CHAPTER 31

ARTEMIS

I moved forward to stand between the military and my group while also allowing them enough room to push the carts full of children through the door. It was a tight fit, only allowing one through at a time, but they all halted at the sight before them.

My shield was still up, but I knew it wouldn’t remain that way for long. Demari was front and centre, and despite being surrounded by quite the extensive protection detail, he still managed to look imposing and nightmare-inducing as he held aloft a small device I had no doubt would cause me trouble.

But it was the people surrounding him that got my attention. Right beside him stood a woman, tall and slightly overweight, she wore a matching lab-coat with The Program’s logo on the breast pocket. That and her place beside Demari denoted her station within The Program’s ranks. I didn’t know who she was, which pissed me off since I’d dug deep into The Program’s staff. It meant she was higher up than even Demari to avoid being in the system, and an even bigger problem if I didn’t kill her now. But as she stared us down, her confidence unwavering, her position was clear: she was not to be messed with.

Yet, it was the woman standing on Demari’s other side as part of his protection detail that stopped me in my tracks, and the sharp inhalations of shock and betrayal that sounded from behind me were well deserved. Because the woman was First Lieutenant Jorna Kalsur, the captain’s right-hand woman, friend to both him and Adara, and Markus Fletcher’s lover.

And suddenly, Nova Station’s fall to the enemy made a lot more sense.

In front of the army yet still slightly behind Demari and Co. stood Colonel Granger, her face pinched and her stance brimming with tension. Behind her stood our old instructors from The Carina. Corporals Gwym, Hum’Rit and Stanson stood side-by-side, a company of soldiers at their backs. Combined with the army of guards mixed in amongst them, this was going to be one hell of a fight.

And fight we would have to do, because Demari chose that moment to aim his little device right at me and pressed the button. Immediately, my shield quivered, stuttered, then collapsed.

I rushed to encase myself in the metal skin, taking up a defensive stance. I was pleased when it extended to cover Bal, too, the relief almost bowling me off my feet. If he thought taking down the barrier between us with an army at his back would save him, he could think again.

‘Stand down, Subject A-173,’ Demari demanded, but his words seemed to strike a chord within my old instructors. Being addressed with an identification number over my name was a bold choice, an ugly insight into the way they treated their subjects. To them, we weren’t people with thoughts and feelings, wants, needs and desires. We were nothing more than cattle, only to exist for their nefarious purposes.

So when I caught Gwym, Hum’Rit and Stanson’s uneasy shift in their stances, I latched onto it. My eyes met Stanson’s as he took in the way I cradled Bal against my chest, the protective covering over him as well as myself; the way I crouched defensively in front of my friends and the carts, though I wondered if he was aware what was in them.

Which gave me an idea…

‘Demari,’ I called out loud enough for my voice to echo, needing them all to hear. ‘Let me take the children and go. There doesn’t need to be any more bloodshed.’

His response got an even greater reaction from my old instructors that travelled through the soldiers behind them in a wave of confusion and discomfort. ‘The offspring are property of The Program, as are you. You are not permitted to remove them from the premises.’

I kept talking, needing to fan the flames of the burgeoning unrest. ‘These children are innocent and cannot consent to your experiments and procedures. In fact, I was never given the option to consent, either. In case you haven’t caught on yet, I do not consent. Let us pass, Demari.’

Whispers started up amongst the crowd, a few of the soldiers even backing up a few steps as if they were debating abandoning their posts. Good. I didn’t want to kill them if I didn’t have to, but I would do whatever it took to get my friends and these children to safety.

Demari, still intently focused on me, missed the reaction picking up behind him. ‘If you continue to disobey orders, The Program will be forced to decommission you, Subject A-173.’

‘Decommission…’

‘She never consented…’

‘This is wrong…’

‘They’re harming children…?’

On and on the mutterings went, picking up speed and volume as the gravity of the evil they had bound themselves to set in.

‘What do you mean, decommission, doctor?’ Stanson stepped forward to ask.

Both scientists turned as if he had addressed them both, though Jorna kept her glare steadily on me as if he had never spoken.

‘Her implants will be removed, those that cannot be removed will be switched off, and the subject will be terminated. Though we have learned much from this project, the results are faulty and the subject must be disposed of,’ the woman answered before Demari could get a word in, the reaction among their army swelling even higher. That was when he finally noticed, and after he shot a glare at his partner his accusing gaze landed back on me.

‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ he warned, drawing a laser gun from his belt and aiming it at me and Bal.

But he never got the chance to shoot. Stanson and Hum’Rit rushed the heavily guarded scientists, bowling them over and knocking the gun straight out of Demari’s grip.

‘Go!’ Stanson shouted at us, wrestling with two guards simultaneously. ‘We’ll hold them off!’

His actions were the only permission the rest of the soldiers needed to fight back. Some still looked confused, choosing to stay out of it rather than turn on their own, though there were still quite a few that chose to stay loyal to The Program and the orders they’d been given, tackling their comrades as they turned on the guards.

My attention, however, remained on the group in front. Jorna had positioned herself directly in front of Demari, and I wondered what it was about the despicable scientist that caused her to betray the Intergalactic Union and its core values. I didn’t have much of a chance to mull over that line of thought, though, because she aimed her own gun at me and fired, urging the scientists to back away at the same time.

The shot was a direct hit to the back of Bal’s head, and I was more thankful than ever that the metal skin had encased him as well because the plasma bounced right off. He kept sleeping peacefully as if he felt nothing, but the rage that overcame me at the close call became my driving force.

