by T. Y. Carew
“That’s your job, isn’t it?” The smugness of the man’s response left Xander in shock.
“We need to get back to the ship,” Tyra said, stepping between Xander and the man and gently pushing him toward the exit.
At the same time Trey took Matt by the arm.
The twins managed to get Xander and Matt out into the corridor without further confrontation, although one of Matt’s swords floated menacingly in the air above its scabbard.
“That guy doesn’t need to worry about the Beltine,” Xander hissed. “I’ll kill him myself.”
“We don’t have time to waste on vermin like that,” Tyra said. “We’ve got to be out there looking for Drew.”
Xander stopped and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “You’re right, of course. Please excuse my inappropriate behavior.”
“We didn’t see a thing,” Tyra grinned.
“You did sort of remind me of myself,” Matt said.
“There’s no call for insults.” Trey showed a forest of teeth.
“Okay, it’s over for now,” Xander said, feeling the need to regain command of himself and his crew. “Let’s mask up and get the hell out of here.”
***
The Contessa had barely cleared the gravity well of Alton Three when Trey detected a Beltine ship on the visual horizon. It seemed unaware of the Contessa.
“Colonel, look at this.”
Trey magnified the forward view, making the enemy ship look very close.
“What are they after here?” Xander said. “Is there something about Alton Three that interests them? Or do they just hate that weirdo below as much as we do?”
Trey was a bit shocked at the Colonel’s words, but he shrugged it off.
“There has never been a known Beltine presence in the area before the attack on the Carson. Or a human presence either. I find it hard to fathom why the Beltine would suddenly show up.”
“I find it hard to fathom anything those creatures do,” Matt sneered.
“Well, at any rate, they’re here and we need to decide what to do about them,” Tyra said.
“What are you thinking?” Xander asked. “Do we run? Or do we attack?”
“I vote attack,” Matt said.
“Attacking is always a big risk,” Tyra said. “As long as they don’t threaten us or the planet surface, I suggest we hang back and observe.”
“Good thinking,” Xander said. “I suppose we are under orders to protect Provis Paradise, as much as I hate it.”
Trey sat back and studied the readings on the Beltine ship. A series of irregular energy surges caught his eye. He keyed up a more detailed analysis.
“What the hell are they doing?” Tyra’s voice was almost shrill.
Trey increased the magnification of the forward view.
“Those monsters are blasting escape pods!” Matt said.
“Battle stations! Prepare to attack!” Xander called out unnecessarily loudly.
Matt and Trey strapped into the gunner positions and snapped on crash helmets with emergency air supplies. Trey’s guns were standard thirty millimeter lasers, while Matt used a semi-ballistic weapon loaded with photo-electric charges.
Trey smiled grimly. He felt more at home in the gunner’s chair than he did anywhere else on the ship. It was what he'd originally trained for at the Academy.
***
Tyra set an intercept course and increased thrust to closing speed. She had to make some adjustments to avoid a wide stream of debris that remained from the Carson.
“Fire off a volley as soon as you can get a lock on the target,” Xander said.
“Sir, at this range that will have no effect,” Trey objected. “We’ll only draw their attention.”
“That’s what I want. If we distract them they’ll stop firing on the survival pods.”
Tyra studied readings from the other ship and tapped at her keyboard. “Boss, the Beltine ship’s maximum speed is only about a third of ours. We can out-maneuver them, no problem.”
“Good,” Xander said, his voice sounding grim.
The sound of the discharging guns rang through the ship. Tyra watched the Beltine cruiser for a reaction. She wasn’t sure what she expected. At that range the photo-electric blast would dissipate to a harmless spot of light by the time it reached the other craft.
Almost a minute passed before the lumbering Beltine craft began to come about to face its attacker.
“They probably think they’re facing a toothless opponent,” Matt said. “Wait ‘til they feel our claws.”
Tyra smiled outwardly, but inwardly she had a sense of dread. Every time they faced the Beltine they came close to losing someone—or everyone. It was what she'd signed on for, but still.
The Beltine ship loomed up in the forward screen. Tyra reduced the magnification to normal and the enemy shrank to nothing more than a tiny dot of light. She grinned to herself. That was how she should think of the Beltine—just a little speck to be wiped from the sky.
***
Matt was just itching to do some real damage to the Beltine. She owed it to the memory of her parents and she owed it to Drew. Right now she would like nothing better than to be on that other ship, facing those ugly bugs and showing them what Adamanta was really for.
The thought of revenge always gave Matt the slightest feeling of conflict. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She practically grew up training with Adamanta. It was her own personal martial art. It was a game. Her parents took it very seriously, and she understood. It was their research. Their life’s work. For them it wasn’t about vengeance, either. It was about hope. About giving humans and other life forms a fighting chance for a future.
Then the Beltine attacked their lab and killed her parents and Matt became acutely aware of those monsters. What they wanted and why they killed were no longer relevant questions. They were bloodthirsty creeps and she wanted to see them snuffed out of existence.
Her anger increased when she thought of Drew. He might have been in one of the pods the Beltine ship had already destroyed. Matt resolved to make someone pay for that.
