Fractured Mind Episode One (A Galactic Coalition Academy Series)

  Chapter 8

  Corthanx Traders

  “We do not know how this happened. We do not know how this happened,” one of the traders said as he knelt in a supplicating position, one knee pressed into the floor, his robes spilled around his small legs, his hands lifted up in reverence.

  The hologram before him did not flicker. It was still perfect, like all holographic technology they had managed to secure from the Ornax.

  The snarling face of the alien stared down at him, its numerous lips pulling back from its numerous mouths. “Unacceptable. This was the perfect plan. How- how did you fail?”

  “We have not failed,” said the trader, still keeping his hands held up in reverence, even though they started to shake. Sweat slicked between his fingers, pooled over his palms, and threatened to wash down his wrists. He knew better than to let his hands drop. Knew far better than to let his fear show. He was thankful for the cloak that pushed all the way over his face and hid his expression, for he could not hide his fear.

  They had not factored this into their calculations. It was not possible.

  “Fix Sora,” the alien said, its myriad mouths snapping open, the words punching out of them like bullets.

  Though the trader began to shake, he hid it with a vehement nod. “We have already managed to push past the jamming signal. Soon we will fix the program. The signal will be fixed,” he said, words halting as his voice trembled with fear. Though he could hide the shake in his body by hunching further into his cloak, he could not keep his tone still. And the alien picked up on it.

  There was a single moment of reverberating silence. It was the most terrifying experience the trader had ever endured – waiting there as the alien watched him.

  “You will locate the original source. You will retrieve it. And this mistake will never happen again.”

  “We already have agents searching for her, but it is hard. We cannot access the Earth security net. Though we have almost complete access to the Academy's computers, we cannot access Earth's civilian law enforcement agencies. The systems are separated.”

  “Unacceptable. You will find her by whatever means possible,” the alien snapped, all those myriad lips moving around all those myriad mouths.

  The trader gathered the gumption to lift his head and stare beyond the edge of his cloak at the alien's face. He always shuddered. He'd never seen a sight more terrifying. In the history of his own culture, the many-mouthed Ornax of the Corthanx clan were known as the most devastating demons of all.

  “We will not listen to your excuses. We will not wait. Locate the original source and complete this plan. We must gain access to every Academy system. Do you understand? Will you follow?”

  “Yes, I understand. Yes, I will follow.” Finally, the trader let his hands drop, though he did not let them loosen and rest by his side. Instead, he clutched them together and pressed his fingers through one another until his hands were formed in prayer. He nodded his head low, his cloak pushing hard over his eyes. “Your demands will be met, my lord.”

  “Yes, they will, or you and your people will be wiped from the face of this galaxy.” With that, the holographic transmission ended.

  For a few seconds, the trader did nothing. He held his hands in prayer, and he prayed as though his life depended on it.

  He closed his eyes, squeezing them as tightly shut as he could, and he ground his teeth together, his hooked fangs snagging through one another as his jaw shifted from side-to-side.

  He prayed for his people, prayed that they would live through this.

  When he was done, he opened his hands, stood, and pushed forward.

  Though the Sora program was currently inoperable, his people were working on it, and soon whatever jamming signal that had interrupted it, would be overcome.

  But then he would have to locate the original source....

  It was inconceivable that she was on this planet. He did not understand how this could have occurred. The last he had checked, the source and all other sources were locked within the Corthanx prefecture, deep in the second pocket in space.

  And yet Sora, the most important of the true intelligence holograms, had somehow escaped. Escaped, and begun a life anew within the Coalition Academy, of all places.

  He was still trying to piece together exactly what had happened, but it was hard, especially considering he had to put up with the alien's anger.

  The trader was usually a methodical soul, as were most of his race. He wanted to sift through this problem and find out exactly what had happened, leave no stone unturned, as the humans would put it.

  But he simply didn't have the time. So he pushed into a half run, shoes slapping over the polished floor.

  The corridor was marked by battle, the floor broken and cracked, the walls covered in gouge marks with great black swaths of scorched paint.

