Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (57 page)

"Yes, ma'am," Coop replied immediately with no hint of sarcasm. Maybe he wasn't as dumb as he looked.

"How many more?" Ace asked Sam.

"Four," he answered. "Sealed in the com module. Ran out of air waiting for help that never came."

Ace took a loud breath before saying, "I'll work on getting it open. Stow these, then come give me a hand." She was already moving away before she finished.

Coop got back to work clearing the tight shelves. Sam helped.
 

Nikki drifted away from them, with no complaints from Michael. Ace hadn't specified who was supposed to do what, and the guys seemed to have everything well in hand.

Nikki wandered toward the dance floor, being careful to not trip on the cables snaking around the corral. They were all covered by heavy-duty rubberized guards, the kind you could drive a truck over, but Nikki didn't want to take any chances. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to explode. Everything about this place felt tense, like at any second, the curtain was going to drop and nightmares were going to come bounding out of nowhere.

She expected to hear comforting words from Michael, or at least a surge of reassurance, but he gave none. He was as wound up as she was. Not helpful.

Nikki's footsteps on the dance floor plating were deafening to her, but aside from a casual glance from Savior, which didn't help her tension, no one paid her any mind.

Up close, the Gateway was less impressive, despite its size. From touching distance, it was just a cold, empty, metal doorway with wires and conduits connected to it. Nikki trailed her fingers along one side, but it felt as dead and silent as it looked. Still, she had to suppress a shiver as she walked through it toward the control module. The itch between her shoulder blades as she passed through the door was screaming that something bad was going to happen.
 

Nothing did. And no one even glanced at her again.
 

Even so, she only made it a few steps before the itch made her stop and look back. So she was looking right into the creature's eyes when it appeared.

*
 
*
 
*

The creature hopped out of the dead Gateway, its claws clattering on the floor plating as it caught its balance. Only there was nothing to come through. The Gateway was as cold and silent as before, the air in the middle of the frame empty, just normal air.
 

One second, Nikki was looking at the Gateway, looking through it at Coop and Sam working at the back of the corral. The next, she was staring into the red eyes of the creature as it appeared out of nowhere.

Everything happened at once, but so slowly the second stretched into forever for Nikki. She froze, too shocked to do anything other than stand and gape—not that she knew what to do. She was unarmed, a long way from anywhere safe, and no match for those claws and teeth without her power. Luckily for her, the creature was just as disoriented. It blinked and crouched low, like its eyes were struggling to adjust.

From behind her, Nikki heard a strangled grunt that turned into a growl. Then Elias started shouting over the com, but Nikki wasn't processing words at the moment, at least not from the outside.

It's too close, Nik
, Michael said, his voice strong and even.
You can't run. You have to fight. You have to fight it, Nikki.

She nodded and clenched her jaw as she watched the creature get its bearings, as she watched its eyes finally focus on her and widen. The part of her brain that was still capable of rational thought had reached the same conclusion. It had already opened the flood gates on her adrenaline and double-timed the tempo of her heart.

She felt a growl of her own start as the creature gathered itself to pounce—then it ended.

Shots rang out.

The creature jerked as round after round punched into it from the side. It collapsed to the floor plates, the red glow fading from its eyes before it hit.

Coop and Sam were rushing across the dance floor in front of Nikki—around the Gateway instead of through it—weapons trained on the motionless creature. The shots hadn't come from them though. Nor had they come from Elias, whom she could hear running up behind her, still barking orders.
 

Nikki looked to her right. Over by the com module, Ace lowered her rifle and met Nikki's eyes. She blew out a long breath, then shook her head and gave Nikki a weak smile.
 

Nikki nodded back and returned a smile with nothing weak about it.

"Are you OK?" Elias asked, his hand closing on Nikki's shoulder. She looked up at him and nodded. This much concern for her wellbeing felt weird, especially when the fight had ended before she'd gotten a chance to start it—a good weird though.
 

