Deep Space Endeavor (27 page)

“There’s only one clue left, Joldas?” Eliphaz asked, his anger rising again. “It won’t matter what kind of map we have if we don’t get that last clue, along with
Colonel Marcos’ artifacts and the key. Why has your spy not been able to smuggle any of the artifacts off
Endeavor
? And who has the key? You need to be on your game, because the treasure is the only thing that is going to keep us out of prison at this point.”

“The artifacts are too well guarded, as is the key. We have just learned
Endeavor
has that as well. Our spy cannot get them off
Endeavor
without revealing herself to be the traitor. We are waiting to see if
Endeavor
finds the final clue before she acts. As long as we have her on the ship, we have a chance. If she gets caught and we don’t have everything, we’ll never get it.” Joldas grew tired of this. His uncle could be exasperating to deal with. He had to find a way to excuse himself from the conversation before he said something he regretted.

“I’m not asking y
ou to be smarter, Joldas, we both know that’s never going to happen. Just be creative, use your imagination if you have one. What does this Jesse Marcos care about, besides the treasure?”

Uncle Eliphaz was a lot of things, but he knew how to get to a person’s weakness and exploit it. Joldas had used that advice before. Now he would use it again. “He loves his ship, I know that. He also loves the crew that came with him from his home planet. According to Kora, he would do anything for any of them.”

“Good, are there any weaknesses there, anyone that might be able to be tricked or taken without risk?” Eliphaz was curious now.

“Maybe the doctor,” he answered. “She is the only one that is not an elite warrior
and she is Marcos oldest friend, but she always has that giant canine with her, so she’s no easy target either.”

“Now
you’re thinking. Do you see the possibilities of using your imagination?” Eliphaz chided. “Now go, kidnap the doctor and Jesse Marcos will give you anything you ask.”

______

Jesse was still beating himself up over letting Janus get away when Josiah and Cassie came up to him excitement in their eyes.

“It wasn’t your fault
, Jesse,” Josiah started, “It was the right move. The gunships could have hurt us if we’d left them out there. Anyone else would have done the same; it’s textbook.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that, Josiah,” he smiled. “Now, what’s all this excitement about?”

“We know where the last clue is,” Cassie said excitedly before Josiah could begin.

Jesse looked up his mood suddenly brighter. “Where, how?” he started.

“SAMMI, Cassie and I went through everything we had. All of the map fragments line up and we were able to deduce an area of space. We then narrowed it down with the other clues we have. We believe the last clue to be in an ancient temple on a planet called Habarsha. What are your orders, Colonel?” Josiah asked with a big smile.

“Off to
Habarsha, then.” He called up to the bridge; “Collin, set in a course for Habarsha, best possible speed.” Jesse gave the order with a smile and two happy crew members by his side.

“Collin, how long of a journey is it?” He asked.

“It looks like we’ll be in light space approximately twenty-five hours,” he replied.

“SAMMI, put me on ship speaker, please.” He ordered.

“On speaker, Colonel.”

“We are about to enter light space for twenty-five hours
,” he began. “I want everyone to get at least eight hours sleep during that time. SAMMI will make sure everyone is awake at least one hour before we reenter real space. This is not a request.” As he finished, he looked at Josiah and Cassie and added. “Let’s just hope we’re first this time,”

He
left to watch the vid SAMMI had provided again. Most of what SAMMI had considered suspicious was normal irrational sentient behavior. He had eliminated Wennagal and Cassie as suspects, but there were some legitimately suspicious recordings of both Reece and Kora. He needed to watch them one more time to see if he could figure out which one of them it was. He was happy to at least have the suspect pool down to two people, but still was not quite ready to tell Cassie. As he watched vid of Reece and Kora again, he caught something that he had missed the first time. Kora quickly tapping her sleeve, followed by a frustration so slight that if he weren't looking for it, he would have never known it was there. He realized she had tried to send a message from a communication node in her Jacket's sleeve. It happened very quickly, but it was unmistakable.

It seemed h
e now had his prime suspect, and he would let the others know after dinner.

Later that evening, Jesse and Josiah called Cassie and Wennagal into the storage room where the real key and artifacts were being held. Josiah looked at Cassie with sorrow in his eyes and Jesse explained what was going on. He explained that there was a suspected traitor on board and how they had narrowed it down to either Reece or Kora, with Kora being the prime suspect. Cassie and Wennagal didn’t think it was possible
and were both understandably upset. The more Jesse and Josiah spoke to them though, the more it confirmed a feeling she knew she was trying to ignore. Jesse needed them to go along with the plan, and they both agreed to, but they didn’t like it.

“I’m sorry it has t
o be this way, but we can’t let Topanar get any more of our information. Trying to beat the pirates is hard enough without another player in the game,” he was saying, as she was still not convinced.

“But what if it’s not her, wh
at if she’s not the leak?” She replied, thinking of the many years of friendship she and Kora had.

“We really hope that’s the case,” Josiah jumped in. “If she’s not the mole, we apologize for the deception and move on. That’s all we can do.”

Jesse added, “And if she’s not the mole, nothing happens to her. Even if she is the mole, she’s going to take some fakes to Topanar and give him some bad information. Then we probably never see her again.”

“What if it’s
Reece?” Wennagal asked hating that thought but hoping it wasn't Kora.

“Same plan,” Josiah shook his head. “Look, we’ve all grown fond of both of them. We sincerely hope it’s neither, but more than likely it is one or both of them, and we can’t let Topanar get any more info. Enso’s life may depend on it. The last thing either of you can do is hint in any way to either of them that we think there’s a traitor.”

