Fury Of War (Justice Keepers Saga Book 14) - R.S. Penney

Fury Of War (Justice Keepers Saga Book 14) - R.S. Penney

Book excerpt

Slade’s cruel laughter echoed through the cavern, seeming to reverberate off its pale, blue walls. He was standing there in the middle of the chamber, submerged to his waist in some kind of glowing flesh, tentacles piercing his body. And his vicious smile mocked her. Somehow, he knew.

Her symbiont was gone. She had passed the Nassai to Melissa. There was no reason they should both have to die here. With any luck, Harry had gotten the kid to a SlipGate. Maybe the others would escape as well. But one way or the other, she would never know.

Jena's heart sank when she heard Slade's laughter. The man just hung there. He didn't seem to notice the pain. “It's too late,” he whispered. “Too late. The end has begun. The first domino falls, and soon the rest will follow.”

Jena felt her face crumple, then tossed her head about to clear away the fog. “You could be right,” she growled, hobbling closer to Slade. “But I can promise you one thing, Grecken: you won't be here to see it.”

She triggered the blasting cap.

Her world ended in fire.

Or…No.

Her world ended in water. She was definitely submerged in something, but it didn’t take her long to realize that it couldn’t be H2O. The strange fluid was much too thick for that. Oh, crap, was this the afterlife? She was betting so hard on there being nothing. Just poof, zip. One minute you’re there, and the next you’re gone.

Jena wasn’t looking forward to an eternity of…whatever this was. Come to think of it, shouldn’t she be drowning? She felt no pressure on her lungs. She could stay down here for hours.

But screw that!

She wanted answers.

Unsure of what else to do, Jena started swimming for what she thought was the shore. It was slow-going. This slimy stuff was just so damn thick. At one point, her hand broke through the surface. She struggled to pull the rest of herself up, but the goo held her down. The effort exhausted her.

She could feel her heart beating like a hammer.

That was when she realized that her super-strength was gone. Well, that sucked! But then what did she expect after giving up her symbiont? Her symbiont! The strength was gone, but so was that awful burning sensation in her skin. How was that possible? Once you Bonded a Nassai, there was no going back. Give it up, and you had at most ten minutes before you croaked. She should be dead, but with every passing second, she was more and more certain that this was not the afterlife.

At long last, she crawled onto the shore, finding springy flesh under her hands and knees. Just like the Overseer base under Earth’s moon. Except this stuff had a fierce, red glow instead of the soothing blue.

Down on all fours, head hanging with the weight of fatigue, she grunted as a stream of green slime dripped from her chin and formed a little puddle in front of her. She had to get this stuff off of her.

Frustrated, she wiped some off her shoulder only to discover the futility of that. Her hand…Shouldn’t it be tingling now that her Nassai was gone? Uncertain, she wiggled her fingers just to see what would happen. “I should be dead,” she whispered.

“It’s all right,” someone said. “You’re safe.”

She almost jumped at the sound. Her spatial awareness was gone, just like her super-strength. It turned out that two people were standing in this cavern, and one of them was…her. Or rather a version of her with a long, braided ponytail and a sexy, red dress that Jena would love to get her hands on. Yowza! She had never realized just how hot she was.

The other was a most welcome sight.

Jack Hunter stood before her in white tactical gear, his discarded vest lying on the floor. The poor kid looked like he had been through the Bleakness itself. His dark hair was a mess; dust and dried blood coated his face. Yeesh.

“Jack?” she panted. “Where are we?”

Dropping to his knees, the kid smiled, and some of her anxiety melted away. “It’s okay.” He laid a hand on her shoulder, then quickly jerked it back. Why? Oh. Right. Because she was naked, and Jack Hunter was ridiculously modest.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Jena wiped the slime off her face. She blinked a few times. “Did it work?” she mumbled. “Did we stop Slade from taking the Key?”

Jack opened his mouth to reply, but then he thought better of it, shaking his head in dismay. Somehow, she knew that she wasn’t going to like what came next. “No, Jen,” he said at last. “I’m sorry. He opened the SuperGates.”

