Trent paced back and forth across the floor outside the medical quarters.
"You know," King said, "you keep doing that and you'll walk yourself right into a hull breach. Come on, let me buy you a drink."
Trent didn't really feel like it, but he followed King into the bar.
"Oh, did you hear? They think they've developed a way to make the cardamine weapons-grade. How about that? Cardamine missiles. Cardamine torpedoes. Guess it beats cooking your brain cells."
"Yeah," said Trent.
"Rumor has it that they're going to make us start packing cardamine injectors so that the Nomads won't go near us."
"Uh-huh," Trent said.
"Come on, Trent, you gotta take your mind off it. We're all concerned. Worrying about it all the time isn't going to help you or her. Here. Sidewinder Fang on me."
"Thanks King. I just can't believe what happened to her."
"I know. Kinda scary. Makes you wonder how long she was infected. I hope she'll be able to tell us what happened."
"You mean how she got infected?"
"Well, it makes me think that there is still Nomad-infected humans who escaped the first time. And that's not a pleasant thought. Something tells me that it's gonna hit the fan real soon."
Trent took a long pull at his drink. "Here we go again."
Suddenly the alarm klaxon came on.
"Come on!" King said.
"Gentlemen, we have incoming hostiles at long range," said Orillion. "We haven't been able to identify them as of yet due to the nebula, but they are approaching at high speed and we can only assume they have hostile intent.
"All fighter wings will scramble and launch immediately. Let's move, people!"
Trent jumped into his Anubis and activated the launch sequence. Ten seconds later he was in space.
"All right," King said over the comm channel, "Bogies approaching on intercept course. Let's go get' em!" He fired up his cruise engines and the rest of the fighters followed suit.
They emerged out of a dense part of the nebula. There, facing them was a wing of heavy fighters.
Rheinland Valkyries.
"What the hell?" Trent said.
"Attention, Order fighters," a voice came over the comm channel. "You will stand down and surrender Edison Trent to our custody. If you refuse, we will destroy you."
"Umm, Trent," said King over the secure channel, "You know anything about this?"
"No."
"Good." King switched back to the hailing channel. "Rheinland fighters. If you want Mr. Trent, you can come and get him! Break and attack!"
The Order fighters broke formation and began to engage the Rheinland fighters. Trent pursued one and easily dispatched it.
Several other Order ships were not so lucky. The Rheinland pilots were extremely skilled, even more than Trent had ever seen. They blew three Anubises to dust before they knew what had hit them.
"Trent! You got one on your six!" King called out.
Trent's Anubis rattled as the Rheinland guns pummeled his shields.
"Damn! Those sure as hell aren't regular Rheinland guns!" Trent said. "They're eating my shields to pieces!" He tried evasive maneuvers, but the Valkyrie stuck with him.
"Dammit! My shields are gone! King, where are you?" Trent's ship rocked as the guns started their way into the ship's armor.
"King, I'm in serious trouble here!" Trent said. Suddenly he noticed something attached in the cockpit that he had not noticed before.
A cardamine injector.
Several thoughts ran through his mind at lightning speed. The excellent Rheinland pilots. The extremely powerful Rheinland weapons that for some reason looked very familiar.
Trent came to a conclusion that hit him like a ton of bricks He grabbed the cardamine injector and shoved it into the leg pocket on his flight suit. As the last pieces of armor were blown away, Trent pulled the eject handle and the cockpit of his Anubis shot away from the mangled body of his once-faithful ship. A large piece of debris slammed into the pod, and Trent's head smacked into the cockpit window. Everything went black.
Trent slowly awoke to find himself in a dark room, strapped down to a table. He could see three others in the dimly lit room all looking at him. One of them approached.
"Ah, Mr. Trent. I am glad to see you are not seriously hurt."
"Why don't we dispense with the pleasantries and get on with it. What do you want?"
"I would think that would be obvious by now. We want you, Mr. Trent. You are a very valuable asset to us."
"And who would that be? Nomads?"
"Very good, Mr. Trent, your perception is commendable, for a human."
Trent was able to move his hand enough to feel his flight suit leg pocket. The injector was still there. Moreover, with some work and a little luck, he might be able to get it out. He decided that his best chance to stay alive, and stay human, was to keep talking and play along until he could figure out how to get the injector out of his pocket.
"So why am I so valuable to you?"
"Mr. Trent, you are one of the best agents of the Order. Since our first attempt to...recruit you failed, we now must resort to this method."
So these were the bastards that infected Juni, Trent thought to himself. He had finally gotten the pocket open and could feel the injector. He slowly started to pull it out. Fortunately, the room was dark enough that no one seemed to notice.
"Perhaps the transition will be easier if I show you that even people you know understand our cause." He motioned to one of the other figures in the room, who stepped forward into the light.
"Kress."
"You see now, Mr. Trent, even your own comrades are now understanding us. You cannot resist. It is better if you join us voluntarily. As you may have heard, the pain is brief."
"You have no choice, Mr. Trent," Kress said. He looked at Trent, looked at Trent's hand, looked at Trent again and gave him a barely perceptible nod.
"You can have me," Trent said, "when I'm good and dead!" He pulled the injector out fully, jammed it into his leg and shot the drug into his body. Instantly he felt the euphoric rush as the narcotic coursed through his bloodstream. The Nomad who had been interrogating Trent fell back and began to writhe in pain. Kress pulled out a gun he had hidden in his jacket and shot the third man in the room. who fell dead. he then shot Trent's interrogator. Kress came over and unlocked Trent's restraints. He then pulled out a cardamine injector he had hidden and administered the drug to himself.
"Let's go, Mr. Trent. The cardamine will offer protection for only an hour."
Kress and Trent ran down the main corridor. Since Trent had no idea where they were going, he followed close behind Kress.
Two men jumped out and fired at them. Both men dropped to the floor and Kress fired back, killing the two. Kress grabbed one of the men's weapons and handed it to Trent.
"You will need this." Trent took the gun and followed Kress. They turned a corner and stopped, shocked at what they saw.
A group of Nomads, in their true form, were waiting for them. Kress looked at Trent, nodded and ran toward them, firing his weapon. Trent followed suit. A few of the Nomads fell to the gunfire, but most fell back convulsing in agony as the men ran by.
They turned another corner and found themselves in the hangar. It was full of Rheinland Valkyries. Kress and Trent each ran to one as more Nomads entered the hangar. Kress circled his fighter around and fired the ship's cannons. The hangar doors blew open, decompressing the hangar and blowing all of the Nomads into space.
"Let's go, Trent. We have little time."
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