Unite the Frontier Page 3

  Without hesitation, Lee rolled into a crouch, fit a new mag and resumed firing on the troopers. They deployed a portable barricade and covered.

  More troops now took notice of his theatrics with the turret. They advanced on his position. He fired an entire magazine down range to slow their advance. The return fire was withering. He might lose his head if he popped up again.

  Lee suddenly heard distant shouts and pulse blasts. But none hit his cover. He risked a glance. Ben James’ men advanced from the entrance to the hangar bay and engaged Kane’s troops.

  The besieged troops deployed another barricade ahead of them since they’d abandoned their fortified position to confront Lee. Several sonic grenades rippled through the air above them. Non-lethal. Ben James didn’t want to kill Kane’s troops either.

  There might be some shred of decency in the deceptive little Immortal after all.

  A voice cut into the comm.

  “Lee, I have Rachael. I need your help, he’s—”

  The transmission cut off.

  The Commander needed his help. Lee’d made a promise to Avery. Bring the Commander home.

  And he intended to keep it.

  Chapter 5 –The Man

  “Last words, Commander Rayne?” – Rylar Kane

  Velon-1

  Aaron had eased his way past the throng of troopers scrambling in different directions across the hangar bay while Lee created quite the distraction. Before anyone noticed, Aaron was up the ramp and into Reliant’s cargo bay.

  Rachael was alone. She was bound and sitting with her back against a bulkhead. It didn’t look like she had been there long. Her eyes widened when she saw him. He forgot to remove his helmet. She recoiled as he approached.

  He knelt next to her as he removed his helmet. Her face brightened. He freed her from the physical restraints with his plasma blade. She looked at him with sad eyes and buried her head in his shoulder. He hugged her.

  “You didn’t think I was leaving you here did you?”

  “He’s insane.” She shook her head. “Kane. He’s the one who brought me here. Something isn’t right with him.”

  “Many things aren’t right with him. It’s being taken care of. I’ll explain on the way out. Where’s Reyes?”

  She shook her head.

  Aaron’s heart sank. Another crewmember lost under his command. He was going to rip Kane’s head from his shoulders.

  He held her hand to go, but she didn’t move.

  She resisted. “Aaron, he’s not far. Kane was here before the shooting started. Where’s Lee? Is it just you? Aaron, you can’t handle him. He’s . . . insane.”

  “You said that already. I’ll pretend you didn’t hurt my feelings. I can handle a lot.”

  A voice called across the cargo bay.

  “Commander Rayne.”

  Aaron whirled to face it.

  The man—Rylar Kane—stared from the entrance to Reliant’s cargo bay. A menacing figure in his black and red armor and a full head taller than Aaron. He finally understood what Vee had tried to describe about the man. Aaron pulled Rachael behind him.

  Aaron signaled Lee. “Lee, I have Rachael. I need your help, he’s—”

  Kane closed the distance and struck, even with the armor it felt like Kane had hit Aaron’s naked chest. Kane pounced like a mongoose and struck with the speed of a viper.

  Aaron shook his head and climbed to his feet.

  “I don’t suppose you’ve heard of the hot-steppers,” he said, bouncing from side to side.

  Kane didn’t answer.

  “Truth be told, I wish they were here!”

  Aaron charged in swinging, doing his best by Lee’s teachings. Kane just slithered either which way and laughed.

  Aaron tried again. Arch kick, round kick, feign, sweep, spin and another kick. Kane booted him in the chest. Aaron skated on his back across Reliant’s cargo deck and into a bulkhead. Without his armor, his spine would have cracked in two and that kick would have crushed his lungs. He had to keep Kane busy long enough until Lee came.

  Aaron surged in again. Kane grabbed his throat, lifted him off the deck, back fisted and dropped him like a ragdoll. The Immortal’s knee pinned Aaron’s throat. Kane grabbed his hair and thrust Aaron’s head into the deck. Darkness clouded his vision.