  The staff and students of the Academy had been rounded up, even without the Sora program. His fellow traders had managed to access the Academy's computer systems. It had an inbuilt function called the endgame maneuver. It seemed it was programmed that if the Academy ever came under attack, its central transporters could lock onto every relevant bio sign and beam them out.

  Well, his traders and agents had been more than capable of compromising the system and using it against the Academy. All staff and students were now locked in the massive central storage system, usually used to house ships. There they would stay until this operation was concluded.

  The trader hastened his step

  ...

  Sarah Sinclair

  She managed to make it through the rest of the shift. Her neck barely bothered her anymore. And yet, as the hours ticked on and the night drew into morning, she felt that niggling sensation return.

  Though she attempted to use the scanner again, it was almost as if that thing in her skin was growing accustomed to it – adapting somehow.

  She was dead tired by the time the bar closed, but not so tired that she couldn't enjoy the mesmerizing view of the last patrons leaving and the bar splitting up. She was given a relatively small pod section toward the back, and hastily told by Frank that he expected her to clean it and do any required maintenance on it before the bar opened again.

  She gladly accepted, then walked off into the pod and waited as it groaned and split apart from the rest of the ship.

  The floor separated, hidden magnetic panels undocking as the ship literally split down the middle, then into quarters, then into eighths, then into almost 30 separate structures.

  Even though she couldn't profess that this floating bar was the best-maintained contraption she'd ever been on, thankfully her pod didn't disintegrate the second it undocked from the rest of the bar. Instead, a few structural fields flickered into place over the door until metal could regrow and seal the hole. Then, with a slight groan that vibrated through her feet, her pod began to fly on its own. Though Frank had already assured her its navigational computer was programmed to dock against a suitable section of a craggy mountain nearby, she couldn't help but shoot forward and press her hands against the closest window as she smooshed her cheek into the glass and stared at the stunning view below.

  Dawn was cracking over the mountain range. She could see its light filtering through the banks of clouds that swirled in amongst the floating mountain peaks. It caught the verdant, dense, green foliage, glinting off it and making it seem as if she was softly swaying through a sea of emeralds.

  Though her pod wasn't fast, it slowly but surely flew toward one of the craggy peaks, and a few minutes later docked close to a sheer rocky cliff.

  Sarah stood there for a few seconds marveling at the view. There were windows on both sides of her pod, and she ran from one to the other like an excited child. One side showed a close-up view of the craggy peak, while the other looked out into the valley beyond, mist trailing through the undergrowth like some kind of giant white snake.

  Her section of pod also had a deck. As she pushed the last vestiges of her niggl
ing fear away, she ran over, opened the door that led onto the deck, and danced outside.

  Dense foliage pressed right up against the metal, and as she leaned forward, she flattened her hand against a moist leaf, fingers trailing over its soft waxy surface. She could even reach a hand out and touch the craggy mountain wall beside her pod.

  Eventually, she rested both her arms flat against the railing of the deck, pressed her face against her arms, and let out a happy sigh, a smile pressing across her lips for the first time in days if not months.

  She could get used to this life, and she was determined to give it a try. But right now she was also determined to sleep. She was dead tired, and perhaps it would be enough to chase away her dreams for now.

  Yawning and stretching, she headed toward the door. As she walked back into the pod, her shoes squelching across sticky sections of spilled alcohol, she heard her communication unit beeping. Rushing over to it, a sudden pang of nerves welling in her heart, she realized she must have dropped it.

  She fell down to one knee, scooped it up, and answered it before she knew what she was doing.

  She thought it was Nora.

  It wasn't.

  It was Lieutenant Karax.

  Her stomach lurched, and almost immediately she went to turn off the call. She didn't want to face him right now, not until she got the full story from Nora.

  The hologram of Karax's face wasn't detailed, and yet it was enough for her to pick up the fear gouging his features.

  And that, that was enough to see her stop, pause, her fingers hovering over the device.

  “No, stop, please stop. Sarah, please, you have to listen to me. Please, it's important.”