She glanced at the forward view. The enemy cruiser was coming up fast. They would be preparing to engage.
“They’re firing at us, Boss.” Tyra increased magnification on the screen.
Matt could see flashes as the Beltine ship’s guns discharged, sending a massive electrical charge along a beam of particle photons. None of the blasts were hitting home. The range was too great and the Beltine’s targeting technology was too crude. In a broadside battle, their guns were good enough—often too good for a human ship to survive. The shielding on a Beltine ship had very few weaknesses. The most common way Beltine hives had been defeated one-on-one was by disabling and boarding them. After that it was all hand-to-hand combat and an occasional well-placed explosive.
The military would have loved to return a Beltine ship to Netera intact so they could study the technology behind their defenses—and offenses—but up to this point they only had fragments to work with.
“We’re entering their weapons range,” Tyra announced.
“Gunners, hold your fire until I give the order,” Xander said.
Matt stared into the targeting screen. The Beltine craft loomed ahead. It had a smooth, featureless hull. For Mattie it was the focus for her blind hatred.
***
As the Contessa closed in on the enemy ship, Tyra put the helm into manual control. She knew Xander didn’t approve, but she also knew she could make course corrections faster than any computer.
“Tyra, I want you to bear down on the dead center of their ship,” Xander said. “I’ll tell you when to pull up.” He stared intently at the view screen.
Tyra kept her eyes on the status displays. It made her a little nervous charging straight at the midsection of a Beltine ship.
“How fast can you go and still be able to maneuver?”
“Pretty fast,” Tyra said, glancing over her shoulder, a trace of concern
on her reptilian face.
“Do it,” Xander said.
He adjusted the magnification on the viewer as they closed in. The Beltine ship was coming up quickly.
“Trey, prepare to fire a volley amid-ship on the enemy vessel.”
Matt adjusted her hands on the controls.
“Show targeting mode,” Xander said. The circle and cross of a gun sight appeared on the screen. Xander smiled as he noticed the sights of the two guns were perfectly overlapped. Matt was getting good at the guns, but hitting the other ship dead center would do nothing more the rock the boat and draw their attention. “Matt, hold your fire.”
“Colonel, the Beltine ship is coming about.”
“Correct course and stay on target.” The Contessa had several advantages over the other ship: she was faster, she was more maneuverable and the Dairos were lousy shots.
Xander checked the range. They were a lot closer than he would have liked.
“Boss, we’ll need to veer off soon,” Tyra said.
“One more second,” Xander said. He watched the distance tick off on the scroll at the bottom of the forward view. “Fire!” he said. “Helm, evasive action, now!”
Trey let loose a volley—not enough to do any real damage, but enough to attract a response.
Before Tyra could get the Contessa clear, she took a direct hit to the port nacelle. Between Xander not allowing enough distance and the shock of the enemy blast, Contessa was too low and glanced off the upper hull of the Beltine hive ship, the scraping noise echoing through the ship. Tyra scrambled to get back on course. A second shot from the enemy hit its mark, rattling the smaller ship again.
Xander gripped the arms of his chair. “Tyra, give me a figure eight, come up hard on the rear of the Beltine ship. Trey, Matt, I want as many shots into the back of the craft as you have time for.” It was possible Contessa’s guns could hit the right spot and disable the larger ship. “Tyra, pull out at your discretion,” Xander added. He decided that Tyra was a better judge of when to take evasive action than he was.
***
Tyra maneuvered the ship around. Contessa was built for speed and landing capabilities.
Watching her gauges closely, Tyra moved the Lady off to port to confuse the enemy and give Trey and Matt the element of surprise when they brought their guns to bear. The Beltine craft continued to come about, and Tyra had to account for that. Ships as large as Contessa lacked the responsiveness in their helms that smaller fighters had, but she knew a few tricks.
A volley of laser blasts crossed their bow, just as Tyra gave a forward blast of the starboard steering jets and a rearward blast of the port jets, spinning the Lady out of harm's way and preparing her position for a run straight up the hive ship’s gut.
“I’m ready when you are, Xander,” she said.
“Trey, be ready. Matt, send your Adamanta bolts right between their drives. Tyra, give the order to fire.”
Tyra glanced over her shoulder at Xander. Giving the helm command of the guns was hardly standard operating procedure.
Putting the ship into a downward arc and then leveling out dead on the Beltine’s aft engines, Tyra gave the order. “Gunners, open fire!”
Laser blasts against the enemy ship’s left scars and scorch marks, but no discernable holes.
Tyra eyed the distance reading, waiting until the last possible second. She brought the nose of Contessa up to pull away, but not before a series of shots from the Beltine’s rear guns made their mark. The Contessa yawed wide to port and began to spin. “We’ve taken hits! Our starboard jets are offline!”
Chapter 4
08 hours, 22 minutes, 17 seconds
Drew found himself fading in and out of consciousness—and possibly sanity. The blank periods were welcome breaks from waiting. The periods of awareness seemed to last for months. Waiting was a game of guessing how much longer—and losing game after game.
