Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [39]
The shuttle seemed to be drifting weightless, but they felt something clunk through the hull, a solid pressure that pulled the vehicle and the air lock around them to the side. The SEALS bumped into the bulkhead, though it wasn’t a violent maneuver, and then felt a buzzing vibration that seemed to hold the little spacecraft steady.
“I have a feeling we just docked onto something,” Jackson observed. “Get your helmets back—”
The air lock hatch suddenly buzzed, and the men snatched their weapons, watching as the metal ring spun and the aperture abruptly opened. Six fingers backed slightly off their triggers when they recognized Consul Char-Kane. The Shamani woman looked a little disheveled, her normally smooth black hair scattered in disarray, but her gaze was steady as she came through the hatch, holding on to the handrails to keep herself from drifting. She was followed by Director Parker, whose ruddy complexion had paled. One of his eyes was surrounded by a purple bruise.
“Are you men unharmed?” asked the Shamani woman.
“Close enough,” Jackson retorted. He glared at her, then at the director. “But what the hell is going on? What ship is this? And what about Master Chief Ruiz? We saw him carried aboard!”
“Please,” Char-Kane said, holding up her hand as if to ward off the onslaught of questions. “Your master chief is bruised but not badly wounded. He, the ensign, and Dr. Sulati already have been taken from the shuttle onto the ship.”
“So Ensign Sanders was in one of those body bags? I suppose you were, too.”
“I do not know how they brought us out of the station and onto the shuttle, as I was unconscious. But you are probably right.”
“And now we’ve docked with a ship. What ship is it?”
The consul de campe drew a deep breath. “I was mistaken about the Assarn. The attackers on Mars were agents of the Eluoi. The shuttle has brought us into the hold of the Shamani ship Gladiola, which was in orbit about your planet. But the ship has been captured by the Eluoi. We are all their prisoners.”
“Wait. These attackers, they weren’t Assarn? The robot tanks, too?”
“No. I am sorry that I was wrong, but apparently it was the Eluoi who struck your installation on Mars. They disguised their tactics to resemble the Assarn.”
“Why would they do that?” Jackson demanded.
“I do not know. But I fear we will find out soon enough.”
“What do they want with us?” Jackson asked. All he knew about the Eluoi was that they were one of the three galactic empires. This was the first he or anyone else had heard about them being present in the solar system.
“I am afraid I do not know. We will have to wait to find that out.”
“W-wait…?” Jackson tried to spit out the question, but his tongue stumbled clumsily in his mouth. He shook his head, but his neck was having trouble moving. And why did Chief Harris just fall to the deck?
The red light on his air-quality indicator was blinking. Too late he understood: gas!
And then all the lights went out.
Jackson was lying in a reasonably comfortable bed when he awakened. The first thing he realized was that he was between silk sheets. The second was that he was naked.
“Shit!” Memories came flooding back, and he pushed himself upright, moderately surprised to find that he wasn’t restrained. He looked around. He was in one bed in a compartment that looked like a small medical wardroom. There were sixteen single beds, eight along each facing wall, and most of them were occupied. Chief Harris was on one side of him, Master Chief Ruiz on the other. There was no sign of his uniform or any of the SEALS’ equipment.
The gravity had been restored; that suggested that they were accelerating away from Mars. The pressure seemed to be about 1 G.
From his sitting position he saw Dr. Sulati perched on the end of one bed across the compartment. Director Parker lay slumbering in the farthest bed on the opposite wall; the roster of prisoners looked like twelve SEALS and two civilians. The doctor was wearing what appeared to