  Her finger was still hovering over the end-call button. It stopped. There was something terrifying about his tone, truly terrifying about the desperate gaze he locked her in. “What... what's the matter?”

  “Where are you? Are you okay?” he spat.

  She blinked quickly. “I'm fine. Look, if you're worried about me—”

  “It's more than that. Sarah, where the hell are you?”

  His insistence got to her. At first, the bile started to rise through her throat. But then she got a handle on her anger. She got a handle on her anger because he never stopped looking at her with such clear, obvious desperation.

  Suddenly she remembered the yellow alert. The way Nora's call had ended so abruptly.

  Before she knew what she was doing, she shifted forward on her knees, kneecaps grating over the rough metal floor, sticky puddles of alcohol sticking to her clothes. “What's going on?”

  He brought a hand up. It was a tense, snapped move. It looked as if he was expecting to be struck.

  Her heart started to beat harder in her chest, started to reverberate around her torso. She clutched her communication device in one hand and brought it close to her face, the hologram of Lieutenant Karax now but an inch from her wide-open eyes.

  “Sarah, I can't explain it. I can't go into any detail over this communication line – it's too insecure. Just tell me where you are.”

  She hesitated. Half of her wanted to end the call. She didn't want to face Lieutenant Karax. He'd made her life into such a living hell. Yet the other half of her simply couldn't ignore that look in his eyes.

  She battled with her will for a few seconds.

  She watched him lurch forward, the hologram pressing a few centimeters closer to her face until she couldn't help but stare right into his eyes. “Wherever you are, you're in danger. Something's happened.”

  Her stomach felt as if it bottomed out. Felt as if it literally fell from her torso and splashed against the sticky floor. “What are you talking about? Where's Nora? What's happening at the Academy?”

  “There's been some kind of incident. You just have to tell me where you are. And then, Sarah, you have to keep yourself safe. Do you understand?”

  “I don't know what you're talking about,” she began.

  The hologram of Lieutenant Karax suddenly jerked to the side, and she could tell that the real Karax was suddenly looking over his shoulder. She caught sight of the side of his face. His cheek slackened, his eye bulging as he stared at something. “Shit,” he said under his breath. Then he began to move.

  She saw his lips crack open as he panted and struggled for air. Though the hologram only caught his face, it was still enough that she could see his throat pushing in and out as he fought for each inhalation.

  “What's happening? What's going on?”

  Karax didn't answer. For a few seconds, he appeared to concentrate on running. “Shit, they've got agents outside of the goddamn Academy. What the hell is happening here?”

  “Karax, what's going on?” She now held the communication unit with both hands, her fingers shaking, so sweaty it felt as if she'd drop the unit and smash it against the floor.

  She hunched forward, pressed it into her lap, and stared at it as her hair cut across her shoulder. “Lieutenant, what on earth is going on?”

  “Where are you?” he snapped once more.

  “Zhangjiajie,” she managed. “Why, what's going on?”

  “Sarah, I can't go into it. Don't have time to. I just need to get you to understand that right now you have to look after yourself. They're coming for you. Sarah, they're—”

  He suddenly cut out. The hologram of him just stopped, flickered off.

  For a single second she was frozen, terrified. Then she jerked forward, hands flying over the small screen of her communication device.

  She tried to get the channel back. She called him and called him, but he wouldn't answer. A few minutes later she stopped her frantic efforts and finally pushed a trapped breath through her chest.

  Slowly she dropped her communication device into her lap, her arms and fingers so jerky and stiff she swore she could hear them creaking like an old gnarled branch groaning in the wind.

  Her heart punched through her chest. It felt as if it would smash itself against her rib cage.

  She brought up a shaking hand and placed it on her neck. Before too long she found her fingers pressing up and locking on her left shoulder, the nails digging into the flesh.

  She sat there for a few uneasy, nervy seconds, waiting for him to call again. Waiting for him to call and tell her it was just some dumb, tasteless joke. That nothing was wrong, that no one was after her.