Cassie looked at the floor as she replied, “I hope you’re wrong, Jesse, but I agree.” Wennagal nodded his agreement as well.

Jesse ended the conversat
ion with the words, “Now, we know the plan, when the time comes, we’ll spring the trap.”

______

As
Endeavo
r dropped back into real space, Jesse already had the crew at battle stations. Collin was able to cloak the ship in under a second as
Endeavor
began heading to the coordinates the crew had deduced.
Endeavor
made its way to the planet’s surface, while Jesse was laying out the plan.
Endeavor
was going to hover over the area, cloaked as backup in case the crew was met by pirates or Topanar on the surface. Suzy would also be aboard for her safety. He was taking everyone else with him, including the snow wolves and the two remaining warriorbots. He was taking no chances. This one was for the prize, and he didn’t want to be outgunned on the surface. Everyone was wearing a battle suit. Wennagal and Reece were carrying heavy anti-personnel weaponry. This was as prepared as they could be. He just hoped it would be enough. They took all three of their speeders, including the Mag-Lev they brought with them from Earth. The Mag-Lev was equipped with some military grade surprises he thought they might wind up needing. The caravan left the landing bay about one and a half kilometers away from the temple. Collin immediately lifted off and began to fly a four kilometer wide circular pattern at approximately two kilometers above ground level. Jesse knew Collin could be to the evac point in under a minute, but could also provide cover at the temple if he needed to. As
Endeavor’s
crew arrived at the temple, they put the speeders on the side of the building. They threw camouflage netting over the speeders and the bots. Then they made their way to the temple’s entrance.

The approach to the temple was stunning, and even though it looked like it had been hundreds of years since anyone
had been to this temple, it was still beautiful. None of the walls had been broken down like the meeting hall Josiah had described. This structure was in excellent condition, except for the main door which had been destroyed many years earlier, most likely letting thieves in to loot the temple. The temple was made of hand-hewn white stone. Each piece looked to be approximately three meters wide by two meters high. Each stone had a different elaborate pattern carved into it as if the outside of the temple were meant to tell a story. The temple stood almost two hundred meters high. The elaborate patterns stopped after the second row of stones. The trim around each of the windows and the doorway was beautiful artwork. They all wondered why so beautiful a place would be abandoned. The temple was roughly two hundred meters wide and four hundred meters deep. There were natural outcroppings of rugged stone surrounding the front of the temple, except for a carved entry way that the speeders had gone through. The stone surroundings gave it a natural defensible look. It stood at the top of a mountain and was backed up on three sides by a cliff with a sheer drop of almost a thousand meters.

Kimi was recording as much as she could through her visor. Jesse cou
ld tell she loved the place. He overheard someone call out, “This place is massive,” and he had to agree, although he really hoped they would not have to search the whole temple.

As they entere
d the temple, he motioned Cassie to guard the entrance and comm them at the first sign of trouble. He let Josiah lead the rest of the team into the Temple as he took up the rear position. The inside of the temple was as beautiful as the outside. The same patterns that decorated the outside of the temple also decorated the inside, except they were inscribed with golden lettering. Row after row of giant intricately carved columns stood off to each side of the doorway giving a straight and wide view to the decorative altar in the front. The altar was the first place they checked and then next to it there was a raised platform with a three sided podium built into it. After checking the area around the altar and the podium, they began checking the inner rooms located between the rows of columns and the outside walls. After almost two hours of searching the inner rooms of the ancient temple, they began checking the rows of columns. Soon after, Wennagal pointed to an order in the artwork of one of the columns that looked odd. Every row of columns they had come across had the characters carved into them facing the same direction. This row had four characters facing the opposite direction.

“Good catch, Wennagal,” Josiah said enthusiastically as he began to search around the area. Josiah figured the four wrong-facing characters to be a combination lock of sorts, and he pressed the four at random. Nothing happened. He tried again, this time in a different order, and again, nothing happened.

Jesse came over and said, “I’m no treasure expert, but why don’t you look at the patterns of the other columns and see if there is anything else off about this row besides the four wrong-facing characters. Maybe that will give you an idea as to the combination.”

“Jesse, that’s brilliant,” Kimi replied. “I can already see another difference.”

“As can I,” Wennagal added.

After about ten minutes of collaboration, Josiah, Kimi and Wennagal came up with the right combination.
Each of the four wrong facing characters were in a specific order on one of the other columns. When entered in the order shown on that particular column, the symbols began to light up. After lighting up, the column began shaking as it slowly began to slide to the right, revealing a stairway to a lower level. They descended into the darkness, and the portable lighting units began to flare to life. Jesse wedged a large stone in the hinge of the open column. Reece shot him a questioning look and he replied by saying, “If it can open, it can close, and I don’t want to be stuck down there if it does.”

Reece gave him an acknowledging nod and they continued. They came into an elaborate room made of solid gold, adorned with different colored precious stones in fantastical patterns. There were several statues of gol
d throughout the room, and Jesse called out, “Are we sure that this isn’t the treasure?”

“This is definitely not it; there are no coins, trinkets, or artwork. No jewel-encrusted weaponry or gold plated eatery. While I’m sure these statues have value, we don’t even know if they are pure gold.”
Reece replied.

“They a
re not,” Kimi said as she was looking at the reading on the HUD in her visor. “But I do see a small statue in the corner that is.”

As they were making their way over to the corner, something didn’t sit right with Jesse. “Stop,” he shouted, “Josiah; is that statue part of the treasure hunt?”