“If I just had someone to talk to I wouldn’t mind so much,” he said aloud. The sound of his own voice in his ears was somewhat comforting. “I’m hardly a social type, but I’ve always been around people. At school, there were teachers and a few other kids with my same interests. And Dad was around when I was at home. And Mom. Mom was busy a lot, but I sometimes went to work with her on days off from school.”
Drew felt a wave of nostalgia and longing for home. He had not seen his parents in years. He blinked hard to keep from crying. In his weightless tomb, who knew where the tears would end up? Probably as little spheres of salty water standing on the tips of his eyelashes. That concept suddenly interested him. Perhaps he could do some research on that. He wondered if there were any extant studies published.
What a fascinating subject! Drew had never given much thought to tears. He wracked his brain trying to remember the composition of tears: water, of course, and salts, antibodies, enzymes, sodium and potassium. Were they alkaline or acidic?
His scientific look at tears quickly stopped his actual tears, giving him a temporary diversion. Human physiology was not Drew’s strong suit, but he found every subject interesting.
A memory surfaced. He was six years old and had built his very first meter. It was just a simple galvanometer, a project not uncommon for that age group. He ran around testing everything. He was particularly thrilled to discover the electrical properties of a simple potato.
Drew wondered if his parents had been proud of that little achievement. Probably. His parents had both given him affection and affirmation. They would not have made a huge thing of it, but they would have patiently followed him around while he showed them all of the voltage sources he had discovered around the house.
It wasn’t long before his dad helped him adapt his meter to test conductivity, and by the time he was nine, Drew had learned to calibrate his homemade meters.
Drew sighed. Memories were good and all that, but for now, he found himself trapped in a survival capsule floating through nothingness. Nothingness he could not even look at because there was a wall between his eyes and the vastness of space. Nothingness he could not reach to test with his meters.
If he had his bag of tricks and safe access to the other side of the wall, Drew knew he might find the tiniest traces of atmosphere—an oxygen molecule here, a nitrogen molecule there, and probably traces of antimatter, just to make things interesting.
A wave of heartsickness washed over him. He longed to be back on the ship and around his crewmates. He missed the spacious inside of the Contessa—spacious compared to his current accommodations. How long would it be? How long had it been?
Drew tried to change the course of his thoughts. At last, he managed to occupy himself by mentally working on his project to create a more sensitive version of Atum’s Adamanta detector.
***
“Get us out of weapons range!” Xander shouted.
Tyra worked frantically, trying to regain control of the ship. Pressing keys and punching in instructions made the problem worse, at first. She was flying by the seat of her pants. None of her training had addressed this particular scenario. With seemingly nothing to lose, Tyra made one more frantic attempt. The spin began to slow. Soon, Contessa was on an even keel, powering away from the enemy craft. Several parting shots from the Beltine glanced off the heavy shielding of Lady’s starboard hull.
Tyra let out a long, slow sigh of relief.
“That was close,” Mattie said.
“What’s our status?” Xander asked.
“No structural damage,” Tyra said. She scrolled through information on her main monitor. “It’s an overload. It may take more than a few minutes to reset the starboard guidance system.”
“Do whatever it takes. Did we do any damage to the Beltine ship?” Xander asked, turning to address Trey.
“She seems to be adrift, as near as I can tell at this distance.”
“But their guns still work, I assume,” Xander said. His voice sounded grim.
Tyra sat solemnly following the progress of the reset, anxio
us to get going again before something else happened.
***
Xander brought up a view of the Beltine ship on the forward screen. He wondered if she really were dead in the water, or just setting a trap for the Contessa and its crew. Some of the Kyraos were clever at strategy. Most used Dairos as cannon fodder, but others were well practiced.
While Xander pondered, Trey did a complete survey of damage to the ship.
“Colonel, the hull has some cosmetic damage, but we seem solid. Once we get steering back online, I think we will be ready to return to battle.”
“Arms are back to full,” Matt said. “We’re ready to go after the Beltine scum.”
“Don’t be too hasty,” Trey said. “We need to have some element of surprise on our side.”
“It’s true,” Tyra said. “Right now, we appear to be dead in the water, as well. We have that as an advantage.”
Xander studied the image of the Beltine ship onscreen. It seemed unlikely that they were faking their distress, although he learned something new about the enemy every day.
“We’re back up and running,” Tyra announced.
“Good,” Xander said, nodding. “Let’s take a slow once around the block and do visual inspections of the hive ship from all angles.”
“We could use a bit of a shakedown cruise anyway,” Tyra said.
“Why aren’t they firing on us? Are their guns down, too?” Xander watched the other ship with interest.
“Aside from a few scorch marks, there is no visible damage, Tyra said.
“Trey, what do you think? Where is our best point of entry for boarding?”
“What are you asking him for?” Tyra butted in. “I’m the one who has to sync this ship up to theirs.”
“Well? What do you say?”
“I say we come up from behind and take a position along her starboard hull.” Tyra smiled her reptilian smile.
“I agree,” Trey said. “If we can dodge their weapons fire long enough, they won’t be able to target us once we’re in close.”
“Let’s do it,” Xander said.
The crew of the little ship began preparations for a close-quarters battle.