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

Tyler glanced at Jason and nodded. “We’ll help in any way we can.”

Twenty-Eight

The Marines armed themselves with the remaining rifles from the Argo’s weapon locker. They weren’t the top-of-the-line G-74s they’d been stripped of on Orion V, but they’d be better than nothing.

Susan stood back as Nicolas spoke to them. It’d been the first time he’d been able to since the death of Major Ripken. After passing out his condolences for their fallen comrades, Nicolas put Corporal Higgs in command of the four-man team. He was the obvious choice over Corporal Burns, who’d only recently been promoted, and the two privates, Dalton and Utkin. With an understanding of their new orders, the Marines filed off and walked into the Maybelle through the side airlock.

Nicolas’s eyes had heavy bags beneath them, despite the fact everyone had been asleep for over three days. Susan understood the pain he was obviously bottling up inside with the loss of the Vanguard and its crew. While fighting for survival on Orion V, they hadn’t had time to think about it. Since coming aboard the Argo, it’d been different. Especially with everything that’d happened. And now to be so far from home on a strange cargo ship, she couldn’t blame him for feeling the way he did.

Her thoughts turned to Kione. She’d been the lead project coordinator on his studies at TIAS for four years. He’d become like family. She could only hope that he survived whatever the Seekers were going to do to him.

Nicolas led her inside the Maybelle and sat in the rear cabin of the craft. She sat opposite him and went to say something, but stopped, a ruckus getting nearer from outside the pod.

Tyler Cassidy stepped through the airlock. “It’s not happening, Jason.”

His brother walked in after him. “There’s a commonwealth distress beacon coming from the surface of that planet, and you’re not taking me?”

Tyler gestured inside the pod, specifically at Nicolas and the Marines. “I’ve got enough people here. Luckily for me they’re actually in the Defense Force.”

Susan had the sudden suspicion they’d got caught up in the middle of a family squabble. She glanced at Nicolas who appeared to do his best not to chuckle. There was a least some humor still left inside him.

“I need you here helping with the repairs,” Tyler continued.

“This has nothing to do with repairing the ship. You’ve already got Aly, Kevin, and Althaus up here. Not to mention Professor Petit.”

“Okay, you’re right, I don’t need you here to do the repairs. Do you want to know why you’re not going?”

Jason couldn’t speak before he got his answer.

“You stuffed up!”

Now this is really awkward.

“If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be here in the first place!”

As the Cassidys continued their slanging match, Susan thought back to the incident at Nebula TPA-338. She’d heard about the task force that was sent to find the remaining Centauri war criminals. Benjamin Tyrell’s inclusion on the list had always concerned her. When she’d been brought in to take over his role, the unofficial story at TIAS was that he’d planned to reveal the details of Kione and the project to the remaining leaders of the Centauri rebellion, to use it against Earth. Kione hadn’t been convinced, and she’d never been certain herself.

“You’re not going.” Tyler put his foot down, and the two stared coldly at each other.

“All right, fine,” Jason finally relented. “Just watch that port thruster, it was a little sluggish when we came back up from Orion V.”

Tyler nodded in appreciation, and Jason turned, sealing the airlock behind him. Tyler took the helm and fired up the Maybelle. It rumbled to life beneath them and detached from the Argo, maneuvering toward the newly discovered world below.

Kevin was hunched under the helm console working inside the small maintenance panel when Jason strolled onto the bridge. He glanced up momentarily before returning to his work.

“Where’s Petit?” Jason asked.

A spark flew from the panel. Kevin quickly pulled his hand away to avoid any shock. “He’s down in the engine room. Alyssa hyperventilated when the professor agreed to help her.”

“So, you’re relegated to getting the bridge controls up to spec again?”

“Well, I figured it was this or clean up the mess down in the cargo bay. I thought I’d leave that to Althaus.”

Jason smirked, stepping closer to the helm.

“Can you pass me those circuit cutters?” Kevin asked.

Jason took the small tool from the box on top of the helm console and passed it to him.

“So, what happened up here when I was down in the infirmary? Seems like I missed all the fun.”

Jason took a seat. “Well, there was this hole and—”

“Yeah, I got the rundown on that,” Kevin said. “Why’d we get sucked in?”

“We got too close.”

“We got too close?”

“I got too close.”

Kevin cut the faulty circuits from the main monitor to the key pads. “Hand me those connectors.”

Jason gave Kevin another small tool to reconnect the console’s vital components.

“Could we have got away from the vortex?”

Jason seemed unsure. “If I was quick enough. Yeah, I guess.”

“I never taught you to be slow. You’re the best lever jockey I’ve ever seen. What really happened?”

The helm controls lit up.

“Is it working?”

Jason ran his hands over the console. “Seems good.”

Kevin pulled himself up from deck and brushed himself off. “So?”

Jason turned away. “I guess I just froze.”

“That doesn’t sound like you either.”

“A lot has changed since I was here last.”

“I realize that.” Kevin closed up the toolbox and took a seat at the operations station. “It’s not a crime to admit that you froze because of everything that’s happened. To believe your friend had been dead for so many years and then—”

“Yeah.”

Kevin knew him too well. Jason hadn’t really changed that much.

“What is a crime is I’ve let everybody down. I could’ve got everyone killed. And now we’re stuck three hundred light-years from home.”

“Well, everyone didn’t get killed, and even if it does take us fifteen years, we’ll get back eventually.”

The systems console beeped, and