Osirion's Ascent: Ardent Redux Saga: Episode 2 Read online

  It’s likely that the people on Draku would have died long ago if not for the GC. That’s how they operated. They found planetary systems in trouble and brought in new technology to ease the burden of civilization. In return, the inhabitants would give a portion of their resources to the GC for their continued protection.

  Where the other planets in the system thrived, Draku, robbed of all resources due to its past overpopulation, struggled to carry on. Those remaining on the planet didn’t have the means to buy their way off. The planet was populated by a number of miscreants, and Dani was saddened to hear that was where they’d tracked Jag. She wasn’t sure what Patrick had to do to negotiate his release. The GC police force had left that planet long ago. Now it was run by its own militia, who would likely want something in return for the captive.

  As time passed, Dani found herself sitting on the floor in front of the massive viewing window. Her thoughts of Patrick led her back to her father and his last moments. She knew far too little about the event to have a clear understanding of what happened.

  The ship was completely destroyed, so there was little evidence as to the fate of those on board. Her father’s ship, the Anchorage, was significantly damaged. They managed to pull out of the battle and retreat in order to get a handle on the situation. The last transmission from her father to his commanding officer was notifying them that they were attempting to evacuate some of the personnel, but shortly after that there was an explosion. At the time, it was estimated to be a total loss. Clearly that wasn’t the case, as Patrick had survived.

  The Houston maintained a locked orbit with the planet. Dani replayed her father’s last transmission in her head. The academy actually used his transmission as a training tool for their pilots, with Dani’s permission. He had remained calm and collected throughout the whole ordeal. Only the slightest of wavers could be detected in his voice when he mentioned the evacuation.

  Knowing that Patrick was alive cast a shadow of a doubt in Dani’s mind. She briefly wondered if it were possible that her father could also be alive. However, she quickly dismissed the thought on the grounds that he would have contacted her and, in a true emergency, he would have been the last person off of that ship.

  After a few hours, Dani caught a glimpse of the shuttle breaking out of the fog. She withdrew from her thoughts and jumped to her feet, sprinting down the hall toward the docking bay, but the guard at the end of the hall held up his hand.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Devereaux. I can’t let you go this way. Captain Alexander instructed us to guide you to one of the meeting rooms when the shuttle returned.”

  Dani rolled her eyes and complied with his offer to take her to the meeting room.

  They made their way through a maze of halls to another stark white room. Everything was white—the table, chairs, walls—and blindingly so. Dani frowned at the harsh lighting. The look was the standard for the Galactic Conglomerate, their attempt to symbolize purity and the light they spread across the galaxy, but Dani wasn’t alone in her distaste for it.

  With a sigh, she flopped down in one of the chairs. The guard stepped outside, closing the door behind him.

  Dani was just getting comfortable when angry yelling from the hall caught her attention. She jumped to her feet and ran to the door. The door slid open as she neared it, and Patrick walked in, followed by Jag and Howard.

  Howard looked exasperated and walked behind Jag, firmly gripping each of his biceps, steering him into the room.

  Jag didn’t seem to even notice Dani. He trudged along, sloppily placing one foot in front of the other, occasionally stepping on his own foot, causing both men to stumble. He held a bottle of liquor in either hand and smelled like a mixture of rotten fruit and vomit.

  Dani wrinkled her nose in disgust and tried to suppress her urge to gag as Howard paraded Jag past her and shoved him into a chair, causing it to slowly spin in a circle.

  As the chair made a full turn, Jag looked like he was going to be sick. He braced both bottles on the tabletop, still continuing to grasp the necks with white knuckles.

  “I shtill dun know why yer had to come an’ ruin mah fun, ya daft cow.” Jag tried to point a finger at Howard, but missed his mark by several feet.

  Howard stood, arms crossed over his chest, and glared at Jag. “Don’t even get me started right now.”

  “Jag...” Dani said quietly from beside him.

  Jag blinked rapidly, then shut one eye, staring at her. He turned back to the bottles and took another swig off of each.

