Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match (17 page)

“We can’t move on this until your source is sure. How much do you trust this guy?”

“I trust her info more than any other source I’ve ever worked with, Carmine, it’s legit. And if it’s either one of those guys, it’s too big for us. We can’t go up against the whole government.”

“Maybe not, but Nina Romanov might want to try. Let’s get as much info together as we can and then I’m gonna give it to Hacker. We might all be in for a bumpy ride if our government is after Captain Marcos. We may also have to start thinking about ways to get a new regime in power.”

Carmine stalked out of the meeting to clear his head. Ariel was the closest thing he had to a daughter or niece. He had first met her as a thirteen or fourteen year old girl, shortly after Jesse had saved his life. A few months later, Jesse came in with his fiancé and his younger cousin to introduce them to the best Italian food in the western hemisphere. Ariel was instantly taken with the burley host and hugged him before they left. Throughout the years, every time she had come in, she left with a hug. She knew he wasn’t completely legit but she always looked for the best in him. He knew Jesse had never told her what his business really was, and he was surprised he had let her develop a friendship with him.
Maybe he thought it would be good for me, he was probably right
. Getting to know Ariel over the years had been good for him. It was as if her goodness was rubbing off on him. Now powerful people wanted her dead and he couldn’t let that happen.

______

In orbit around Polisia, Ariel finally woke up again almost two days later. This time, she knew she was in
Vanguard’s
med-bay as soon as she opened her eyes. She also now remembered everything about the attack. She shuddered as every detail of what had happened flooded back into her consciousness, and she found herself beginning to sweat. She wanted to cry out of images of the Dragon’s confident swagger while he was stalking her filled her mind. Images of all of the people he had killed to get to her made her want to scream. She remembered bleeding all over the hotel. She remembered being slashed, stabbed and beaten. She also remembered putting up a pretty good fight. The only thing she didn’t remember was how she had lived through the ordeal. Confusion began to set in when she looked to her left and saw Kimi’s younger sister Sun sitting in the chair next to her bed.

“Sun?” she asked in a tired scratchy voice. “What are you doing here?”

“My mom brought me here to help you get better.” She pulled out a communicator and spoke into it while she looked at Ariel. “She’s awake; you should come see her now.”

Ariel could tell she was talking to Manny when she heard the reply, “Thank you, Sunshine, I’m on my way.” The little girl smiled at Manny’s nickname for her, and then said, “Manny will be here in a minute, he can let you know what’s happening. All I know is that you’re hurt and I get to skip school until you feel better.”

She figured it was Nina that brought everyone aboard to keep them safe and that it was likely Sun didn’t even know she might be in danger. A moment later, Manny walked in with a smile. He messed Sun’s hair as he entered and said, “Hey, Sunshine, can you give us a few minutes to talk?”

“It’s classified stuff, isn’t it?” She said with a frown. “I can keep a secret, I promise.” She pleaded with her eyes but knew her attempt to get in on the secret had failed when Manny smiled and pointed towards the door.

“Your mom is waiting for you for lunch anyway, maybe next time, ok?”

“Alright,” she replied a little sadly, but then cheered up and waved to Ariel. “I’ll be back right after lunch, Ariel.”

“Thank you, Sun, I look forward to it.” Ariel painfully replied as Sun ran out of med-bay. She then turned to Manny and said, “I remember everything now, everything except how I lived. The last thing I remember is the Dragon standing above me telling me Nina was next as he was bringing his knife down to finish me. What happened after that?”

Manny looked shocked as he replied, “It was the Dragon? We didn’t know that. This is more serious than I thought. Nina will not be happy.

“Wait, you didn’t know it was the Dragon; wasn’t his identity revealed by whoever killed him?” Ariel asked confusion evident on her lovely face.

“No, I got there just as he was about to finish you and I shot him. He went over the rail and fell off the breezeway. By the time I looked over the edge, he was up on his feet and fighting with Jason. Jason killed him, but we never knew who he was until now.

“At least he’s dead!” Ariel looked frightened as she subconsciously rubbed at the stitches in her cheek.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t get to you sooner. He nearly killed you.”

“It was you that saved me? Thanks, Manny.” She flashed him a tired smile as she flexed her arm, trying to work out the soreness. “Apparently you got to me just in time. I didn’t know I was on the Enclave’s hit list.”

“Yeah, they found out that you knew about their plans for Nina and the President and wanted to make sure they took you out of the equation. Ladyhawk warned me just in time, but I couldn’t get through to you.”

“The Dragon was jamming transmissions.”

“Ariel, are you sure he was the Dragon, I mean did he say he was the Dragon?”

“Not exactly, sort of…” She looked contemplative as she continued. “When I asked who he was, he asked me what year it was.”

“I don’t understand, Ariel…”

“According to the ancient Chinese calendar, this is the year of the dragon. He confirmed it after my guess with a smile and the words: very good. It was so scary, Manny.”

“So, that’s what you’re basing your Identification on; it seems a little thin.”

“Manny, I know it was him.”

“Alright, alright,” he relented with a smile as he put his hands up in mock surrender. “I’m just glad you were able to hold him off as long as you did.”

“I don’t know if I held him off as much as I got lucky. He definitely underestimated me, but he still would have easily finished the job.” Her mind drifted back to him slowly pulling the dagger out of her shoulder as he taunted her.
He was enjoying it. He was pure evil and I’m glad he’s dead. I need to buy Jason and Manny a drink when I’m back on my feet.
She shook her head clear of the trauma and continued. “How did the Enclave find out, Manny, the only people that knew I had that information besides Ladyhawk and myself were Nina and President Sandoval. That’s a pretty tight loop.”