“SuperGates?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I passed the symbiont to Melissa,” she said. “Then I hobbled my ass over to the room where Slade was doing his thing. And boom! Next thing I knew, I was here, trying to wade through all that slop.”

“That was eighteen months ago.”

“Eighteen months?” she stammered. “Where have I been in all that time?”

“Dead.”

“Oh…”

Jena got up on her knees, unable to suppress a smirk when Jack very forcefully looked away. It wasn’t going to work – the kid had spatial awareness – but she appreciated the effort.

She turned her gaze upon the woman in the red dress, narrowing her eyes to slits. “Just one more quick question,” she said. “What’s up with my unreasonable facsimile over there?”

“Well, she’s-”

The woman chose that moment to come over and offer her hand, pulling Jena to her feet. “My sweet daughter,” she said, wrapping a robe around Jena’s shoulders. “That we should meet like this.”

“…Your mother,” Jack grumbled.

Jena blinked, trying to put the pieces together. “Mother,” she whispered. “No, that isn’t possible. My mother was Ilia Morane.”

No longer burdened by the demands of chivalry, Jack stood up and spun to face her. He sighed, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “Your biological mother, Jen,” he clarified. “You were adopted.”

Folding her arms, Jena frowned as she took an instinctive step backward. “Well, I knew that part,” she muttered. “We always assumed that my biological parents died in the attack on Arinas. I never knew I was a clone.”

The other woman’s eyebrows rose. “Very good,” she said. “I have so much to tell you, but I’m afraid we don’t have the time.”

“Can I at least get your name?”

“I am called Isara now,” the woman replied. “Though that was not the name I used when I was pregnant with you. Jack, you must get her out of here. He will awaken soon.”

“And who is he?”

“Slade,” Jack growled, coming forward to stand beside her. He eyed Isara like he expected her to pull a knife. Well, that told Jena everything she needed to know about the relationship between those two. “You really want my help? Stop bringing him back.”

Isara pursed her lips, cocking her head as she considered that. “Provide us with a better alternative,” she said. “You’ve seen now what we have to offer, what you stand to gain if the project is successful.”

“Yeah, about that…” Jack directed a glare toward a dark tunnel that led out of here. “What about the others? Ben? Raynar?”

“Ben’s dead?” Jena mumbled.

She squeaked when a man emerged from the shadows. And not just any man. A tall, broad-shouldered Justice Keeper with a face like a brick and lots of dark stubble. She had not expected to ever see Bril Adorak again. The man was dead. But then so was she. Obviously, the rules needed some rethinking.

“We were not present when your friends died,” Bril said. “As such, we were unable to preserve their minds. I am sorry, Jack. They are gone.”

Striding up to him, Jena stood toe to toe with the worst instructor she had ever had. She stared up into his eyes, waiting for him to flinch. “And who are you?” she demanded. “Because we both know you’re not Bril.”

“It’s an Overseer,” Jack explained. “Or one of their telepathic projections. I’m not entirely sure how it works, but they’re responsible for your…new lease on life. I’ll tell you everything once we get out of here.”

Jena tilted her head like a bird inspecting a worm that it wanted to gobble up. It dawned on her that Isara had done the same thing only a few moments ago. Shared mannerisms. How much of that was genetic? “So, if you can’t bring back Ben or Raynar, then how were you able to do it for me?”

“You died in one of our facilities,” the Overseer replied. “Our technology preserved you.”

“Well…Thanks.”

Jack came up behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Come on,” he said, nodding toward the tunnel. “We should get you back to the ship.”

“The ship?”

“Oh, you’re gonna like that part.”

The SlipGate bubble arrived in a gray room that was so very like the ones Jena had seen on every other starship. When it popped, she felt a chill as her bare feet touched the cold floor. Her hair was still slick, and she had only the thin robe for warmth, which – if she were given to excessive bouts of modesty – would have been a problem in the company of the three men who all pointed guns at her and Jack. “Is it him, ma’am?” one of them asked.

