Blood and Steel: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Tranquility Book 1) by Josh Hayes & Devon C. Ford

Author:Josh Hayes & Devon C. Ford [Hayes, Josh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2021-06-07T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Four

Koskov almost cried as Lander’s voice came through her commdisk.

“What’s wrong?” Aplin asked.

“Put it through, Cam.”

“Tali, are you there?” Lander asked, his voice now echoing through the Operations compartment.

Scholes jumped to his feet, looking around as if searching for the voice, then his gaze landed on Koskov. “What is this?”

“Major Scholes, it’s Lander.”

“Are you okay?” Koskov asked, finally composing herself.

“I’m fine,” Lander said. “I’ve found some new friends down here. Colonists that managed to get away from the Hive.”

Koskov and Aplin shared a confused look.

“Hive?” Scholes asked, walking to the center of the platform. “Specialist Lander, what are you talking about?”

“Sorry. A lot’s happened down here in the last couple of years, I’ll try to be quick.”

It took him almost an hour to relay everything he’d learned since retreating from New Independence. As he spoke, the situation which had started out troubling became more and more dire, and, despite the optimism in his voice, Koskov couldn’t help but fear the worst. Fighting a human enemy was one thing—fighting an alien that, even after almost three years, the colonists still knew nothing about was something else entirely. There was something they weren’t seeing, but for the life of her, Koskov couldn’t fathom what it could be.

“So,” Scholes said after Lander had finished, “your plan is to attack the colony?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“Fucking aliens,” Love said.

Scholes gritted his teeth. “I have to say, I don’t like the idea of attacking our own facilities, not to mention our own people. The risk to critical systems and infrastructure seems unreasonably high.”

“They aren’t our people anymore,” Lander argued. “They’re part of the Hive. If there is a way to save them, we can figure it out later. And infrastructure can be rebuilt. Right now, we have to focus on what we can do.”

“And you think you can kill this… Queen?” Koskov asked.

“Well, we’re damn sure going to try. Everything can be killed, right?”

Again, Koskov had her doubts.

Aplin looked up from her screen. “If Keller finds out the Queen is controlling people telepathically…”

“He’ll bug out faster than air sucking into the vacuum,” Koskov said.

“If he’s listening in to this conversation, he knows already,” Scholes said.

Koskov shook her head. “He’s not.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Because we’re not talking on a regular comm channel.”

Scholes held Koskov’s gaze for a long moment. “What did you do?”

Koskov ground her teeth together, considering how much she wanted to say. Scholes was a company man after all, but he also needed this mission to succeed, especially in the face of disaster. If he could conquer the alien menace and unite the colony, he’d be a hero of the Coalition. But if they failed…

Then it won’t matter anyway, she told herself.

“I accessed one of Colonial One’s external communication nodes and routed some of the ship’s functions through Cam’s network.”

Aplin laughed. Love sputtered like he was trying to comprehend and condemn at the same time. Scholes just stared at her with a blank expression.

“You did what?”

“I—”

“An external communication node?” The tone in Scholes’ voice rose steadily as he spoke.

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