Last Flight of the Ark (12 page)

Jessica drew her brows together. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. He’d never wanted to be in charge of the ship and now he had a decision to make that would affect so many on a massive scale. Not just two thousand lives, but those of their families and friends on Earth. It would change all their lives and it might not be for the better.

“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you? You’ll do what you have to do when the time comes and it will be the right decision.” She pushed on his shoulders, backing him toward the shower. “We need to go over the plan. I’m great at multitasking, so move.”

She nudged him again, unzipped her boots, and dropped them to the floor. Next came the top and then the skirt. He raised a brow when she dropped it. She’d gone from braless to braless and commando, nothing but skin underneath. His cock sprang to life.

“I know we were going to talk about the whole bra thing so I thought I’d save us a conversation and just go without everything. You have issues with me being out of uniform?”

“Carry on.”

“Didn’t think you’d mind.”

Lieutenant Jeffers rolled down his sleeve. “How long before the mutation starts?”

“It’s immediate, but it will take you about three to four hours to notice any significant changes.” Kaleb dropped the inoculator in the drawer. If Jessica knew, she’d be furious. What he’d denied her, he’d given to Jeffers and Captain James. Actually, they’d demanded he infect them with the same virus their crew would be exposed to. They’d volunteered to test it out first and he didn’t hesitate to say no.

He’d been a busy boy that day, working on the “virus pearls” since the last meeting eight hours ago. Everything was ready. He’d placed the engineered virus that would carry the mutation to the
Genesis II’s
crew in individual glass containers that were each the size of a pool ball. He’d scavenged the empty pearls from the unused cryo-units. Originally, the glass containers had carried liquids that circulated warming agents through the blood of whatever was frozen in the unit to slowly bring them out of stasis. They were both air- and water-tight and proved to be the perfect container for his superbug. He’d rigged a pin trigger on the inside, which would fracture the glass by remote, releasing the strain as a mist into the ship’s fresh air return, where the microscopic droplets could be circulated in a matter of minutes. The infection would remain dormant until it entered a host. If everything worked as it had under the microscope, the virus would carry the mutation, and once the host was infected, the mutation would go to work destroying the flu and repairing any damage caused by illness. The flu would be gone in a matter of hours and the mutation would take over, converting the host to a wolf-human hybrid. Once that happened, there was a good chance the change would be permanent.

He held the clear ball up to the light and studied the mechanism. It didn’t look like much, but it could change the fate of two worlds. In his hand he literally held the lives of millions, and it didn’t make him feel cozy.

“Give me six hours and I’ll run some tests and see how you’re doing. Once our friends are on board this ship for the next meeting, I want you to go with my crew and put these virus ampoules into the air ducts on the
Genesis II
. If we have to trigger them, we can spread the mutation throughout the ship. After that, I want you to go with Captain Deluzio and search. We need to find where they’ve placed that weapon.”

“Not a problem. I’d know my way around that ship in a deep-space blackout. If something is out of place, I’ll spot it,” Lieutenant Jeffers said.

Kaleb had come to like Frank Jeffers. Easygoing, intelligent, he put others before himself and he respected territory. Not once did he make a move on Jessica or Melissa. Plus, he smelled like Captain James. Gay was good. No threat to his females. Jeffers gave a quick salute and spun on his heel. The door slid shut behind him.

It would be at least twenty-four hours before the virus manifested, though it could take longer, up to three days. He prayed he didn’t have to trigger it, but if he did, he hoped he had time to see the full impact of the infection and develop an antivirus if need be. Three days seemed more like a year when dealing with something that could be lethal. Antiviruses couldn’t be created overnight. Sometimes they couldn’t be created at all.

***

“I’ve placed ten pearls in the fresh-air return. The detonators are in place and all it will take is a push of a button to break the glass. I haven’t been able to locate the command crew. You got a bioscan reading?”

“Negative. Even though we hacked in and I’ve got the signatures, I can’t seem to locate them. Maybe they took them down to the planet.”