  “Jag, that’s enough.” Dani put her hand on his arm before he could raise the bottle to his lips again.

  He cocked his head at her once more and squinted. “Yer dead and still yer telling me what to do.”

  Dani shook her head and pried the bottles from his hands, sliding them across the table to where Patrick sat, leaning back in a chair with his feet up, wearing a ridiculous grin.

  “What are you so giddy about?” She glared.

  “Well...” Patrick put his feet down and signaled for a guard to take the bottles. “Judging by the look of your right-hand man here, you may be needing my professional crew after all. I just love being right.”

  “Don’t you have a place where he can sober up? Then we can try this again?” Dani looked back over her shoulder as Jag’s head hit the table with a thud, drool trickling out of his mouth almost instantly.

  Patrick looked like a boy whose mother called him in from playing with his friends. “Alright, take the drunk to med bay. I’m sure he could use some fluids. No painkillers though.”

  Two guards pulled Jag to his feet and drug him out of the room. Patrick followed behind them.

  “Has he been like this since the wormhole?” Dani turned to Howard.

  “It started after the trial and has been a steady decline, but he got worse recently. I’m sure it didn’t help that the news transmitted your execution across all GC territories.”

  Dani sighed, feeling responsible for Jag’s downhill slide. Her fingers rubbed into the skin on her forehead. Her mind drifted back to the last time she saw him in the visitor’s lounge at the prison. Even his own brother's betrayal hadn’t affected him on the level that Dani’s actions did. She had never seen him that angry, and hoped she never would again.

  “Look, this isn’t your fault.” Howard placed a sturdy hand on Dani’s shoulder. “You did something really great, taking all the blame for everything, but I still don’t understand why you admitted to that load of hokey.”

  “They had evidence against me. I don’t know how, but they had it. There was nothing implicating you all in the crimes they were accusing us of. I knew that if I took full responsibility, they couldn’t hold anything against the rest of you. All of your stories matched up, so if I claimed I acted alone then... well, I couldn’t risk all of you facing execution. We didn’t live through that mess for me to fail you in the end.”

  “Dani, I don’t think you could fail us even if you tried. Why don’t you get some food, get some rest, and we’ll check in on Jag in a few hours?”

  Dani nodded and followed Howard out of the room. Her body did need a break, and she was mentally exhausted to the point she didn’t even bicker with the guard who led her around the station like a lost puppy.

  * * *

  A rapping from the door to Dani’s private quarters interrupted the counting of ceiling tiles in her room. After her failed attempts at sleep, she thought boring herself into a slumber would work. She sat up on her bed and glared at the ceiling tiles momentarily before standing.

  “Just a minute,” she called out as she smoothed her mussed hair and wiped the moisture from her eyes. She stretched as she approached the door and tapped the button to slide it open.

  Patrick stood against the doorframe, examining his fingernails. “He’s awake.”

  “Thanks,” Dani mumbled mid-yawn.

  Patrick lifted his eyes to her face. “If you can’t reel him in then I can’t authorize him for your crew.”<
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  “I understand,” she replied, but Patrick had already turned and was several steps down the hall.

  “Alright, to the med bay!” She smiled and took on a superhero pose as the guard silently turned and headed the opposite direction as Patrick.

  Dani trailed after him, disappointed at her failed attempt to lighten the mood. “Everyone is so tense around here.”

  The guard didn’t reply and Dani trailed along closely behind him until he stopped just outside the med bay doors.

  Dani took a deep breath and stepped inside. Houston’s med bay rivaled every other medical unit she’d ever seen. The level of technology in the massive room far surpassed the archaic instruments she was accustomed to seeing. She raised her chin and nodded as she walked toward the back, where curtains offered patients a slight amount of privacy.

  Howard stood at the foot of a bed, arms crossed over his chest, looking displeased.

  “Whose idea was this anyway? Kidnapping me. I had a great thing going back there,” Jag shouted at Howard from the other side of the curtain.

  Dani stepped up next to Howard, and Jag’s complaints immediately ceased. She watched as his eyes darted from her to Howard and back again, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly.

