Wings of Earth: 3 - Chains of Dawn: A hard sci fi space opera by Eric Michael Craig

Author:Eric Michael Craig [Craig, Eric Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rivenstone Press
Published: 2019-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve minutes later, they’d given Dr. Forrester a dose of a mild psychotropic to confuse him, and Kaycee lay on the table with a surgical seal around her head. Hopefully, it would give him enough of a mnemonic image to cue a false recollection to cling to if his implant tried to dig.

Quinn and Ammo held the doctor by both arms as he wobbled on his feet. “Thank you for your help,” he whispered. “I’m ready.”

Quinn jerked the collar off his neck and flung it on the counter where it would be out of sight.

“Thank you, Doctor. You’ve saved her life,” Ammo said, driving the false memory deeper into his mind. It wouldn’t be much of a shield, but it was the best they could do in the short time they had.

“If you’ll follow me, we need to get you back before Parker comes looking for you,” the handler said.

“Of course you’re right,” he said, turning to follow Quinn out the door. Ammo fell in behind them, shutting the lights off in the MedBay so that Kaycee could open her eyes and get the surgical hardware off.

She swung the screen around to watch them escort Forrester back while she peeled the skullcap and sensor lines off her head.

“I did not want to interrupt while you were involved in your procedure doctor,” Marti said, “but there is a problem on the planet.”

“What?” she said.

“I have lost contact with my automech body,” it said.

“That’s an engineering issue isn’t it?” she asked, watching as the optic feed showed Parker and Dr. Ansari trotting across the catwalk in the cargo container. A group of security guards followed them.

“Perhaps, but I do not believe so,” Marti said.

“Stand by,” she said, sliding her finger along the edge of the screen to bring the sound up. “Quinn you’ve got a wall of trouble coming across the container.”

“Copy, now be quiet,” he said, glancing up at the optic behind him in the airlock. He palmed the door mechanism open just as the party arrived.

“Where’s the patient?” Parker asked, looking shocked that they didn’t have her with them.

“I got her stabilized, so there’s no need to transport her,” Forrester said.

“And we weren’t too fuzzy with having her off the ship where we couldn’t visit her,” Ammo added, glaring at the OpsSec Director.

“There’s been an incident on the surface,” Ansari said, pulling a thinpad out of his pocket and handing it to her.

“What kind of incident?” Quinn asked as Ammo opened a file on the screen.

“We’ve had a major contamination incident,” he said.

“What he means to say is that the Rockpile was attacked by a native hunting party, and it looks like either everyone was killed or captured,” Parker said.

“What?” Ammo gasped and leaned against the doorjamb with one hand while she watched the file play out. Marti had linked into the thinpad and was displaying the image as it ran.

“We think your crewmates are among the ones taken prisoner,” he said. “Unfortunately, until we go down there and look around, we don’t know anything.

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