“That’s a good possibility, I don’t think they’re on the ship or someone would have seen them,” Melissa said.

Kaleb glanced at his wrist monitor. He’d excused himself to use the latrine while Jessica briefed the imposters on the protocol for the first drop. When they’d mentioned they were going over it, the enemy commander had perked up. He had kept his distance and sat across the room, trying to keep suspicions down until he could contact the command crew and keep them from leaving. The longer he kept the imposters onboard his ship, the better chance the mission would be accomplished.

However, the longer Melissa, Frank, and the two security officers stayed on that ship, the deeper in danger they’d be. Keeping to the lower levels should help them avoid the encroachers, but there was still a chance they could get caught. Something told him they’d be dead if they were spotted.

He wished there was another way. He hated sending anyone over and it should be him taking the risk, but his presence was required in the briefing room to keep the act up. He glanced at his wrist monitor again. Time to get back. He exited the latrine. “Status on the rest of the crew?”

“Cooped up, but alive. It doesn’t appear they’ve been hurt. I told them to stay put and that we couldn’t free them yet, but we’re working on it.”

“Did you tell them?”

“No. We need to keep them calm. I only spoke to a couple of the crew through the ducts.”

“Get back to the
Ark
. I’m sending Jessica to the bay to put a tracer in their shuttle. If they’re going down to the planet we can track their route and maybe locate where they’ve locked up the command crew.”

“Roger. We’re headed for the dock now. Give us fifteen minutes.”

Kaleb cut the connection and pressed his hand into the pad next to the door.

***

Jessica cupped her hand over her mouth. The shuttle the imposter crew had taken over to the
Ark
reeked. She had a mission and should be focusing on installing the tracer, not heading to the back to locate the source of the smell. She popped the hatch and gagged when the stench slapped her in the face. Death. It didn’t take a genius to know that.

She continued through the hold, came to a stop, blinked her eyes, and dropped the tracer. “Shit.” Jessica walked forward, leaving the device on the decking. “What the hell is that?” He would shake his head if he heard her ladylike language after she’d ridden him so hard about his potty mouth, but the object before her deserved a few dirty words.

At least twelve feet high and nearly as many feet wide, what sat before her looked like a hornet’s nest. She circled it. No visible opening. She glanced at a maintenance ladder that ran up the side of the cargo hold next to the hive. Perhaps the entrance was on top?

Jessica holstered her laser. She wiped her damp palms on her pants and took a deep breath. “Okay, I can do this.” She grabbed the third rung, stepped onto the ladder, and started to climb.

At the top, she looked over her shoulder. She’d need to get closer. Jessica released one hand, leaned back over the top of the nest, and saw what she’d been searching for. A hole. She shifted her feet until she was positioned sideways and pulled a flashlight from her utility belt.

Jessica leaned farther back and aimed the beam at the hole. A light-reactive goo lit the inside of the pod like the candle inside a jack-o’-lantern. Oval stones blazed like opals.
Are those…eggs?
She rose up on the tips of her toes and craned her neck. Her eyes widened and she shifted her feet, arching away to try to get a view of what sat in the shadows. Unless she became a contortionist, that was about as close as she’d get. Jessica shifted the flashlight’s beam and illuminated the object.

“Oh, God.” Her heart jumped into the back of her throat. She began to count the bodies, sweeping the light from left to right. One. Two. The light landed on a woman’s face. Everything around her went black. She couldn’t breathe, think, or move. The flashlight slipped from her hand and hit the floor with a loud
clang
. “No.” She repositioned, hanging by fingertips, hoping the goo lit it enough to prove her wrong.

Her fingers slipped from the rung. Jessica grasped air, missing the rail, and fell, landing on the grating with a
thud
. Her headset came off in the impact and flew across the hold. Rolling to her belly, she struggled to suck in a breath. Inside, her guts knotted into painful cramps and her throat constricted. She couldn’t vomit. Not here, not now. Jessica slapped her hand over her mouth and tried to force calming thoughts into her head. This wasn’t happening.