  “Hey, Jag.”

  “What’s this, what’s going on here?” He peered down his nose at the pair before looking at the tag on his IV bag.

  “You’re not imagining it. I’m here. The execution was faked, sort of.” Her mind briefly retreated to her brutal awakening.

  “Uh-huh... so what? I’m supposed to be happy?”

  Dani felt the sting of his words cut right through her heart.

  Howard walked over and slapped Jag upside the head, causing his greasy hair to stick up on one side. “Don’t be an ass.”

  Jag rubbed his head, scowling at Howard. “So what, the whole thing was a charade? Things are just fine and dandy now I suppose? I’m just supposed to trust you again, just like that?”

  Dani sighed. This was going worse than expected. She had hoped he’d be at least a little happy to see her. “Jag—”

  “Look, I don’t even want to hear it, okay?” He yanked his IV out and swung his legs off the bed and stood up.

  Howard pushed Jag back onto the bed, not a difficult task considering Jag’s weakened state. “You will sit down and shut up or we’ll dump you off back on that hellhole we rescued you from.”

  “Rescued? Let me guess, that was Dani’s idea too. Always making decisions for me, thinking you know what’s best for everyone. You just up and left your crew, all alone to rot.”

  Dani looked to Howard for help. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. Part of her felt as though she deserved the tongue lashing, but another part wanted to run away from it all.

  Howard slapped Jag again. “You idiot, what did you expect her to do? You’re just mad you didn’t have the chance to jump on the grenade first.”

  Jag opened his mouth to speak, but Howard stuck his finger out in front of Jag’s nose like a parent scolding his child.

  “Not a word! Dani did what she did to save our asses. We’d all be dead right now if it weren’t for her. Admit it, you’d have done the exact same thing if you were in her position.”

  The look on Jag’s face melted from hatred into mild annoyance. “Maybe.”

  “So, now, what do you have to say to her?”

  Dani watched as Jag’s eyes met hers. The deep pools of blue that had been so angry in the visitor’s lounge now just seemed to be filled with sadness, guilt, and disappointment.

  “It’s good to see you alive and well,” he said softly before dropping his attention down to his hands in his lap.

  “You too, Jag. Well, the alive part anyway.” She nodded to the IV pole. “You want me to get the nurse to hook you back up?”

  “I’ll admit, I’ve been having a bit of fun lately... maybe too much.” Jag seemed to notice his surroundings for the first time. “Where are we, anyway? This doesn’t look like Draku.”

  “This is the Houston, a Galactic Conglomerate research and development vessel.” Patrick stepped out from behind the curtain.

  “Don’t I know you?” Jag’s eyes narrowed as looked him up and down.

  “He served with my father,” Dani said quickly as if to spit the words from her mouth.

  “Yeah... yeah, aren’t you dead too?” Jag paused and looked between Dani and Patrick. “Wait, am I dead? Howard, I can see. I mean, he’s old, fat—but me?”

  Howard raised his hand again and Jag covered his head.

  “Easy there!” Jag peeked out from between his arms.

  Howard grunted and took a seat.

  Jag relaxed and looked back at Patrick, occasionally glancing at Howard out of the corner of his eye, flinching every time Howard moved. “Seriously, what’s going on with this ghost ship? It doesn’t even feel like we’re in space.”

  “Well,” Dani started, “Patrick offered me a job and I told him I wanted my crew.”

  “A job?” Jag perked up, then quickly deflated, furrowing his brow.

  Dani sighed and shook her head slowly before shrugging. “I’ll try to do better, Jag. That’s really all I can say.”

  He seemed skeptical but nodded in acceptance before turning back to Patrick. “Let’s hear about this job then.”

  “I’ll go over the details when we pick up the rest of the crew.” Patrick moved to the foot of Jag’s bed. “However, I will not allow a drunk to participate in this mission. You must be sober.”

  Jag nodded. “Sure, I can cut back.”

  “There will be no cutting back. There will be absolutely no alcohol aboard the new ship.”