  Aaron brought up his forearm, Kane grabbed it and Aaron felt a shock through his armor. Kane’s palm was connected to a scrambler in his suit! Kane shoved away Aaron’s arm and stomped a boot heel on his wrist. From nowhere, Rachael rammed Kane with her shoulder. The Immortal’s weight barely shifted.

  But it was enough. Aaron twisted his hips, throwing Kane off and rolled away. Bracing on one knee, Aaron drew a plasma strip and rolled towards Kane before he could strike Rachael. He slapped Kane’s chest and rolled away.

  Kane snorted. “You are pathetic, Commander Rayne. This…” Kane sounded truly disgusted, “you are what drove my people from Earth centuries ago? You are weak. Feeble. How do you expect to defeat me?”

  Aaron propped on his hands and knees and spat blood on the deck.

  “By teaching you that being a skilled fighter is but one way to win a fight.”

  Aaron triggered the plasma patch. It burned Kane’s suit and breached his torso. That had to hurt. Kane roared and leveled a weapon. So much for winning the fight.

  Aaron rolled into it and tucked his head into his shoulder. The blast struck his shoulder armor and knocked him back against the bulkhead.

  Rachael swept in and kicked Kane’s weapon from his grip. Kane gripped her throat and tossed her. Aaron charged, grabbed Kane around the waist, lifted and slammed him to the deck. He gripped Kane’s helmet and wrenched it, tearing it from its suit.

  Aaron drove a fist through the hole in Kane’s armor. He used the helmet and slammed it across Kane’s chin. Un-phased, the man smiled up at him. Kane double fisted him away, rolled towards him and smashed the side of Aaron’s face with a sweeping boot.

  Kane stood and stomped on Aaron’s chest. His armor caved. A cracking noise reverberated through Aaron’s body. Pain shot up his chest.

  “Last words, Commander Rayne?”

  Aaron smiled a bloody smile. Kane never heard the whirring sound. The plasma blade activated, and he drove it into Kane’s right leg.

  “Kane!”

  Aaron craned his head at the voice.

  Lee propelled himself into the Immortal with a fierce momentum. He must have used the jump pack. Kane slammed into the far-side bulkhead with Lee holding him.

  “Have we met?” Kane asked.

  Lee released him and Kane’s feet dropped to the deck. Lee used his forearm to brace Kane against the bulkhead and dazed him with a bionic fist across the chin.

  Aaron called to Lee but it was too late.

  Kane gripped Lee’s bionic and it went dead. The Immortal drove his fingers into the seal on Lee’s helmet and ripped it from the lieutenant’s neck. He then smashed his forehead into Lee’s nose.

  Aaron was already in striking distance when Lee crumbled to the deck. He drove his knee into the hole in Kane’s armor. From behind, he heard Rachael yell.

  “Down!”

  Aaron obeyed and half a second later, wielding Lee’s helmet, Rachael struck the Immortal across his face hard, the blow surely shattered his nose. Kane was inhuman! He recovered and blocked Rachael’s second blow and struck her away with an outward sweep of his forearm.

  Before Kane could strike again, Aaron smashed the Immortal’s throat and pulled the back of Kane’s head down into his rising knee. Both sprawled to the ground, but Kane was slower to recover this time, getting to his knees after Aaron.

  Rachael surged back in with a low kick towards the Immortal’s cheek, he managed to deflect enough of it and she lost balance when he grabbed her other foot around the ankle and pulled. She hit the deck hard.

  Aaron leapt forward but Kane raised a boot and struck underneath Aaron’s chin and he crumpled to the deck on his back. With a maddening yowl, Kane removed
the plasma blade from his leg and advanced.

  Aaron blinked when a claw object pierced Kane from behind and hooked into his chest. Then Kane stumbled backwards.

  From the deck, Lee pulled on the grappler which he shot through the Immortal. Kane dropped the blade and gripped the claws digging into his chest. Aaron rolled towards Kane, snatched the blade off the deck and rising with the momentum, swept it through Kane’s neck from right to left.

  Lee’s eyes widened.

  Aaron stood over the fallen Immortal, next to Lee.

  Lee was breathing hard. “Just let me lie here for a few days, Commander.”

