Blood Thirsty (Tri System's Edge Series Book 2) Read online

  The nose of the cruiser was pointed away from him, gliding toward a platform on the other side of the bay. But even at that distance, he could see it wasn’t a military ship. From his viewpoint, it looked more like a small cargo ship, and as he continued to examine the spacecraft, it occurred to him that he’d seen this particular one before. He remained still as the ship hovered over an empty platform then spun back around toward him. In an instant, he remembered where he’d seen it before, and his blood began to boil.

  As the ship touched down on the platform, the general clenched his fists and tried to calm down, reminding himself that if Kalla walked off that ship, he’d need to make her believe that he was at her mercy. She didn’t know anything about what had happened to him or the ship, and that gave him a distinct advantage that he planned to utilize as long as possible.

  The thought brought a partial smile to his face, and his anger began to subside. But when Kalla appeared, followed by two male companions, his smile vanished, as the reality set in that he might not have the upper hand after all.

  “Hello, General,” one of the men called out.

  It took a moment for the general to recognize who it was. “Davis?” he finally said, with a chuckle.

  “Surprised?”

  The general laughed. “I certainly didn’t expect to ever see you again.”

  “This time will be different,” Davis replied.

  The general ignored the comment and instead turned his attention to the other man, who looked more intimidating. “And who’s the other fella?” he asked with sincere curiosity.

  “Yes, you wouldn’t remember Jarek,” Kalla said. “You were too busy trying to kill him the last time you two met.”

  The general’s laughter filled the air, while he began moving slowly toward the large inner doors that kept the Vie outside the docking bay. “It was just business,” he said with a shrug. “Nothing personal.”

  Jarek scowled back at him.

  “It’s over,” Kalla announced. “You’re finished.”

  “Three to one,” the general replied. “I don’t suppose you’ll let me surrender? Maybe turn me over to the Directive for a fair trial?”

  “Maybe,” Davis answered, as he started walking toward the general. “I’ve got this,” he called back to Kalla and Jarek, who both stood still.

  “This is a mistake,” the general said, as he continued to edge closer to the inside doors.

  “I know you think you can run,” Davis replied, “but you won’t get away this time.”

  “Oh, I don’t plan to run,” the general said as his back reached the wall immediately next to the large doors separating the docking bay from the rest of the ship. He slowly removed one of his guns from its holster, and with his other hand found the control panel to the door.

  Davis laughed out loud. “Go ahead, shoot me. You’re still not getting out of here alive.”

  “That may be, but neither are you.” He aimed at Davis and fired several rounds, waiting long enough to watch Davis drop to the floor before he unlocked and opened the doors. “Have fun,” he said, as he took off running toward the row of fighter jets.

  The general heard Kalla yell something, but couldn’t make it out through the screeching noises that quickly filled the docking bay. When he finally reached the first jet, he turned around just long enough to see Kalla and Jarek get overrun by a swarm of Vie. Then the general jumped into an open cockpit and slid the canopy door shut.

  ~

  “Davis!” Kalla screamed. She emptied her pistols into the mass of Vie that swarmed over her fallen friend like an army of ants. But her efforts were in vain. Within seconds she couldn’t see Davis at all—an overwhelming mass of Vie had completely covered him. “We have to get him out of there,” she yelled.

  Jarek stood next to her, holding his sword out in front of him. “We need to go, Kalla. There’s nothing we can do for him. He’s gone.”

  Kalla shook her head, and when Jarek grabbed her arm, she jerked away. “No,” she said. “I’m not leaving him.”

  Jarek stepped in front of her just as a large group of Vie reached them, and he growled as he began methodically hacking through the onrush of bodies. “We have to go!” he yelled.

  Kalla grabbed Jarek’s shirt and started running toward her ship, dragging him along with her. The moment there was enough distance between them and the Vie, she helped Jarek back to his feet, and they both ran until they reached her ship.

  “This isn’t over,” Jarek said, stepping onto the ramp. “We’ll find Quinn.”

  Kalla nodded. “You’re right, this isn’t over yet.” She raced to the cockpit and fired up the engines. “The bullets wouldn’t have killed him,” Kalla said, as Jarek jumped into the copilot’s chair next to her. “Maybe there’s still a chance. Maybe he survived.”

  Jarek shook his head. “Kalla, you’ve seen what they can do. When Quinn shot him, it just made him easy prey. There’s no way he survived that.”

  Tears ran down her face. Deep down she knew he was right, but she wasn’t ready to accept it yet. “We’re not leaving,” she insisted as her ship lifted off the landing platform.

  “Kalla, Davis is gone, the general is gone, and this ship is gone. There’s no reason to stay.”

  “No, Quinn is still here. He’s still on this ship somewhere, and we’re going to find him and end this.”

  “And what about all the Vie? There’s hundreds of ‘em down there. If Quinn is still here, the Vie will finish him off. There’s nothing else you can do.”

