Chapter 48
FORTY-EIGHT
JETT
Jett clawed his way out of a nightmare.
He’d been back on the Neo-Tokyo, exploring the ruins of the city while something large and indescribable loomed over him, its focus on him and all he loved. The details were fuzzy and fleeting, interrupted by a repeating buzzer.
Jett pulled himself out of bed and wrapped a blanket around his bare chest as he trudged through the darkened room to the door.
His ankle burned where the something had burrowed between his bones, stretched itself along tendons, but it wasn’t sharp enough to cause him pain, to alter his step.
He’d grown used to the “bruise,” as the medics called it.
Outside a soldier stood with two trays of food. “Good afternoon, Lieutenant,” she said cheerfully. “The debriefing will start in two hours. I will return to collect you and Captain Stone 30 minutes prior to that.”
Jett nodded to the table near the door and the woman placed the trays on it. There were food preservers on each, so they’d been graced with a hot meal. Hopefully they still had his food preferences in some file available to the kitchens.
Wonders may never cease.
Eddie still slept as Jett reentered the room. He listened to the small, breathy snores escaping from the bundle of covers and limbs on the far side of the bed. A smile crept across his face as he climbed the mountain that was his husband, and shook the bundle from sleep.
“Ed,” he cooed as he pushed aside blankets, untangled sheets from long limbs, rubbed his cold hands over warm, exposed skin.
“No,” came the muffled reply.
Jett dug deeper until he found Eddie with an arm thrown over his face. “It’s time to get up, Farm Boy.”
Eddie shook his head, curls flattened from sleeping with wet hair.
“If you don’t get up…”
Jett reached under the covers, cold hands finding the breadth of Eddie’s chest. “We gotta get up, Ed. I’m hungry and this meeting is gonna fucking suck.”
Eddie nodded but didn’t let go, so Jett succumbed to his lips and stayed pressed against his soulmate.
The debrief took forever. The same discussion over and over, Blaine, Ra’ana, and a small contingent of guards waiting by the doors of the windowless room that held them. Ollie’d bowed out of the meeting, citing the need to find his fiancée amongst the evacuees.
Tab panels at the fore section showed a view of the Neo-Tokyo.
Pulsing black tendrils wrapped around the hull, having sprouted during that fit the Larva threw.
The expanse of plexiglass windows around the city were shattered, hundreds of thousands of pieces scattering light back at the Oasis from within and without the ship.
The ship itself was dead, its carcass slowly consumed by Horrors beyond knowledge.
They waited in silence as the self-destruct timer ticked down, ever closer to detonation. There was less than 20 minutes left until their home was completely destroyed.
Strange how I still think of it as home.
“Is there anything else that you two would like to add to this report?” Ra’ana’s voice was still honey smooth, but there was a tired edge to it that they’d never showed before.
Jett turned to Eddie, lost in thought at his side.
They’d shared their full experiences since Captain Ro-nold’s death in excruciating detail.
Nothing was left out. Jett had been forced to detail everything on his ill-fated but successful trip down to the streets, how he’d found Captain Ro-nold, his confirmed kill of the instigator of this crisis, the discussion he’d had with the Caretaker.
They’d skimmed over the death of his team, the death of Jack, and that had almost been enough for him to lose control.
But Eddie had placed a hand on his arm, calming him and quieting his rage.
Eddie relayed everything he’d experienced since the interception of the signal that had turned into the Song. How it had grown in strength and started showing him visions while docked at the Golden Lion, his discussion with Jones, how he’d communicated with the Larva.
Blaine had remained impassive throughout the whole of the meeting.
That calm was a mask hiding something else, some prior knowledge of the shit behind this affair.
It pissed Jett off even more. He hated Blaine for everything he’d done to destroy Jett’s previous life.
But this event had ended the lives of hundreds of thousands, not just one single soldier.
Several Quasar board members, who’d remote connected to the ship, were aghast at something so other happening on one of their ships.
And not just any random vessel, but the first Metropolis-class ship, a historic vessel.
The first proof that humans could take to the stars in vehicles of their own.
They were stunned and distraught that they wouldn’t be able to smooth the incident over with a well-oiled ad campaign or high-powered lawyers. Word would get out. People would know.
And Jett was secretly very pleased with that.
“Sixty seconds,” Ra’ana called into the empty room.
Jett turned to the screens, a hand holding Eddie’s wrist. He shook, but there was nothing that Jett could do right now to comfort him. There was nothing either of them could do but watch the Neo-Tokyo destroy itself.
The ship shook. Tendrils disappeared into the hull only to be replaced by others, grasping the steel and alloys tight.
Then it lurched.
The Neo-Tokyo, against all of the laws of physics, jumped in space, pushing itself up by 100 km.
“What?” Eddie whispered beside him as the enormity of it hit him. Then that horrible, sickly glow spilled from Eddie’s eyes, lighting the room. He clenched Jett’s hand and pulled it to his face as tears poured down his cheeks.
“Thirty seconds,” Ra’ana intoned.
Then time stopped.
A rift in space opened behind the Neo-Tokyo. The stars in the tendrils glowed brighter, blinding. And when the glow diminished, the Neo-Tokyo was gone. Jett watched as the hole in space closed up, leaving no trace of the ship or its dead.
Eddie’s hand went slack, the glow extinguished. He looked at Jett, tears pouring down his face. “I saw it. I heard it.” He didn’t explain further, but he didn’t need to, Jett had an inkling of what happened.
Another long moment passed.
“Well,” Blaine said, rising to his feet and interrupting the silence.
“It would appear that this crisis has sorted itself out. Please let the record show that the QSR Neo-Tokyo detonated at 20:36 Jovian time.” He turned to Jett, a smirk on his face.
“And make sure that story is the one that sticks.”
“And what story is that?” Jett spat.
Blaine stepped across the room, each footfall echoing in the silence.
“The Neo-Tokyo experienced a crisis following an outbreak. Fifty percent of the crew and residents died and their bodies were left onboard. The CDF came to your rescue and helped the evacuation.” He looked to Ra’ana.
“Quasar has agreed to compensate both of you for your loss. And you, Captain Stone, have been placed on leave for the foreseeable future while you are considered for future ships.”
Jett looked at Eddie, saw that he was far away, far from this room, this meeting, this reality.
Blaine walked out and Ra’ana followed, leaving the two of them staring at a screen where their ship—their home—once was.
Now it was beyond thought and reason; beyond all knowledge.
But deep in his core, Jett knew that it wasn’t done yet.
The horrors they’d seen, the ravings of the madman Jones, all hinted at something bigger, on a larger scale than either of them had ever considered.
A cosmic scale, encompassing the Three Systems and, perhaps, the Void itself.
Beside him, Eddie shook, his eyes glowing that bright emerald they did when he had a vision. He cowered against Jett, clearly overwhelmed by what he’d see or heard. Jett stood and wrapped his husband in his arms. “It’s not over, love,” Eddie whispered, voice full of terror.
“I know, Ed,” Jett replied and pressed his lips to Eddie’s forehead.
“It’s only just begun.”