“Maybe Ladyhawk set you up?”

“No, that doesn’t make any sense, why even give me the info, I never would have known anything at all about them if not for her. And why warn you if the goal is to kill me. No, plus she’s trusted by Jesse, and I know it wasn’t Nina which means, the leak came from the President.”

“I just don’t see him doing that though, Ariel. Are you sure you’re not missing anything?”

“I don’t think so, it had to be him. I’m not saying he’s in league with them, he must have told someone on his staff about the plot without knowing they had ties to the Enclave. If they had seen me on the grounds, they would have been able to figure out where the president had gotten his information. They do have a pretty powerful roster, and as of the attack, we still didn’t know who three of them were.”

“Actually, we have the identities of two of the remaining three. The last member is a mystery even to the other members, if that person is in the President’s cabinet, then maybe that’s what happened. We have to find out who the President told. His life is also in danger.”

______

“Our spies have told us that the Enclave plans to unite their forces with Earth within the next six months. We must act soon before it is too late. We need to get these Jarlevians on board. They must see that even a hundred ships can turn the tide in our favor.” Dobar was frustrated as he was speaking to his general. “Not to mention, that they have the ability to produce ships more quickly than any of our partners in the Syndicate. We must make them see that there is no one in their sector that can challenge them and they can release more ships to us while building more to police their sector. This Enclave will try to eradicate us and rule the galaxy, and if they ally themselves with Earth, they will be able to do it.” As the transmission ended, Dobar prepared himself to go with the rest of the delegation before the Jarlevian High Council once again. This time, he was bringing visual evidence of the atrocities the Enclave had committed against alien worlds to show them that they will not be exempt from extinction should the Enclave win.

Upon watching Dobar’s evidence, the High Council was silent. They could not believe what they had seen the Enclave do. The ruthlessness, the hate, the evil were shocking, even for humans. Thansar decided his new allies were right. The Enclave was the bigger threat. Even when they had invaded Earth’s coalition, the humans fought fiercely, but it was more for self-preservation than desire to kill aliens. He didn’t sense in them the desire to wipe out another species, just the desire to be left alone. Even without that hate pushing them, their leaders and ships were easily able to destroy a much larger force of Jarlevians. He shuddered to think what the Enclave would do with Earth’s military technology.

Several hours later, Thansar returned to the meeting room with the High Council and addressed their new allies. “The Jarlevian people accept membership into the Human Suppression Syndicate. We will begin doubling our production of military assets right away to aid you in the upcoming conflict with the Enclave. They must not be allowed to gain access to Earth’s military technology.” After several more hours of discussion, Dobar was relieved to finally be on his way back to the Barrafoss home world. He had good news for his people. With the addition of the Jarlevians, he knew they would succeed in defeating the Enclave, and then they would turn their attention to Earth.

______

After three days of tears, Terri Evans finally got the nerve up to tell her daughter what was happening.
It’s better she hear it from me. It’s just so unfair, poor Lana will have no one now
. The tears weren’t for the terminal illness she knew she had, well some of them were, but the bulk of them were for what her daughter would do without her, all alone in the world.
My little girl is gonna be all alone… unless, I can reach out to her father’s family. It’s going to be difficult to get them to believe that Lana is their relative, many people probably try to run scams on them. If this is going to work, I’m going to have to come clean to Lana about how she came to be and come clean to her father’s family about what I did. I don’t know if I can bear the look in her Lana’s eye when I tell her, but I’m going to have to at least try. If they do believe me and accept Lana, her situation will be much better. That’s what I’m going to do; I have to. It’s not about me anymore, it’s about making sure she’s taken care of.

After telling Lana about her illness and giving her time to run the gamut of emotions, she sat her down and began to tell her about her father. Lana became really angry as her mom spoke.

“I don’t want to hear about my father, Mom. If he had ever had the decency to help support us, you wouldn’t have had to be in the outer colonies to begin with and you never would have gotten sick. I hate him.” She ran out and slammed the door.
This is going to be more difficult than I had thought.

The following day, she talked to her again. “Lana, listen to me, what is happening is not your father’s fault, it’s mine.”

“No, Mom….”

“Just listen, you’ll understand everything and then I pray you can forgive me.” She explained how she had gotten pregnant and how the father never knew. She told her she had never contacted the father because how she had gotten her father’s seed to get pregnant wasn’t legal. She just really wanted a child. After her mom explained everything, Lana broke down in tears. Her whole life she had hated a man that never even knew she was out there. Not only that, but he hadn’t been shirking his responsibilities. Their situation really was her mom’s fault.

“Lana, I’m so sorry. Please don’t hate me.” She embraced her daughter.

Lana leaned into her mom’s shoulder and cried harder. “I could never hate you, Mom; I just wish you had told me sooner about all of this.”

“I wish I had the strength to. I promise I will do everything I can before this illness takes me to make sure you are taken care of. I’ll start trying to contact your father’s family immediately.”

“How, mom?” She creaked as the tears continued to roll and her chest heaved. She was so upset about all of it. Her mom was about to die, she had spent a lifetime hating her father for abandoning her when it wasn’t his fault; he never even knew there was a possibility he had a child. What was she going to do with those emotions? Where was she going to go if her father’s family didn’t want her? What was going to happen to her? She hated that she was thinking about these things while her mother was dying, but she just couldn’t help it.