From across the hold, her headset crackled. “Get out of the bay, Jessica.” She eyed her com, paralyzed.
Oh God, oh God, oh God
.

“Jessica?” Kaleb’s voice.

Numb, Jessica crawled toward the headset, struggling to breathe.

“Melissa.” He spoke again, this time sounding frantic.

“Yes, sir,” Melissa responded.
Melissa?
Jessica glanced over her shoulder at the nest and began to weep as relief poured through her. She curled into a ball and sobbed, hugging her knees. For a moment she’d thought…. What she felt now should be wrong. What kind of a person was she?

***

Once he was in the room, the visitors became more uncomfortable. The enemy commander sneezed and wheezed. Her reaction to the canine DNA seemed to get progressively worse every trip they made to the
Ark
. It might delay further trips or stop them all together. That meant they might not get another shot to get on board the
Genesis II
and locate the command crew, if the search of the planet didn’t turn up anything.

Kaleb glanced at his wrist monitor. Jessica had left ten minutes before, going to the bay to plant the tracer. She was the perfect woman for the job. Since she wasn’t infected, she wouldn’t leave allergens to make them question if someone had been on the shuttle, but she’d need another ten minutes or so to get out and back up on the main deck in order to keep her actions secret. With the way his guests fidgeted, he’d give her five.

“And the final agenda, the last drops scheduled. Predators. We need to get half the herbivore herds on the planet and in location before we place the predators.”

“A month? Is this an error?” The imposter looked up from the schedule, her eyes red and teary.

“No. It takes time to place the animals if we want them to thrive. We have to be careful not to rush. One mistake and they could all die.”

She sneezed. “Couldn’t we place the predators first?”

“No. We need to establish the herds first and get them settled in before they’re hunted. It’s a process.”

“Then we’ll take our leave.” The encroachers rose to their feet. “I need to brief my crew and go to the planet to prep for the herbivore drops. You can reach us on the surface.”

“Don’t you want to tour the animal bays?”

The commander sneezed again, in several rapid bursts. “I have a lot of briefings—
phachoo!
—to conduct with my crew on the drops.”

He eyed the time. They needed to stay at least another seven minutes and that was cutting it close.
Shit, shit, shit
. He needed to think of something. Hold them here a little longer. “I’ve discovered an illness in our canines. We might have to keep them quarantined an additional week. I’ve got an alternate schedule ready if this is the case.”

The enemy commander locked gazes with him. “Is it lethal?”

“No, I don’t believe so. I’ve been running tests.”

The look of disappointment on her face made his stomach twist. She nodded. “I’d like that schedule.”

“Give me a couple of days. Would you like to send one of your veterinarians over to help with the diagnosis and treatment?”

The disappointment changed to horror. She clearly didn’t want what was going on out in the open. If she sent one of the
Genesis II’s
crew members, she couldn’t be certain they wouldn’t disclose the situation to him. If the canines were toxic to these encroachers, she sure as hell wouldn’t send one of her crew down to the bay to help him with them.

He’d intentionally cornered her. Probably not a good idea, but he needed to know if the decision he had to make was the right one.

“He’s busy getting the clinic on the planet set up for any animals that take ill. I’ll send him over to deal with your canines when he gets back from the planet.”

Clever
. “Thank you. I’ll wait to hear from you.” He glanced at his monitor again. Three more minutes. Could he hold them off?

The commander spun on her heel, sneezed, and exited the room, followed by her security.

Fuck
. Kaleb pressed the wrist monitor. “Get out of the bay, Jessica.”

His com remained quiet. “Jessica?”

No response.
Shit
. “Melissa?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where are you?”

“Docking.”

“They’re coming your way.”

“Hold them off. I have to get the shuttle shut down and cleared.”

“Too late. Cut the engines and drop her in place. I don’t care if it’s a perfect parking job. Jessica’s on their shuttle. You’ve got to get her off now.”

“Contact her on the com.”

“It’s not working,” he said. “Something is blocking it.”