"How the hell did we miss that thing?" Elias said to the others after he was satisfied Nikki hadn't been hit. "Where was it hiding?"

"It wasn't," Nikki said before anyone else could answer. All eyes shifted her way. "It came though the Gateway."

Elias looked at her like he wanted to resume his check for injuries, mainly to the head.

"I'm telling you, it just…appeared, out of nowhere. Right there." She pointed to the silent Gateway.

"She's telling the truth," Gideon said from back near the control module. He pushed to his feet and relaxed his taloned grip from the edge of a console, leaving deep grooves behind.

"Are you all right?" Elias asked.
 

"Is
he
all right?" Nikki said.
 

She measured the distance between Gideon and the creature with an exaggerated glance. Savior did the same but in a much different manner.
 

"I'm in control again," Gideon said. "Which is how I know she's telling the truth."

"You mean aside from the fact that I said so?" Nikki asked, finding a new outlet for her adrenaline before the inevitable crash. "And I'm not, you know, prone to making shit up?"

Gideon came closer, looking stronger by the step.

"If the creature had been here all along," he said. "I would have lost control the second I walked in."

"Interesting," Savior said. "We have much catching up to do, Marcus."

"No, we don't."

Nikki laughed before she could stop herself. When Savior looked at her, she shrugged and raised a hand in apology, but she didn't bother to stifle the follow-up giggle. Adrenaline was making it hard to stop anyway.

"I thought you said that thing was off," Coop protested, waving at the Gateway.

"It is," Savior and Gideon said at the same time. They shared a look before Savior conceded the floor with a nod.
 

Nikki felt another giggle forming, but one look at the creature bleeding on the dance floor smothered it.

When Gideon spoke, Nikki could hear the anger behind his low words. "Whoever built this was playing with science they didn't understand. Their Gateway created an instability, it appears, a one-way wormhole originating on the other side. They thought they failed, when in fact, they did much worse."

"So those creatures will keep coming through, even though that thing's not even on?" Ace asked as she stepped onto the dance floor.

Gideon nodded.

Ace nodded to Sam, who turned to keep an eye on the Gateway, his weapon half raised.

"How do we stop it?" Elias asked, his voice sounding tired. His eyes matched his tone when he glanced at Nikki. "Destroying the Gateway won't do it, I assume."

Gideon shook his head, his stare growing distant, but it was Savior who said, "No. That piece of metal is no longer part of the problem, but perhaps we could use it to provide a solution."

He looked at Gideon, making it clear his "we" was an elite few.

Elias had to say Gideon's name twice to bring him back from wherever his thoughts went at Savior's words. When Gideon finally looked around at all of them, his eyes were clearer than before, the red one seeming to glow slightly when it came to rest on Nikki.

"I agree. I believe that could be our best chance," he said, his words for everyone, it seemed, but the look he gave Nikki before he met Elias's eyes told her he intended some special meaning just for her. What that meaning was, though, she had no idea.

"From here," Gideon began, "we can do nothing to repair an instability on the other side, but if we open a wormhole of our own—

"You're kidding me, right?" Ace cut him off, throwing a heavy glance at Savior before looking back at Gideon. "Are you seriously considering—"

"Yes," Gideon returned the favor. "I am proposing that Savior and I correct this design, and open this Gateway. Creating a stable wormhole in the same location should allow us to eliminate the instability. At the very least, we will be able to control the opening from this side, thus preventing any more incursions."

Several voices started up at once, Nikki's included, but Ace silenced them with a quick, "Cool it." She was still angry, more so than Nikki had seen her show in front of everyone, but apparently her own outburst didn't mean everybody got a say.

Gideon looked at Elias, who hadn't said a word but looked like he was considering all-out mutiny, or violence. Nikki wouldn't blame him. This plan smelled all kinds of wrong. Putting a working Gateway in Savior's hands was exactly what these people had been trying to prevent since before Nikki was born. In other words, it was a terrible idea, but she was pretty sure Gideon knew that. The look he'd given her said as much.