With a mechanical war scream, I charged.

I watched as if from outside my body as Jorna realised her weapon was useless, her eyes widening with fear as she stumbled back. Within a tick I was on her, punching her in the face so hard her skull crumpled inwards beneath my fist, blood, teeth and bone shards sprayed outward from the force. She collapsed at my feet and I looked up just in time for the next attacker to launch themselves at me. One after the other they came, stupidly believing they would be the ones to take me down. Each and every time they ended up dead on the ground, a hole punched through them in their chests, heads, stomachs, anywhere I could reach.

For the second time, Demari had somehow succeeded in using everyone else as a cover to escape, the second scientist alongside him, and I growled low in my chest at losing my chance at him again. He was a slippery one, and it was pissing me off that I had to choose to let him go. One of these days I would be able to direct my full attention to hunting him down, and I would enjoy every moment of it.

Eventually, the station itself entered the fray, heavy-duty weaponry rising from the floor, emerging from the surrounding buildings and descending from the artificial sky. I didn’t wait around to see what damage they could do. I knew I would be fine, and so would Bal, but the others were unprotected without my shield.

‘Let’s move!’ I ordered them, pushing my way through the thickening crowd of chaos. Most of them scampered out of my way when they saw me coming, but some still attempted to get a hit in. A few lasers were shot only to bounce off and reverberate back onto the shooter, their unintentional suicides saving me the trouble of picking them off myself.

My men were holding their own behind me as attackers came at them as well, taking it in turns to push the carts or defend them. They somehow managed to keep up as I picked a path for us to move through the crowd, kicking away any dead bodies or stray body parts to clear the path for the carts. I was quite enjoying tearing these assholes apart limb from limb, the violence feeding something dark and depraved in my black soul.

When we reached the other side where Nova Academy’s imposing metal architecture loomed over us, I was intercepted by none other than the Drakfern combat instructor, Corporal Gwym. His red skin was an even more vibrant shade from the flush of battle, and I watched as a bead of sweat dripped from his brow and onto the ground below, narrowly missing his protruding pectorals as it fell during a heaving exhale.

‘Mercer,’ he greeted.

‘It’s Artemis,’ I corrected, eying him warily.

He looked behind me at the men pushing the carts and keeping the enemy at bay, nodding at them in acknowledgement before fixing his gaze back on me. ‘You got a way off this shitshow?’

‘Yes…’

‘Got room for a few more?’

Cadmus scoffed and gestured to the carts. ‘You mean besides the few hundred babies we have in here?’ He punctuated the statement with a shot to a guard’s face, blowing a hole right through.

That made the corporal pause, but only for a beat, the sound of the fighting continuing behind us the only thing filling the space. But then he squared his shoulders and stared us down with a determined clench of his jaw. ‘Yes. I can only speak for myself, but I refuse to stay when the corruption clearly runs far deeper than we knew.’

‘You mean you didn’t figure out how bad things were when Nova Station was commandeered by a bunch of stuck-up scientists?’ another voice joined the fray. Corporal Hum’Rit stepped up beside his colleague, his beard of tentacles waving wildly in front of his face to the point where he had to keep whacking them away from his eyes, the pair of them a sight to behold in their dishevelled states.

‘You know what I mean,’ Gwym snarked back.

T fired a shot from his laser gun as someone ran at us, then kept firing when more joined the first. ‘Can we move this along?’ he yelled.

‘If you’re coming with us then help guard the carts,’ I told them. ‘We’re getting off the station now .’

They fell in with us as soon as we pushed forward, but Gwym kept talking. ‘Where are we headed?’

‘The hangar bay.’

‘You have a ship ready and waiting?’ he asked.

‘Of course,’ I replied indignantly, offended that he would believe me so incompetent. I understood that he only remembered me as an untested cadet, but I thought it would have been obvious now that my training was extensive.

He held up his hands in the universal sign of surrender, his stride faltering slightly as the motion interrupted the smooth leaps of his sprint. ‘I was just checking.’

‘Are these guys with us or against us?’ Dorian called out, gesturing behind him at the mob of soldiers on our tail.

‘They’re with us!’ Hum’Rit shouted back.

‘I don’t have enough food for this many people,’ I warned him.

‘There’s an emergency stock of Nutri-Bars in the hangar bay. We can grab some cases on the way through,’ Gwym assured me.

Just then, a bloodied Corporal Stanson shoved his way to the forefront of the crowd, weaved his way around the carts and kept pace with those of us at the front. One of his arms was hanging limply by his side, and he was clutching it close to avoid it swinging wildly and causing more damage. There was blood seeping from multiple cuts, some nasty bruises forming on his swelling face, and he was favouring his left leg. Otherwise he seemed fine, and I figured that most of the blood staining his uniform was from other people.

‘Actually,’ he huffed out, his breathing stilted from exhaustion, ‘Eloria went to the hanger bay to prepare another ship for departure, but she can’t get in. Apparently, it’s under quarantine.’

‘Is someone sick?’ Henrik piped up at the word typically associated with medical emergencies, but the sinking feeling in my gut told me that it didn’t have anything to do with an illness…

‘No. Some sort of beast was brought onto the station through a recently docked ship, though no one can explain how it got here. It’s wreaking havoc in the entire docking bay trying to break free,’ said Stanson, confirming my fears.

‘Actually…’ I began sheepishly. ‘He’s with me.’