  “Yeah? Watch me,” Kalla said as she hovered her ship toward the dark mass below. Once directly above them, she killed the thrust engines and let her ship drop to the floor, crushing a large mass of Vie beneath the dead weight of her cruiser. Then she fired up the thrusters to maximum capacity, causing a burst of flames that engulfed any Vie that had survived the first maneuver. The ship lifted off again, and she repositioned it over another group of Vie, repeating the process of crushing and burning the hapless creatures. She was systematic and relentless, until she could see almost no more movement below.

  “Where’d you learn to do that?” Jarek asked as the ship touched down on a nearby landing pad.

  “Just making this up as I go,” Kalla said as she jumped out of her chair and ran toward the back of her ship to her cabin.

  Jarek followed close behind. “Why do you think he’s still onboard?”

  Kalla stopped before entering her cabin. “Because I didn’t see him make it off the ship. He’s gotta be here somewhere.”

  Jarek placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry about Davis.”

  She forced a smile. “I know.” Then she walked through the doorway and approached the locker at the end of her bed. She knelt down and entered a code, then lifted the lid. After a brief pause to review the contents it held, she reached in and grabbed an elongated package wrapped in cloth.

  “What’s that?” Jarek asked.

  Kalla unwrapped two identical short swords, then turned to face Jarek. “If there are more Vie on the ship, these will do me a lot more good than my pistols will,” she said. The hilt of each sword fit her hands perfectly. The blades were less than half a meter in length, with a slight curvature. After holding them up in front of her, Kalla skillfully swung them in unison, then slid the swords into her belt, one on each side, and said, “Let’s go.”

  When they walked off the ship the pungent smell overwhelmed them at first, but it was the screeching cries of Vie who hadn’t been killed that bothered Kalla the most. “Never thought I’d say this, but I actually feel bad for them,” she said to Jarek. They walked closer to the burnt pile of carcasses where Davis had been overrun. “What if he wasn’t . . .?”

  “Kalla, don’t. You saw what they did to me, and I was able to fight back.”

  She nodded and stared at the smoldering pile. “Yeah, I know you’re right. I had a kind of connection with him before. It’s hard to explain, but I could feel his life force. It’s gone now.
There’s nothing anymore.”

  ~

  In the chaos of trying to escape the swarm of Vie that he’d unleashed, the general hadn’t paid attention to the fighter jet he’d chosen to climb into. But when the engine didn’t start, he knew right away that it had to be the one he’d knocked over earlier. Now, in his anger, he brought his fists down on the control panel, damaging the jet even more. He only refrained from yelling to avoid drawing any unwanted attention.

  Resigned to the fact that he wasn’t going anywhere, he sat back and watched the mayhem unfold as hundreds of Vie swarmed about. When he spotted Kalla and Jarek, he was disappointed to see they were both managing much better against the Vie than he’d hoped. Davis, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found.

  He anxiously watched and waited for Kalla and Jarek to meet their inevitable end, but the end he’d hoped for never came. Instead of being overrun by the Vie, they both made it safely back to their ship. “At least I got to kill Davis again,” he sneered, bashing his hands down on the dash of the fighter jet again.

  The general assumed that once they were back aboard their ship, Kalla and Jarek would just leave. What he didn’t expect was the attack that ensued. He watched helplessly as the cargo ship began crushing and burning the Vie, and his frustration and rage grew.

  Once Kalla’s ship had finished destroying most of his precious cargo, the Vie he’d hoped to eventually unleash against the Directive, Quinn watched in anger as the ship returned to the empty platform and landed again.

  “That’s it,” he muttered. Before cruiser’s engines shut off, the general hurried and climbed out of the fighter jet and took cover, where he waited patiently for the right moment to present itself.

  ~

  “I know you’re still in here!” Kalla yelled. “Where are you?” She walked in the direction she remembered seeing him last, near a group of fighter jets. “Answer me you coward!” Her voice echoed through the docking bay, but was only met with silence.

  “You sure he didn’t make it out in all the chaos?” Jarek asked.

  “No, I’m telling you, he’s still here somewhere. You check those crates over there, and I’ll go look by those jets.”

  “Sure you want to split up?” Jarek asked, with a hint of concern in his voice.

  “What, you worried I might get hurt?” She smiled. “He’s got nothing left. We took care of the Vie, and his bullets won’t stop me.”

  “Nah, let’s stick together,” Jarek insisted. “He’s turned out to be a lot bigger pain than we thought. Keeps surprising us.”

  Kalla nodded. “Alright, fine, we stay together.” She followed Jarek toward several stacks of crates and began weaving her way through them.

  “Nothing,” Jarek said, after they exited the last row.

  “Then he’s got to be over by those fighter jets,” Kalla said, as she headed toward them.

  When they were a few meters from the first jet, Jarek reached out his hand out and stopped Kalla. “Do you see that?” he asked.

  “See what?”

  “Just stay here a minute,” he said as he cautiously approached the jet and examined something on its fuselage. “Kinda looks like a . . .”

  His comment was cut short. The fighter jet suddenly slammed into him with great force, knocking him to the floor and then tipping over on top of him.

  “Jarek,” Kalla cried out, but as she ran toward him, a bullet hit her in the shoulder. She winced and then saw the general standing on top of another fighter jet with a big grin on his face.

  “I remember the first time I saw you,” he began. “You seemed so ordinary at first. A little feisty, but ordinary. How wrong I was about you.”

