Crystal Horizon: A Short Prequel to Crystal Deception Read Free Page B

Dr.
Freud,” she said, shaking her head. “My dad and I are great friends. It’s just
that we bet a bottle of Scotch on the captain thing. He gloats so much when he
wins.”
    “So you’re doing this for a bottle
of Scotch?”
    “It depends. What kind?” She laughed
and bumped her leg against his. “I’m having fun, Sid. This is where I want to
be.”
    He nudged her leg in return. “No worries, then. We got this.”
    Their names were called, and Cheryl’s heart raced as she led
the way into the theater. The spaceship was staged as a combination of real physical
objects—floors, doors, consoles, and chairs—enhanced by three-dimensional
projected images. The projections were sophisticated tricks of light that added
life-like illusions of reality. The crystal would use image projection to
update the set as events unfolded.
    Moving behind the ship’s main operations bench—the starting
point for their run—she exhaled through pursed lips, seeking to dispel the tension
from her body. “Six minutes ten wins it,” she said as she primed her wrist
weapons.
    They lowered themselves to the deck and sat back against the
ops bench, their shoulders touching, as they waited for the horn that would
signal the start of the clock. Tilting sideways, Cheryl peered around the
corner and surveyed the room.
    For their run, the command bridge was configured with a navigation
bench and a communications bench positioned halfway to their first goal—either
of the two passageways that led off the bridge. She eyed each passageway
entrance in turn. They start us off pinned down, and our only way out is
through choke points .
    She sat up straight and looked at Sid. “They’re waiting for
us in those corridors.”
    “Yup,” said Sid, folding his hands in his lap and closing
his eyes.
    She nudged him. “The horn is about to sound.”
    “We got this,” he said for the second time.
    Before she could respond, the clock started. Booop .
    Cheryl peeked around the corner. “I’m gonna try for the nav
bench.”
    She rose up into a squat and poked her head out. Zwip. Zwip.
Zwip. A fusillade of energy bolts—bright but harmless—passed all around
her. Jerking back in reflex, she fell behind the ops bench and sprawled on the
deck, her head landing on Sid’s thigh.
    “How’s it going?” he asked, looking down at her.
    “I’m confused.” She raised up on her elbows. “What are you
doing?”
    “Maybe we shouldn’t try for the passageways.”
    “What are we going to do, go through the walls?”
    He winked, then leaned forward and kissed her on the lips.
    Cheryl shoved his shoulder and wiped her mouth with the back
of her hand. “Seriously? That’s where your head’s at?”
    She rose to a crouch and looked him in the eye. “You should’ve
asked first.” Shuffling to the corner of the ops bench, she used her com to look
around the corner. “So where’s your secret weapon?”
    “I’m looking at her.”
    “Stop with the games, Sid.” She let her tone reflect her determination.
“I told you this was important to me.”
    Digging into her weapons cache, she pulled out a red
demolition disk and a blue smoke disk. She knew the wall behind her would be
part of the outer hull on a real ship. All paths forward required that they move
toward their opponents.
    “Right or left wall?”
    “Right.”
    She glanced over at him. “So I’m going alone?”
    He nodded. “There’s a team waiting in each of those
passageways. If I stay here, they will too. For a while, anyway. That means it’s
you against two. You can beat those odds.”
    With time short and options limited, her adrenaline-driven frenzy
transitioned into a clock-slowing calm. I can do this.
    Setting the disks on the deck in front of her, she armed the
smoke disk. She counted to five as she scanned the bridge, and then armed the
demo disk. Sliding her arm in a smooth motion, she sent the smoke disk skimming
across the deck, cheating it toward the passageway entrance on