curved into a faint smile. “You’re pretty amazing yourself, General Landais.”
A soft chime broke the moment. The fleet of Legion warships was upon them.
* * *
The Legion Battle Cruisers loomed like black daggers against the glow of Tesla Terra. Dozens of ships moved in perfect formation, their sleek hulls reflecting starlight and the nearby sun, while their engines burned with an ominous red glow. They cut through the darkness with a predatory grace, surrounding the massive space lab that hovered just ahead—a city of steel drifting through space, glowing with clusters of blue, red, and green lights.
The shuttle hung in the void, a ghost cloaked in shadow, hidden by the specially treated reflective paint that bent light around it. From the viewport, the view was surreal, the silence almost deafening, disturbed only by the soft sound of the environmental system and their breathing.
Roan stood just behind La’Rue, his eyes narrowed, scanning the fleet below. A tight knot of tension coiled in his chest, every instinct in him screaming to act—yet knowing that one wrong move would doom them all. His jaw clenched, and his thoughts turned briefly to his father and uncle. He knew they were watching, ready to unleash destruction.
He turned his head slightly, studying the others in the shuttle. Sergi sat at the rear console, his face illuminated by the pale light of the monitors, his eyes focused and calm, though his fingers drummed an uneven rhythm against his thigh. Bantu leaned over his station, lips pressed in concentration as he worked to access their connection with the space lab’s systems once they were within reach.
Josh and Cassa stood behind Packu who had taken over the co-pilot seat. Their eyes were trained on the massive space lab. He could see a muscle twitching in Josh’s jaw and didn’t miss the way the man reached down to grip Cassa’s hand in his.
Julia stood at his side, her fingers resting lightly on the edge of the console, her eyes fixed on the approaching space lab, her thoughts unreadable. The glow from the massive warship’s lights reflected in her eyes. Her face had a haunted expression. For a moment, Roan wondered if she was remembering what had happened on Plateau.
He reached out, resting his hand lightly over hers, drawing her attention back to the present. She looked up at him, her eyes steady, her resolve clear.
“We’ll stop it,” she whispered.
Roan nodded once, his lips tightening into a determined line.
* * *
Minutes passed before the full breadth of the space lab came into view. Roan watched as the space lab slid beneath them, an enormous structure of gleaming metal, its surface dotted with small observation windows and clusters of thrusters that emitted soft bursts of blue light as it adjusted its course. Power conduits ran along its spine, pulsating faintly as they directed energy to various sections of the lab.
It was more than a ship—it was a fortress, a massive scientific outpost brimming with potential death. Roan’s stomach tightened at the sight of it, knowing what was housed inside, knowing what would happen if they failed.
The Legion Battle Cruisers encircled the lab like protective predators, their cannons idle but primed, ready to annihilate any threat that dared come close.
“It’s time,” Roan said quietly, his voice cutting through the tension like a knife.
La’Rue nodded, her eyes sharp, her hands moving with practiced ease across the controls. “Engaging forward thrusters.”
The shuttle drifted forward, gliding silently over the top of the space lab. The surface of the lab loomed just meters below, a vast sea of reinforced metal plates, interspersed only by the occasional cluster of antennae, sensor arrays, and defensive gun turrets.
The hull lights of the lab pulsed in rhythmic patterns, giving the illusion of breathing—an unnerving reminder of the monstrous living weapon that lay beneath its metallic skin.
La’Rue’s fingers tightened around the throttle, guiding the shuttle downward in a slow, careful descent. The proximity alarms on her console flashed yellow, warning of their dangerously close position to the lab’s hull. La’Rue threw Packu an appreciative glance when he quickly silenced the noise.
“Steady,” Roan murmured, his eyes flicking between the viewport and La’Rue’s hands. “Bring us in soft.”
“I got this,” she said.
“Piece of cake, dusha moya, ” Sergi murmured.
“Pie,” Julia and Josh automatically corrected in unison.
“That is what I said,” Sergi retorted with a grin.
La’Rue guided the shuttle with a skilled hand. Roan breathed deep, calming breaths as the shuttle docked with a soft thud, the magnetic clamps locking it into place. The airlock hissed as it pressurized, opening to reveal the sealed hatch at the top of the space lab.
La’Rue exhaled slowly, her knuckles relaxing on the controls. “We’re locked in.”
“Bantu, time to earn your keep,” Sergi said, flashing the young man a grin. “Connect us.”
Bantu’s fingers flew across the keyboard. His expression was calm, but sweat glistened on his brow. The seconds dragged like hours, every soft click of the keys amplified by the surrounding silence.
Then, the console chimed. Bantu looked up, a crooked grin splitting his face. “I’m in. Nice coding, General.”
A collective sigh of relief rippled through the shuttle. Even La’Rue chuckled softly, her tension easing just a fraction.
“Good job. This makes up for what you did to my ship,” Roan jested, clapping Bantu’s shoulder. “Let’s get the hatch open.”
Sergi and Packu were already opening the shuttle’s hatch to reveal the one below it. The first stage of their plan had worked—but the real danger was just beginning. Sergi pried open the panel covering the hatch’s manual release. A faint layer of space dust fell away, revealing the control mechanism beneath.
“This hasn’t been touched in years,” Packu muttered, reaching down while Sergi held the cover out of the way to work the manual levers. The hatch hissed open, revealing a brightly lit, narrow tunnel leading into the labyrinthine ventilation system below.
Roan turned to Julia. “Once we’re in, remember to stay close.”
She lifted her Gallant staff, the faint etchings glowing in the dim red light of their shuttle. “I’ll be right behind you.”
The hatch swung inward with a squeak on its hinges. Sergi looked up at La’Rue and gave her a wry smile.
“If I get caught?—”
“I’ll come for you,” La’Rue interrupted, her voice steady. “Just don’t make me have to.”
Sergi winked. “I’ll do my best,” he said before disappearing down the hatch.
Roan stepped to the edge, his eyes scanning the bright interior below, his grip on the edge of the opening, listening to the rumble of the space lab’s core. The sound was low and constant, a reminder of the volatile weapon lying in wait beneath their feet.
Without another word, he dropped down, landing silently on the metal deck below. He turned and reached up, helping Julia down after him.