  “Oh, you have no idea,” Kalla replied.

  “Then, by pure accident, I saw you fight,” the general continued, as if Kalla had said nothing. “Those men could have left you alone, and everything would have been different. In fact, you probably would have killed me at our exchange. I never did intend to pay you for the merchandise you were selling. But when I saw you fight, I came prepared.”

  Kalla knelt down and lifted the fighter up just enough to find Jarek, who was unconscious from the blow. Using her back to hold the weight, she slid him out from under the ship and then let it drop to the floor again.

  “Seems your friend is taking a little nap. Not as tough as I thought,” the general said, now standing just a few meters away.

  Kalla stood up, faced him, and smiled. “You do know you’re about to die, right?”

  General Quinn burst into laughter. “That’s funny, because I was just thinking the same thing about you.”

  “And how exactly did you plan to do that?” she asked somewhat puzzled.

  “It’s such a shame, really,” he went on, “but the truth is, I don’t need you anymore.”

  The moment he finished talking, Kalla watched him holster his pistol, and then, in a completely unexpected move, he charged her. She stood still, not expecting him to be able to do anything significant, but she was caught off guard when his fist connected with her forehead. She was thrown backwards several meters, and landed hard on her back.

  Kalla’s mind was in a daze from the blow when she suddenly felt hands grab her by the ankles.

  “I do have to thank you, though,” the general said, while dragging her across the floor. “You’ve changed my life for the better, and for that, I hope your death is at least a quick one.”

  Kalla suddenly felt her body being lifted off the ground as the general started spinning her around by her feet. The centrifugal force caused her arms to flail helplessly above her head. Then in an instant, she stopped spinning and took flight across the docking bay, toward the large opening into space. With no way to stop her momentum, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, waiting to die.

  The moment she passed through the pressure shield her entire body was enveloped by freezing cold unlike anything she’d ever felt before. It was as though thousands of needles were piercing her skin, and then she blacked out.

  C

  HAPTER 20

  “Sir, our sensors just picked up a small object that exited the battleship.”

  “What is it, lieutenant?” Captain Wolfe asked.

  “It looks like . . . It’s a person, sir. And it doesn’t appear to have a suit on.”

  Captain Wolfe stood from his chair. “Do we know if it’s a man or a woman?”

  There was some brief chatter on the bridge before the lieutenant finally replied. “The body appears to be female,” he said.

  The captain rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes. “Are there any other bodies or is it just the one?”

  “No, sir. Just the one,” the lieutenant replied. “But, sir . . .” he paused for a moment and turned around to face the captain. “Sir, our scanners picked up a pulse. Seems she’s somehow still alive.”

  “Impossible,” the captain replied. “Are you sure she’s not wearing a suit?”

  The lieutenant maintained eye contact with the captain. “I’ve checked the stats myself. We are reading vitals, sir. She’s definitely still alive, though just barely.”

  “Send an extraction team immediately,” Wolfe ordered as he began pacing back and forth.

  “Aye aye, sir,” the lieutenant said. He promptly opened a comm channel to give the order.

  “I don’t know how that’s even possible, but let’s get to her before it’s too late.”

  “A team is en route,” the lieutenant said. “They’ll let us know as soon as they have her.”

  Captain Wolfe walked to the front of the bridge and stared out the viewport, wondering now if he’d made a mistake in coming back here without reinforcements. He’d made the decision against his better judgment, but he was quite bothered by the fact that he’d not only allowed Kalla to leave hours earlier, but that he’d given her the coordinates to the mysterious battleship. Staring at it now only confirmed his belief that she had no business getting involved in whatever was going on, and he’d felt a pressin
g need to keep her from getting into trouble. But now, as he watched the extraction team move away from his ship and toward the body of a woman floating in space, he began to doubt all the decisions he’d made since first encountering the large vessel. “I should have blown it out of existence,” he mumbled to himself.

  “Sir,” the lieutenant interrupted. “The extraction team has visual contact. They’ll have her shortly.”

  Captain Wolfe nodded, then turned to face the entire bridge. “I want all battle stations on alert,” he ordered. “And lieutenant, please let me know when we’ve retrieved the body and have a status update. I’d like to know if she’s going to make it or not.”

  “Yes, sir,” the lieutenant replied.

  ~

  Jarek was lying on his back when he came to, and he could feel himself being dragged across the floor. He lifted his head up just enough to see the back of a man—the general, he presumed—walking toward the center of the docking bay. General Quinn had an unusually tight grip on Jarek’s ankles, holding one in each hand, and he seemed to have no difficulty at all with his task.

  Jarek reached his arms out and could feel the grates of the floor under his hands, with openings large enough for his fingers. He waited until just the right moment, then jammed his fingers into the floor and jerked himself free of the general’s grip.

  Before the general had time to react, Jarek rolled to his stomach, pushed himself to his knees, then jumped to his feet. “Where’s Kalla?” he asked, looking around the docking bay trying to spot her.

  The general slowly turned to face him. He had a stunned look on his face as though he’d been caught off guard, but said nothing.

  “You deaf? Where’s Kalla?” Jarek demanded.