  He didn't call.

  A minute passed, then another, then five. Slowly she realized she couldn't just sit there on the sticky floor waiting for him.

  She pushed up, clutching a hand around her communication device so hard her fingers became so bloodless she was sure they would drop off.

  She began to pace back and forth through her pod, no longer aware of her shoes as they splashed through the sticky piles of alcohol and thumped against the resonant metal floor.

  She kept jerking up her communication device, kept waiting for that call.

  It just didn't come.

  So Sarah Sinclair did the only other thing she could think of and tried to contact Nora.

  Nothing.

  Though her communication device theoretically could be used to access the distributed global news network, Sarah hadn't paid her bill in years. Plus her device was so old it was on the blink.

  Still, if she explored her pod, maybe she could find something that would be able to access the news.

  She began to explore the pod, movements feverish as she searched desperately for some device that could connect to the global news network.

  Five minutes into her task, her communicator rang once more. She threw herself at it. She'd left it on the floor in her panic. Now she tumbled over her legs to get to it, her left knee striking the sticky floor so hard she scraped it badly enough that a few droplets of blood ran down her shin.

  She ignored the pain that cut up into her thigh, clutched her communicator close, and thumbed it on.

  His name was on her lips before the surprised image of Lieutenant Karax flickered into place above
the device. “Karax, Karax. What happened? Did you get away?”

  Though he jerked his mouth open, clearly ready to tell her something, he stopped. “Sarah, what are you talking about?”

  “Did you get away from the people chasing you?” Her heart was ramming around her chest at 1 million miles an hour. Though it was relatively clear from the fact he was calling her that he must've escaped his pursuers, she still needed to hear it from his lips, still needed to confirm he was safe.

  For a few more confused seconds he just stared at her. “Sarah, I haven't seen you since you left the Academy. But none of that matters. Listen to me very carefully—”

  “What do you mean you haven't seen me since I left the Academy? You called barely 5 minutes ago.”

  “What?” His expression cracked, his eyes locking on her, distinct fear pulsing through his now smooth brow. “What do you mean I called you five minutes ago?”

  If her heart had rammed around her chest at 1 million miles an hour before, now it just plain stopped. It felt like a cruiser that had slammed on its inertia drive to full. It was a surprise she didn't jerk forward and fall on her stomach. “You called me five minutes ago,” she managed, a cold, sinking feeling rushing down her gut. “Don't you remember?”

  “Sarah, I haven't spoken to you since you left the Academy,” he said clearly. “What do you mean I called you five minutes ago?”

  “Someone... someone who looked exactly like you called me and asked where I was. You—”

  The hologram of Lieutenant Karax jerked toward her. She was clutching the device in both hands, close to her face, and his visage came so near to hers she could see every line and mark in his brow.

  “Sarah, what did this other Lieutenant Karax want to know?”

  She gulped, desperation suddenly ripping through her gut. “He wanted to know where I am.”

  “Did you tell him?” Karax snapped.

  She knew her skin turned the color of crushed bone. She managed a bare nod. “Yes.”

  She watched Karax bring a hand back and slam it on his mouth, his sweaty fingers dragging down his skin. A second later he took a tortured breath. “Sarah, you're in a lot of danger. You need to look after yourself. I have a friend in Zhangjiajie. I'm sending through his details.”

  “Wait. How do you know I'm here?” She pressed a shaking hand to her chest, sweaty fingers clutching at the fabric of her now completely rumpled tunic.

  “I have access to the Earth security net. I can access the location of your communication device.”

  She winced. “Christ, I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have told that other Lieutenant Karax—” though her eyes were squeezed closed, she suddenly opened them violently, “—wait, what's going on here? Who was that guy? Why did he want to know where I am?”

  “Sarah, I need you to take a calming breath. Listen to me. Something's happened at the Academy. I don't... I have no idea how to begin to describe what's going on.”

  Though Sarah couldn't be sure, she suddenly felt as if the hologram of Karax locked his gaze on her left shoulder.