  Aaron knelt by the lieutenant and Rachael stood next to him.

  “You two don’t look so good,” she said.

  Aaron grimaced holding his chest. “I don’t feel so good either.”

  “Nothing the doctor can’t fix.” Lee raised his arm.

  Aaron took Lee’s arm and swung it around his neck as he helped the lieutenant to his feet.

  “I’m tired of the doctor fixing me,” he said.

  Lee laughed. “That’s the pain talking. We’ll have you high on meds and stims, and you’ll be your old self.”

  Aaron wanted to say something clever. “Hurrah.”

  It was all he could muster.

  ***

  The hangar bay was silent.

  How could such a fierce battle have ended so soon? Had the news of Kane’s passing reached the defenders? Hopefully no more copies of “the man” ran amok.

  But something else was happening. Troopers from both sides converged at the exit to the hangar.

  There was a ship landed there. A small shuttlecraft.

  “Lee?”

  “No idea. The battle still raged when I got your signal.”

  Aaron looked at Rachael. She just shrugged.

  The troopers seemed to have forgotten they’d just been in a bloody battle for survival. No one held any weapons, they were all scattered throughout the former battleground.

  Completely bewildered, Aaron had to see what was happening. Everything else left him. He pushed through the troopers who didn’t seem to care who he was. There in the center, a man stood with Ben James at his side. He couldn’t believe it. What does this even mean?

  Aaron saw him and he didn’t see him.

  Chapter 6 –Reminus Octavian

  “In a manner of speaking . . . I’m still dead . . .” – Aaron Rayne

  Velon-1

  The soldiers, who only minutes ago battled each other for their lives, now converged as one mob as Patrick Rayne descended the ramp from the small craft. He donned a sleek, dark trench coat. Ben James stood by his side. Aaron couldn’t be sure if this was the same Ben James he had encountered in the base.

  His father’s eyes searched the mob ahead. When his gaze met Aaron’s, he held it. The throng parted as Patrick waded through. They stared in awe, frozen by some unseen magic. Every one of Rylar Kane’s soldiers were Immortal separatists. Kane’s army didn’t consist of any ordinary ORA citizens. Only Immortals.

  His father stopped a foot in front of him.

  “Dad?”

  “Son.”

  Aaron’s throat was dry. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”

  Next to Patrick, Ben James smiled. “I told you Reminus, he’s a bit slow, your son.”

  Why did James call his father Reminus?

  Patrick silenced James with a glare.

  “Follow me,” he said to Aaron.

  Forgetting everything else, Aaron followed him back the way he came, into the small craft.

  “Where’s my mother?”

  “I wouldn’t bring Anna into a war zone.”

  “Why did he call you Reminus?”

  Even as Aaron asked, he knew the answer. He recalled what another version of Ben James said to him before about some link his mother shared with Reminus Octavian.

  “I think you know why, son.”

  Aaron shook his head. “I want you to tell me.”

  “I am Patrick Rayne, your father. I am also Reminus Octavian. And at one time long ago, I was called Lazarus.” His features creased into a look of disapproval. “A name I should admit, I am not particularly fond of.”

  Aaron felt dizzy. The room swirled. Although part of him already knew, hearing it from his father overwhelmed him. He stumbled. His fath—Reminus reached to steady him.

  When he tried to speak, nothing came out. He swallowed hard and tried a second time.

  “Mom said you gave up living forever. You wanted one last life.”

  “That hasn’t changed. I don’t intend to remain among them. I’ve only come to see you and stop this madness when I learned of it. Your mother didn’t tell me she wrote the letter and sent it until long after. I didn’t want you to fill your mind with rage. I wanted to be here when you found out. I really had no idea what had happened out here since we left.”

  Aaron’s chest felt hollow. He knew the answer to his next question as well, but still he needed to hear his father say it. “So I died then . . . back at Fleet HQ . . . after the Battle of Atlas Prime.”

