Frontier's Reach: A Space Opera Adventure (Frontiers Book 1) by Robert James (beach read TXT) 📗

were fascinating, his only thoughts were of his friend. He was of course happy that he was alive, but at the same time he couldn’t help but wonder whether it was the same Christian Nash who’d died in the nebula that day.

Everyone stopped and turned to the sphere as it wailed a metallic, high-pitched scream. They covered their ears, and Nash strolled out. The soldiers followed, dragging a unconscious Kione along with them. The door sealed itself shut, and the wailing turned into a loud humming.

“What’s it doing?” Tyler yelled over the cacophony.

As if to answer his question, the sphere rose into the air. The rock beneath shattered from the vibration, and it broke free. Everyone stepped backward as it ascended toward the antechamber’s ceiling.

But instead of colliding, the sphere moved through the rock, as if it were a hologram dissipating through a solid object. Jason assumed whatever Nash had done inside the sphere, with Kione’s help, it now had new instructions. He imagined once it’d risen to the surface, it would be taken aboard his ship.

Moments later, the sphere had completely disappeared, and Nash approached the group. “Well, it’s been good catching up with you, Jason.” The insincerity was glaring. “Unfortunately, reunions aren’t meant to last forever.”

“What about Kione?” Tai asked, watching him get dragged from the antechamber into the outer tunnel.

“Kione?” Nash glanced over at him. “Well, we still have lots of work for him to do.”

Jason put a hand on Nash’s shoulder and a soldier aimed his gun barrel in Jason’s face. Nash waved the weapon away.

“You don’t have to go with them,” Jason said.

“I belong with the Seekers now.” Nash smiled. “There’s nothing left here for me anymore.”

“Goddamn it, Nash, you belong with us.”

His friend shook his head. “You just don’t get it.”

“Then make me understand.”

“Sometimes you can’t know it all.” Nash shrugged off Jason’s hand and walked away.

Jason tried to break through the soldiers to stop him, but they shoved him to the ground with their weapons.

“No!” Nash commanded. “Hold your fire!”

The soldiers held back, and Nash let Jason up.

“I’m sorry,” Jason said to him.

“Sorry?” Nash looked at him, bemused. “For what?”

“I should’ve been the one to go on that mission. I should be standing where you are now.”

Nash chuckled wryly and marched toward the antechamber exit. “Goodbye, Cassidy.”

He followed the last of the soldiers out, and Jason watched him disappear again. “Seal them in!”

The soldiers aimed their weapons high above the entrance and fired. The ceiling rumbled, and rock came tumbling down. Just as it began six million years ago, the antechamber had once again become a tomb.

A dead end. Typical.

Conrad Althaus had hiked five hundred meters into another dark tunnel and once again found no other escape to the surface. He stopped and hunched over to grab his right knee. He struggled to remember the last time he’d done so much walking. Even in the Argo’s cargo hold, he had machinery to help with his job. He’d refused to believe it, but at times like this, he knew he wasn’t a young man anymore.

He got up and turned around, making his way back to the worksite. In the distance the sound of marching feet echoed. Moving as close to the side of the tunnel wall as he could, he continued to creep toward the worksite entrance. He stopped and took cover behind a large stalagmite.

Peeking around the corner, he surveyed the soldiers, with strange-looking rifles hanging down their arms. They were all dressed in black, their heads shielded by equally dark helmets. At least half a dozen stood guard at the top of the elevator.

I told you not to go down there.

He thought of Tyler. Since Jason had returned, he’d been nothing but a bad influence on him. Now, he’d probably got him killed.

Conrad crept farther up and crouched behind a smaller rock formation. The soldiers hadn’t spotted him, so he took his chance and crawled toward the giant excavator between him and them. He jumped behind the machine’s large bucket just as one of the soldier’s heads turned.

Sweat drenched his brow. He waited a few moments before looking back toward them. They hadn’t moved. He was in the clear.

Now what the hell am I going to do?

If he stayed out of sight, he could get away scot-free and return to the Argo without a scratch. But then that wouldn’t help Tyler.

Before he could come up with any semblance of a plan, a humming noise got steadily louder. He poked his head around the excavator’s bucket as the elevator car returned to the top of the shaft. Whoever had gone down were on their way up.

More soldiers came out followed by one who wasn’t wearing a helmet. It was a man. His gaze drifted when he spotted something even stranger. A tall being of some description carried by a pair of the soldiers. It wasn’t a human. His features were all wrong.

What the hell is that?

The leader pointed to the line of carriages on the tracks. All the soldiers filed into them, taking the ‘thing’ with them.

Conrad shuffled to the other side of the excavator to see if the coast was clear. He grabbed hold of the bucket but instead found a loose wrench sitting on top. It clanged down to the ground at his feet. In the corner of his eye, two soldiers hopped off their carriage and directed the others to go ahead of them.

Christ!

The sound of their footsteps trudged toward him. They knew where he was and were coming for him from either side of the excavator.

Conrad surveyed the bucket of the machine sitting slightly above the ground. He wondered if he’d be able to fit under it.

He slinked beneath, ripping his shirt and grazing his face against the rocky ground. But he made it and slid farther back until he’d come out of the rear of the excavator. The door of the large earthmover was open and the key in the ignition.

If he ran, they’d chase him.