Nexus

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, this is the story idea that's been bugging me for a while now. Because it's going to be an actual novel and chapters will be quite long, I'm sectioning the actual chapters into pieces for less eye strain and to keep interest. I, personally, can put up with EXTREMELY long-winded chapters, but only as long as I'm constantly hooked. I don't know how compelling my writing is, so I'm not taking any chances. Please leave a review, sans the flames. Enjoy!

Nexus
Chapter One: Escape Frome Home
Part One


Karissa caught his prone body as it fell away from the stasis module. Despite his weight, she managed to hold him and set him onto the cold metal floor without any trouble. She looked around quickly then turned back to him and began to gently pat his face.

“Come on, Edwyn, wake up,” she whispered hurriedly.

Edwyn groaned and tried to bat her hand away sluggishly.

“Dammit, Edwyn, snap out of it! We’ve got to get out of here!”

His eyes fluttered open and beheld her pale skin, her sapphire eyes, and the sandy blonde hair that framed them.

“Karissa,” he muttered. “Is it ten-hundred yet?”

She didn’t stop patting his face. “I wish it were, but no such luck.” She looked around briefly. “Edwyn, Home’s been attacked. It’s only a matter of time before they find what they want.” She held his shoulders as the weight of her words hit him. “We have to leave.”

“Home’s been…attacked?” She helped him up as he unsteadily got to his feet. “By whom?”

“I don’t know,” Karissa replied, “but I don’t want to find out.”

“Well, where are we going to go?”

She handed him a laser pistol. “Let’s worry about that after we’ve escaped. This place isn’t safe for us, for you, anymore, Edwyn.”

“…Me?”

“Look, I don’t know all the details, but all I know is I’ve got to get you out of here.”

Her words were cut short by the dull metallic pounding right over their heads.

“I read thermal traces heading down this way.”

“Shit,” she cussed. She turned to him. “Can you move now?”

He nodded, still looking up at the ceiling. “I think so.” He looked down into the black corridor behind him and lifted his arm, snapping off two shots from his laser pistol. He was graced with the sound of a body doubling over onto the floor.

“Weapons fire!”

“Shit!” Karissa cursed again. She pushed him into a run and followed close behind. “Do you want to warn me next time you fire into the dark?”

“He was about to tell us to stop or he’ll shoot,” Edwyn replied, glancing over his shoulder. “I think he would have shot us, anyway.”

“Kingston’s down!”

“Footsteps! That way!”

The voices started to fade behind them, though Karissa could still hear them like air raid sirens.

“The stasis module’s empty!”

“The subject’s escaping!”

“Thermal traces lead down that hall!”

Without warning, she ran into Edwyn’s body and felt herself being lifted off her feet towards the ceiling. She was about to scream, but she felt his hand clap over her mouth.

“Don’t. Make. A sound,” he whispered. He blinked twice, and a blue field manifested itself in front of them.

The sound of footfalls grew louder and louder. Beams from flashlights lit the dark corridor.

“The thermal tracks end here,” a scrambled voice announced.

“Dammit,” another voice cursed. “The subject knows we’re after him.”

“How? No one was supposed to know about the attack on Home.”

“Ask Kanaji when we get back on the ship,” a third voice interrupted. “For now, three of you head down that hallway, and the other three down that hallway. Makko, Tungstey and I’ll stay here.”

There was a series of forced grunts immediately followed by footfalls going off in two directions.

“Don’t you find it odd that the tracks just suddenly end here, Sarge?”

“I do, Makko. It’s almost like they never left at all.”

“Do you think he’s still in this area?”

The squad leader raised his rifle. “I don’t know. Kanaji told me that once he knows we’re after him, there’s almost no chance of finding him.”

The rushed sound of footfalls returned to the three soldiers.

“The hallways intersected. There was no way he would have gotten past us without our knowing.”

“Dammit!” The sergeant cursed. “He must be cloaking his heat signature. Goggles off in three….”

Karissa’s eyes widened and turned to Edwyn. His face remained screwed up in anticipation, but he shook his head.

“…Two…”

Karissa watched as the blue field in front of them disappeared.

“…One…”

As the nine invaders slipped their Image Enhancement Goggles off, Edwyn dove into action. A slightly stunned Karissa fell on top of one of the soldiers, knocking him out cold. Edwyn dropped neatly between four of the invaders, jabbing one in the face, elbowing another in the ribs, kicking the knee out from another, and pistol-whipping the fourth in the face in one fluid motion.

Karissa picked up the laser carbine belonging to the unconscious soldier she fell on by the barrel and swung at the legs of two other attackers in front of her. As they fell to the ground, she laid them low with a solid blow to the chest. She picked up another laser carbine and snapped off three quick shots, killing the other two attackers.

“Edwyn, let’s go!”

He was already running towards her when she called for him. He helped her up, picked up a larger weapon for himself and turned to make sure all their attackers were down and out.

It proved to be a big mistake.

The soldier named Makko was already up on one knee with his laser carbine at the ready. Without hesitation, he fired twice, the first one narrowly missing Edwyn as he turned.

The other shot caught him on his right side, scything through flesh like a dart through paper.

Watching Edwyn recoil against the shot that pierced through him, Karissa raised both weapons and fired away at the soldier with reckless abandon. She screamed incoherently as verdant flash after verdant flash pierced through the soldier that shot Edwyn, his head and face no longer recognizable.

She stopped firing when she realized she had drained the batteries of both weapons. Her rational mind kicked in and reminded her that Edwyn had been shot. Picking up two fresh rifles, she turned his way and saw him, much to her relief, leaning on a wall and nursing his wound with a torn sleeve. She got up and ran to him.

“Edwyn, you gotta stay with me.”

He sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “Don’t worry about me, Karissa. I’ve taken shots from a laser carbine before…”

“A powered-down laser carbine,” she corrected. “And they were only glancing shots.” She took a roll of medical tape from a small pouch on her belt and tore two pieces away with her teeth. She knelt down and slapped them over the bloodstained cloth Edwyn held over the wound. “Keep pressing on it. The tape won’t hold it there very long.” She looked down the hallway. “Can you move?”

He nodded and winked. “For you, anything.”

She smiled. “What about shooting?”

“I downed one of those guys in the dark in two shots with a laser pistol while half-awake,” he bragged with a ragged laugh. “I doubt you could hit him in ten and fully alert.”

She punched his thigh playfully. “Fuck you.” She helped him up and they began to walk past his stasis module and down the hallway. As they passed a security terminal, a thought occurred to him. Without informing Karissa, he typed a series of commands on the keyboard at the security console, and the monitor began to cycle slowly through surveillance images of the main docking areas.

“Edwyn, what are you doing?” she hissed, running back to him.

“They’re at the eastern docks,” he said. “And that’s an Espandon-class scout ship they’ve got.”

“Care to explain?”

“An Espandon-class can only take fifteen people, twenty if you take out everything but the vitals,” Edwyn reasoned, wincing in pain. He pointed at the screen. “Look, there’re five soldiers guarding the ship.”

“Where are the other—“

No sooner had she finished asking when the main lights went out, and the emergency lights flared to life, illuminating the hallways with a crimson glow.

“Dammit,” Karissa spat. “Now what? They’ve cut the main power, and they’re holding the east docks.”

“We get out the way they came in,” Edwyn replied. “We get to the east docks and take out the guards. We’ll use their ship to get to safety.”

“We won’t be able to stay out there for long,” Karissa countered. “If that’s a scout ship, they may have a larger ship orbiting the planet.”

“We’ll get in touch with a merchant ship or something,” Edwyn answered casually. He hissed and looked at his wound. “Ariano’s still on-planet. Maybe we can get in touch with him as soon as we leave Home.”

Karissa shrugged. “I guess there’s no other way.”

The sound of footfalls rumbled from behind them.

“Christ, they’re back!”

“Dammit,” Edwyn cursed. “I thought I’d have given us at least a half-hour.” He readied his weapon and pointed it down the hallway. He glanced around briefly, wincing in pain from his wound, and grinned when he noticed a duct cover overhead. He turned to Karissa, who nodded and ran beside him, keeping guard as he shot away the corners of the duct cover with his laser rifle.

“Let’s go,” Edwyn said, jumping up and grabbing the edge of the opening. “If we can get around to the Communications Room, we might be able to get a message through to Ariano.”


* * * * *


Karissa was claustrophobic. She forced herself to forget as Edwyn shot down the grating, and as she climbed into it. Now, feeling the oppressive heat and seeing nothing but metal just inches from her face, there was no way she could deny it. She was feeling trapped. Everything started to close in around her.

“Edwyn, I don’t want to die here,” she said.

Edwyn hissed as a lance of pain coursed through his body. She saw him shudder visibly.

“I don’t either, Rissa,” he said, crawling in front of her while nursing his wound with one hand. “I don’t want to die here not knowing who’s attacking Home and why.”

Karissa shook her head even though he couldn’t turn to look at her. “No, Edwyn.” Her voice fell to an embarrassed whisper. “I don’t want to die in these ducts. I’m afraid.” Distress was thick in her voice. “We have to hurry and get to the Comm Room.”

Edwyn nodded, feeling stupid for asking her to jump into the ducts with him. He wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and kiss her. The spear of pain that lanced through his side reminded him why he couldn’t at the moment. “I’m sorry, Rissa. Don’t worry, though. We’re almost there. After this, I’ll never ask you to get into confined spaces again, okay?”

She nodded as they trudged along, even though he couldn’t see. “All right,” she said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She kept her eyes closed and thought of the wider space the training areas offered, as well as the fields just outside Home where she and some of the other units had training exercises.

Thoughts of the other units and her friends assigned to them brought her back to the harsh reality before her. Home, her home for as long as she could remember, was now in control of no more than twenty armed men. Seventy-five men and women, all of whom Karissa had known since she was old enough to train with the youngest of cadets, had all left Home and the planet, all under Classified Orders from the head of the Universal Council, leaving only the thirty garrison troops to defend the base. She wondered if the invaders had killed them in their sleep or at their watch.

She opened her eyes when she realized that she had bumped into Edwyn’s backside. She blushed and realized that he gripped his wound tighter, though blood was still dripping from between his fingers. Her eyes widened even further when she noticed that he was furiously trying to kick a grate away.

“Goddamned Artinium grating,” he spat, driving his foot madly against the grate in an awkward position. “I…want…out…of…here!” She looked at the duct cover and gasped when she saw it bending underneath his assault. She knew Edwyn was strong; it was just that Artinium was an industrial metal, and Edwyn only had an athlete’s build.

With a final roar, he drove his boot against the grate, and it gave, taking with it pieces of the duct where it was fastened against, and clattered dully onto the metal floor. Edwyn scrambled unceremoniously into the Comm Room and scrambled towards a control panel. Karissa hastily jumped from the duct, breathing heavily and dusting herself off, glad to be free of the confined space.

“I hope these guys don’t know that the Comm Room has an independent emergency power supply,” Edwyn said, trying to activate one of the consoles. He hissed and pitched forward, and his hand once again flew to his wound.

“Edwyn!” She caught him and forced him to sit in one of the leather chairs in front of a dead console. “Just take it easy. Let me contact Ariano.”

=[ End of Part One ]=

A/N: Thanks for reading, and please leave an honest review (again, no flaming). This is going to be a HUGE project, so bear with me.