  Reminus nodded. “Despite your friend Dr. Tanner’s herculean efforts, the damage to your brain couldn’t be repaired, Aaron. Your mother watched over you. There was limited time until your brain waves failed completely. She contacted me and we accessed a lab near Earth I’d hidden during our exodus all those years ago after the war your mother spoke of.”

  “It’s hard to believe Max agreed to help you.”

  “It wasn’t difficult to convince the doctor to save you. His only difficulty came from the clash with his ethics. Your friends are unbelievably loyal to you, son. Max Tanner, a man who prides himself on the highest ethical and moral standards, sacrificed them to save you.”

  “Then, in a manner of speaking . . . I’m still dead . . .”

  Reminus smiled. “One physical house, which contained the essence of who you are, was damaged beyond repair, but Aaron Tyler Rayne is hardly dead. He is very much alive. Your actions here should be all the proof you need.”

  Aaron’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t make any more copies of me did you?”

  Reminus laughed. “No, son. We agreed with the doctor to destroy the lab. You got a second chance. Me and Anna . . . got a second chance to keep our son. I’m afraid whatever the future holds, we’ll have to accept it. I’ve lived for a long time, or at least I have the memories of someone who has lived a long time. It’s not something I wish for you. You’d have to do it, to understand what I’m telling you. Trust me when I say, one life is all you need.”

  “I can’t help but think that some of your disdain for the United Systems comes from what United Earth did to the Lazarus Society. Your Separatist movement on the Border Worlds, your negative views about our expansion and policy…”

  “I think you’ll find that one need not have malice to realize these things about the United Star Systems. I am sure you will come to realize, if you haven’t by now, that there are elements still within the USS which are not to be trusted.”

  Aaron thought of the dark matter bomb he’d heard the crew discussing. No one knew if it really existed beyond rumors.

  “Perhaps,” he conceded. “But now that everything has come to the fore here, the United Systems will know who really leads the Outer Rim Alliance. I’m no politician, but I’m certain there’ll be no cozy reunions with our long forgotten colonies beyond the wormhole.”

  Reminus considered that for a long moment. “I’m certain the Alliance is happy to maintain things as they are. It is likely the USS will send ships beyond the wormhole to explore. So long as they do not engage in provocative actions, or venture into Alliance territory, they are free to do as they please. I am not privy to current Alliance politics. Ben James wishes me to visit the homeworld. I’d need to traverse a few more wormholes to get there. But suffice to say, based on my discussions with Ben, the Old Ones have no desire to open diplomatic relations with Earth or anyone else. Although, there m
ay be other autonomous colonies out here who might wish to trade, or desire some form of relationship with the USS, and the other enclaves.

  “I am curious myself to know the mindset of the Old Ones. The Ben James with me here on Velon is one you can trust. I will give you his unique clone profile that you may verify his identity should you encounter him in the future—whether the grounded ones, or those blinded by vengeance, like Kane.”

  Aaron looked out at the crowd gathered outside the small craft. “How long do you think you will be gone?”

  “I imagine I could be gone a few years.”

  “And mom?”

  “Anna will accompany me.”

  “There’s no danger to you at all? For leaving the Old Ones and renouncing the . . . perks?”

  “Nothing in life is certain, son. But I’m not inclined to believe your mother and I will be in any danger. Or I wouldn’t go. One life to live after all, eh?”

  Aaron smiled. “One life to live,” he said.

  “Can you still hug your old man?”

  Aaron laughed. “Old gives new meaning to you now, dad. Besides, I think hugs are timeless.”

  His father embraced him. “Quite right, son. And you know no matter how old you get, you will still always be a baby boy in my eyes. It’s something you’ll understand one day when you’re a father.”

  Reminus sighed. “My only son . . . I hope you understand your mother and I weren’t ready to give you up so soon. I pray that you’ll be extremely careful for our sake. A parent should not outlive his child. If anything should happen to you, it would destroy Anna and I.”

  “I’ll try my best.”

  “You were the true beginning of a new life for us. If only we could have somehow singled out that strand of DNA which makes you so prone to recklessness. But DNA manipulation wasn’t a part of it.” He smiled. “Unfortunately.”