“Please, stop!” she moaned out in agony. “I’ll do what I’m supposed to do! Just please don’t hurt me anymore!”
Instantly, the pain was gone. She was left panting heavily, eyes frantically darting back and forth, wondering if, at any second, it would strike again. Her whole body trembled in fear. She dared not think of Matt Burlington in any way other than the way she was supposed to.
Quivering fingers encircled the grip of her pistol. With a deep breath of resignation, she flipped the lever from “STUN” to “LETHAL.”
It would all be over soon.
Standing to her feet, she turned and faced the man she’d once loved and now had to kill.
***
“What is it?” Tiger asked as they approached the sleek black shape. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“And you probably never will again,” Dee answered. “She’s one-of-a-kind. A prototype. The only one ever made.”
The ship looked nothing like the Chargers or Super Chargers that the Possum Works had been putting out for decades. Even in the dark, underground hangar, Tiger could tell it was something unique. It was much larger in both height and width than either Jenny Lou or Belle. Even in the darkness, its hulking silhouette would dwarf them, making them look like children’s toys.
Dee walked up to the hull and placed his hand on it, his fingertips moving ever so lightly down it as if teasing a new lover’s body. He came to a stop, seemingly finding that one particular place that he needed to be. He tapped on the hull, and Tiger detected there was a distinct rhythm to his drumming. After a few seconds, the ship slowly began to emanate a soft, pale glow. It wasn’t just running lights coming on at selected points along the hull … the whole damned ship had taken on a ghostly light. Slowly, but steadily, it grew brighter, illuminating not only this strange vessel but the entire area around it.
“My God …” Tiger felt his jaw go slack as, only now, with ever-increasing light to see by, could he began to comprehend what he was seeing.
“Tiger,” Dee stepped back to allow his companion to drink it all in. “Allow me to introduce to you … the Night Mare.”
Whereas the Chargers classic spaceplanes, with retractable wings/fins and a conventional fuselage designed for operation in both space and Earth’s atmosphere, this ship was a complete, new concept. Triangular in both length and height, its wings rose and formed from delta tips at forty-degree angles. As Tiger moved around the black-painted monstrosity, he immediately saw why. Each wing housed a massive engine that, just by looking at the exhaust nozzle, seemed to be twice the size of the Super Novas that powered the conventional Super Charger. As if that wasn’t enough, a third engine had been mounted mid-ship, where the Super Charger’s cargo bay would have been. Seeing this, confirmed what Tiger had already suspected. This wasn’t a new space truck. The black body. The angular build. Not only was it built to outrun anything in the System … it had stealth capabilities!
Everything about it screamed black-ops.
Everything about it screamed Space Authority.
Tiger gave Dee a suspicious look. “What were y’all building this for? Who were y’all building this for?”
Dee was silent for a long pause. His silence told Tiger volumes.
“You’re tellin’ me the Cap’n was buildin’ this for those bastards at the Authority?” The thought of his mentor working hand-in-hand with those assholes was almost more than he could take.
“It was supposed to be a rapid-deployment tactical response vehicle,” Dee began to explain, “for anti-piracy measures in the Belt. They said a squadron of these could cover the whole of Sol, be anywhere in a matter of hours. Mars. Luna. The Belt. But when the Cap’n saw what happened on Luna ... What they did to those colonists … there was no way he could ever deliver anything to the Authority to help them wage war.”
Tiger turned back around, “So, you hid it? Under the Tennessee River?”
“We told the Authority we didn’t have the technology to deliver everything they wanted.” Dee shrugged, reaching up and tapping on the hull again. We told them what they were asking for wasn’t feasible … and all the time, we’d developed what they wanted … and much, much more. And after the Lunar Rebellion, we knew they could never get their hands on any of it. If they did …”
“If they did … it’d be some evil empire shit for real!” Tiger finished for him. “We’re talking some real Darth Vader stuff!” Tiger gave him a quizzical look. “But I don’t understand. Why just hide it and run the risk of them finding it down here? Why not just destroy it? Wipe it off the face of the earth along with any records or data that it ever existed.”
Dee smiled and hung his head. “Would you shoot your own child just because bad men wanted to corrupt it? A lot of people put five years of their lives into this project … their hearts and souls. Like I said, what we created here is unique. There’s not another ship like this one anywhere. Not Mars. Not Luna. Not even in the Belt where your precious Cap’n Reb fled cuz he didn’t wanna deal with the fact some of those very people who created this same magic here, cost the lives of others a year later … dabbling in shit they shouldn’t have.”
“You’re talking about Odder.”
“The man became obsessed with that wormhole shit,” Dee snarled. “It was all he thought about. He ate, slept and shit it. His whole life became about creating