  “Surely there’s room for a celebratory drink now and then...” Patrick’s stare caused Jag to rethink his statement. “Or not.”

  Patrick turned and walked out of the med bay.

  “Charming fellow, that one.” Jag snorted.

  “Tell me about it.” Dani chuckled.

  “Did I hear him mention a new ship?” Jag’s boyish grin returned as he rubbed his hands together.

  “I haven’t seen it yet. He’s keeping it from me too.” Dani sighed and frowned but happened to catch Howard’s grin out of the corner of her eye. “What do you know, Howard?”

  “Quite a bit actually. I’ve seen it.”

  “You’ve been holding out on me?” Dani’s eyes widened. “Tell me everything.”

  “No, you need to see it for yourself. She’s truly a beaut. I haven’t seen anything like her before.”

  “I hope you know you’re killing me.” She laughed. “So, Jag, you’re in then?”

  Jag held both hands up in the air, alternating which one was higher. “Being on Dani’s crew, being able to drink whenever I want, Dani’s crew, booze... it’s a tough call.”

  “Howard...” Dani raised an eyebrow and nodded at Jag.

  “No! Call off your lackey, I’ll do it! Just stop hitting me.”

  Howard settled back into his chair with a smirk.

  “Seriously though.” Jag pointed at Dani. “You better not pull a stunt like that again, putting your ass on the line to save mine. I’ve had just about enough of that from you.”

  “Understood. You’ll be included in all ass-threatening decision making.”

  Jag smiled at her. “Then I’m in.”

  Chapter 3

  “Alright, full detox and back at 100% health in only eighteen days. That must be a new record.” Jag beamed as he walked into the conference room.

  “No, not at all.” Patrick didn’t raise his eyes from the tabletop display. “We’ll pick up Cassia, then we have to catalogue the moons here, here, and here.”

  The display rippled as Patrick tapped each of the moons in their path.

  “Then we’re on to the outpost for Cruz?” Dani asked as she fiddled with the display. She quickly tapped random stars, causing the screen to ripple outward like rain on a pond. Blue, gold, red, and white ripples collided as she drummed h
er fingertips on the display until Patrick cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows at her. Dani slowly slid her hands off the table and into her lap, smiling apologetically.

  “That’s correct. By then, the ship should be complete. Howard has been busy helping our engineers modify a few things for you and your crew.”

  Howard beamed at the mention of his name.

  “Speaking of which, Howard, they need you down in engineering. I’ll fill you in later on how the meeting goes.”

  “Of course.” Howard gave Dani a quick wink as he stepped out of the room.

  Despite her best efforts, Dani hadn’t been able to gather any information about the ship at all. She only had Howard’s grins to go off of. There was no doubt in her mind that it was something special with the amount of joy it brought to her old friend.

  “Great, and then onto the super-secret wormhole missions.” Jag slapped a hand down on the tabletop, causing a planet to shake and wiggle.

  Patrick glared at him, then at Dani.

  “Hey, I had to tell him something. You can’t expect people to agree to a mission they know next to nothing about.”

  Patrick sighed. “Very well. I’ll have the necessary confidentiality paperwork drawn up. All crew members will need to agree to and abide by the conditions. Howard has already signed so that just leaves you two, for now.”

  Patrick closed out of the map view on the tabletop and brought up a keypad. He quickly typed in a series of numbers that granted him access to a number of files. A moment later the pages were displayed on the tabletop in front of Jag and Dani.

  Dani quickly skimmed through hers and signed when nothing jumped out at her. Jag went straight to the signature page and scribbled his name down on the line.

  “Perfect, one less thing to do later on.” Patrick slid the digital papers into a folder on the screen, then entered a second series of numbers onto the keypad before the map of the surrounding star system reappeared.

  “Now that the dull part is over, let’s see about getting me killed.” Jag’s grin was ripe with boyish enthusiasm. “I imagine going out in a blaze of glory. Maybe I commandeer a ship and go after the Vaerian scum myself, in an effort to clear my name. I die, naturally, but not until I take out a sizable chunk of their fleet. Good, yeah?”