  Instinctively she brought a hand up and pressed it into her skin, pushing her fingers beyond the stiff fabric of her collar and clutching that familiar scarred region of flesh.

  His eyes really did bulge now. “Sarah, I'm not gonna ask if you've been in Zhangjiajie for the last couple of days – I've already been able to confirm that with the security network. But have you experienced any strange symptoms? ... The dreams you complain about, have you experienced anything out of the ordinary?”

  His question threw her. And it wasn't just the question – it was the way he asked it. The Lieutenant Karax she knew thought her dreams were nothing but a pathetic attempt to get attention. And yet here he was, eyes as wide as moons, cheeks as stiff as steel, stuttering over his words, true desperation flowing from his throat like a crack in a dam.

  She was still hunched forward, the communication device held in one sweaty hand as her other fingers still pried at the scar on her neck.

  Her stomach started to curdle, started to kick. It felt as if she'd swallowed a rock warrior and he was trying to tear his way out of her gut wall.

  “Sarah, it's extremely important that you tell me everything. Have you had any strange experiences over the past several days?”

  She nodded her head but then shook it. “I don't understand what's going on. Why do you suddenly care about my dreams?”

  “Because, Cadet Sinclair,” his expression cracked with terror, “approximately eight hours ago a hologram of you tore through the Academy. It looked exactly like you. An exact copy. It even had a point on its left shoulder that—”

  Sarah's head began to spin faster and faster. She dropped the communication unit, heard it clatter to the floor.

  She heard Lieutenant Karax scream her name a few times, but it didn't matter. Blackness started to swirl in her mind, descending like a thick blanket from above.

  A second later she struck the floor with a resounding thud. Unconscious.

  ...

  Lieutenant Karax

  “Shit,” he screamed into his communicator as he saw Sarah fall.

  Her communication device was still on, and the video feed was large enough that he could see her crumpled form right next to the communicator on the floor.

  “Shit,” he screamed again, clutching a hand into a fist and striking it against the wall beside him. With the help of his implants, his knuckles sailed a good inch into the concrete wall beside him.

  While the implants could strengthen the muscles and bone from his shoulder and into his arms, they did not protect his flesh, and it tore and splattered with blood.

  That didn't stop him from drawing his fist back and striking the wall one more time, a dull thud echoing down the deserted laneway.

  He tried to get a handle on himself, but it was impossible.

  Things were spiraling out of control.

  He'd been lucky that he'd been able to get in contact with Sarah and that she'd kept her communicator with her. But his luck was now over.

  He stood there, cold as he considered what she'd told him.

  A fake Lieutenant Karax had contacted her but five minutes before, and she'd told that fake Lieutenant Karax her location.

  “Shit,” he screamed again, lurching toward the wall and punching it one final time. Pain sliced up his knuckles, sinking deep into his wrist. He knew he had to stop before he did himself some permanent damage, but there was nothing that could stop the anger-spiked fear that kept charging through his heart.

  He'd managed to gain access to the Earth security network based on his rank, but as for calling in the cavalry, that was proving to be harder than he'd hoped. The Corthanx Traders and whichever bastards were helping them had agents on the outside of the Academy. The moment Karax had managed to make it out of the secret tunnels, was the moment he'd been chased.

  He'd been on the run ever since.

  Though he kept trying to call the authorities, he had no idea who to trust.

  The Admiral herself had said that members of the top brass were likely helping the Corthanx Traders. That thought struck again like a blow to his jaw. He honestly heard it reverberate through his mind like a broken bell.

  He brought up his blood caked knuckles and ran them down his stiff jaw, locking his teeth together and letting the tension focus his mind. A second later he pushed off into another measured jog.

  He twisted his head around and locked it over his shoulder, scanning his environment with wide, desperate eyes.

  There was only one thing he could do. He had to get to Sarah before the Corthanx Traders did.

  Karax still had no idea what they wanted her for, but there was one thing for sure: Sarah was at the heart of this, and unless he managed to reach her in time, the Corthanx Traders would rip that heart out.