Elias had seen it too—Nikki could tell—but he didn't seem any clearer on what the look meant than Nikki was. His confusion was probably the only thing keeping him from telling Gideon exactly where he could shove his idea.

"Give us a minute," he said, his voice even harder than his eyes, which at the moment was saying something. His gaze never left Gideon, but it was pretty clear he was talking to everyone else.
 

Nikki stayed put anyway as the others moved off in different directions. That is, until Ace took her arm to get her moving and steered her after Sam and Coop, who were heading toward the storage locker.

"Hey, I was just—"

"I know exactly what you were
just
," Ace cut her off. "Now you're just going to help me catalog these supplies as the guys remove them."

Nikki looked over her shoulder to see Elias staring Gideon down but keeping his voice low enough to thwart eavesdropping.

"I thought you were going to open that com module over there," Nikki said, looking forward just as her toe caught one of the cable covers. Ace's death grip on her arm was the only thing that kept her upright.

"I was," Ace replied. "Now I'm going to do this, and you're going to help me."

Nikki tried her best to overhear what Elias and Gideon were saying, but it was hopeless. They were too far away and keeping their voices too low, and once Ace started on the supply reading, she kept up a constant stream of items and numbers for Nikki to record. In other words, she made eavesdropping impossible.

 
After a few minutes, a shout from Elias silenced everybody, even Ace, and Nikki risked a glance. Gideon was walking toward the control module, but Elias was walking right toward Nikki.

She dropped her gaze back to the tablet and asked Ace to repeat her last number, but she didn't hear it the second time either. She had ears only for the heavy footsteps headed their way.

Ace stood as Elias reached them, but Nikki continued tapping on the tablet for a second to really sell the fact that she hadn't heard a word.

"I want this place secure," Elias said evenly. The vein in his jaw looked like it was going to pop, and the look in his eyes put Gideon's red stare to shame, but his voice was calm enough.
 

"For how long?" Ace asked.

"A day or two," Elias answered. "More, if we're unlucky."

Ace nodded.

"Corso," Elias said, turning to look right over Nikki's head. "Can you really get a ship in and out of this crater unnoticed without Savior's authorization codes, or was that just ego?"

Nikki had no idea when Corso had come in, or how long he'd been standing there, but he was no more than two steps behind her. He shrugged back at Elias, his trouble smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. "Both, actually."

"Do it," Elias said. "Go to the base. Bring back all the spare sensors and cameras. I'll let Kate know you're coming. She'll know what you need."
 

Elias shifted his attention to Nikki and the others. Beyond him, Gideon and Savior had their heads together at the control module, probably talking math-speak Nikki wouldn't understand even if she could hear them.

"Ace," Elias said. "I want a watch on the Gateway and the perimeter, around the clock. Set up a rotation."

"If this drags on for longer than a couple of days, that's going to be tough with only four shooters," Ace said.

Elias nodded like he'd had the same thought. "Three, actually, but I'll have Mos come back with Corso. That makes your four. One on the Gateway, and at least one outside at all times. Use Cole and Impact outside to fill out the rotation."

"What about you?" Ace asked.

"What about me?" Nikki asked almost on top of her. She almost didn't want to know. If he said anything about sitting in a transport…

Elias almost smiled. Almost. "Nikki and I will trade shifts running the cameras once they arrive, and keeping an eye on those two." He nodded toward the control module.

Ace nodded and sent Coop to the Gateway before she headed off with Sam.

Nikki waited for them to get out of earshot before she said, "Why me?"

Elias looked at her for a second before he responded. The anger behind his eyes eased slightly. Very slightly.

"Because when Savior fed us that line about being done with Gateways, you believed it about as much as I did," he said.

"And you think Ace bought it? Or Sam?"

"No," he said with a slow shake of his head. "But if Savior's ready for them, there's not much they can do against him."

Nikki didn't bother to ask the obvious with words. She let her eyes play the incredulous card.