Anna stood behind the control console, frowning as she locked the Gate. She looked up to fix sharp, blue eyes on Jack. “It’s him,” she declared. “The real Jack Hunter. Accept no substitutes.”

“Can you be sure?”

Anna’s reply to that was a loving smile that warmed Jena’s heart. “I’m one person on this ship that Slade can’t fool. I know my boyfriend when I see him.” So, they were finally together! About damn time!

Stepping out from behind the console, Anna shut her eyes as she strode toward them. “But I do have one question, sweetie,” she said. “Why is Isara back on this ship? And why is she covered in goo?”

“That’s two questions,” Jena observed.

Jack raised a finger to interject, his mouth opening as he tried to form words, but his girlfriend rode right over him. “After all the trouble she went to, trying to escape,” Anna went on. “Traumatizing some of our crew in the process! Why is she back here?”

“Um, Anna…”

“Because I was supportive of the whole morally questionable alliance thing, but Isara has betrayed us enough times now to make that a non-viable strategy. So, again, I have to ask: why is she here?”

“That’s not Isara,” Jack said.

“What do you mean, that’s not-”

Anna froze in mid-step, her jaw dropping when she realized who was standing in front of her. “Bleakness take me,” she whispered. “Is it really you?”

She slammed into Jena with a fierce hug, squeezing her tight. Jena could do nothing but return the embrace, which lingered for the better part of a minute. The girl practically trembled in her arms. It was becoming clear to Jena that her friends had suffered a great deal while she was gone.

Pulling away, Anna brushed a lock of hair off her cheek. She blinked the tears out of her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I…I didn’t…I’m not sure how to react.”

Jena replied with a smile. “No need to apologize,” she said. “But is there a place on this ship where I can get cleaned up? Because slime is definitely not the new black.”

“Come on,” Jack said. “There are some empty quarters on Deck Two.”

The hallways had pristine, white walls and floor tiles that had been polished to a shine by the maintenance bots. Tired people shuffled about, sometimes in small groups but often alone. By the look of them, they had all been worked to the bone. Jack had told her that she had been…resurrected – she wasn’t ever going to get used to that – in the middle of a conflict between Ragnos and Leyria.

Ragnos and Leyria?

An hour ago, from her perspective, Ragnos had been an inconsequential concern on the other side of the galaxy. An hour ago, she had been conducting a meeting in Station Twelve’s science lab, preparing her team for the raid on the Overseer base. She hadn’t planned on dying. Bleakness take her, she was going to live another twenty years!

Wait a minute, was that still true? Her symbiont was gone, but she seemed to have the body of a young woman. How much time did she have left?

Jack and Anna walked side by side in front of her, talking quietly while she mused on her situation. “It’s not going well,” Anna said. “Telixa’s got ships hovering over most of our major cities. Corin had to pull the fleet back.”

“Where are we now?” Jack asked.

“In orbit of Laras with about fifteen other ships, some Leyrian, some Alosian. We set up a blockade there just in case Telixa decides to attack the Nassai. I don’t think she will, but she reacts badly when people interfere with her plans.”

“And the Nassai?”

Anna heaved out a breath, laying a hand on Jack’s arm. She shuffled along with her head down. “Palamo took them to the lab on Deck Four,” she said. “They’ll be safe there for now, but we were thinking about returning them to Laras.”

“There are Nassai on the ship?” Jena inquired.

“I’ll explain later, Jen,” Jack grunted. She was getting a little tired of hearing that, but she supposed there was no getting around it. You couldn’t bring someone up to speed on the eighteen months they had missed in an hour. Especially not when you were in the middle of a warzone. “What about the dropships? Did we get everyone back?”

“Corin sent down a fighter escort to protect them,” Anna said. “They managed to take off just before the Scrappy was forced to break orbit. It was a close call, but everyone made it home safe and sound.”