by David Smith
He signalled Sergeant Belle, and her team began the attack. They skilfully sneaked forward, and as one threw a stone to distract the nearest guard, Belle silently approached him, placed a hand firmly over his mouth and rammed a dagger through his spine.
Dave winced. He had no stomach for such closer quarters blood-letting. He’d much rather place his faith in a good phaser. Peeking over the top of a ruined wall, he took aim and disabled another guard. As he did, Stallworth and another member of the team opened fire.
More of the Imperial troops were felled, but just when it seemed they’d be able to walk into camp, one of scientists chanced to step outside for a breath of fresh air. He saw one of the guards fall and immediately turned and ran screaming in alarm as he did so.
The time for stealth had gone, and with a roar, Sergeant Belle shouted ‘Up an’ at ‘em!!’ leading her team on a full frontal assault. All hell broke loose. Flashes of phaser fire were met with screams of pain.
The Imperial troops weren’t taking prisoners and disintegrated a couple of Belle’s team, but numbers were against them and as Stallworth and Hollins attacked from the other side, the Imperial troops were caught in a cross-fire and quickly disabled.
Hollins moved forward with the troops, desperate to get to the Magistrate, but a roar of lift-thrusters told him he was too late and he could only watch in frustration as a shuttle took off and headed into the sky.
Damn her! He’d been so close to catching up with his nemesis. He didn’t allow himself to worry about it; he had other things to do. Inside the building he found the remaining scientists cowering around what he assumed was the mega-bomb. All they had to do now was disarm it.
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Delgado marched a hand-cuffed Hollins onto the Hangar Deck and shouted ‘Security team! Attention, get over here now. I’ve captured the enemy leader trying to sabotage the ship. He’s the most dangerous man in the Empire and I want all of you here guarding him while I find out how he escaped.’
Startled, the security team members looked at each other uncertainly until they were herded towards her as ASBeau and Kennickie shooed them away and took their places guarding the huddled crew. ASBeau waited until all of them had nearly reached Hollins and Delgado before calmly levelling his phaser and starting to shoot them in the back. He prided himself on his proficiency with small arms and had downed three of them before they even reacted. Kennickie had followed suit and bagged another, and as the remaining security team span to face them, Hollins and Delgado drew their phasers and began picking them off too.
Caught in a cross-fire, the security team didn’t have a chance. One of them grabbed the nearest member of Tiger’s crew and attempted to use them as a human shield, but as he did, a very, very grumpy peguin pecked hard at his ankle, bringing a howl of pain and allowing the crewman to break free. Both Delgado and ASBeau reacted instantly, hitting the hopping security guard squarely.
There were whoops and cheers (and an odd sardine) as Tiger’s crew realised they were being rescued, but Dave silenced them to get them focused on the job in hand. ‘Ok crew, we need teams to retake control of the ship. ASBeau, take a team to Engineering and flush them out of there. Delgado, you and I need to get to the Secondary Bridge.’
They were just about to leave, when there was a slight shaking of the ship and a familiar hissing, shrieking sound.
‘That’s our phasers!’ shouted Dave. ‘We’ve opened fire on someone!’
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Aisling O’Mara whooped with glee as Chief Benoit got the hang of the phaser console. His first shot was appalling, but then he found the auto-correct controls and simply picked out the spot he wanted to hit on ISS Tiger, letting the ship’s computer do all the hard work.
His next shot weakened her shields severely. At this close range, the full output of the phasers was hitting the target, and the effects were devastating.
She watched as her right-hand man continued to strafe their own ship. It was a shame, and she’d probably lose quite a few of her own people, but she believed in striking while the iron was hot.
She had no idea what had transpired on the Bridge of ISS Tiger but laughed out loud as a huge burst of flame shattered the windows on the Bridge, spewing gouts of flaming gas and bits of partially cremated Bridge crew. In her inexperience, she assumed that their own attack had caused the damage.
‘Take that Joynes, you bastard! I hope your mangy carcass rots in hell, you incompetent fuck-wit!’ she yelled.
With that, PO Van der Vaart shouted ‘Her shields have collapsed!’
‘Excellent!!’ screeched O’Mara. This was going better than she could ever have hoped! ‘Benoit, target the phaser banks and torpedo bay! When you’ve taken them out I want you to cripple the Goldberg too. I’m not sure which side they’ll come down on but think we’ll err on the side of caution.’
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Emanu ‘Le Bastard’ LaCroix was shaking with rage.
Still feeling the effects of the anaesthetic, he’d left Joynes to recover the situation and was now regretting it. The computer had told him that the Bridge had been destroyed and their weapon systems disabled. He’d been on his way to the Emergency Bridge on Deck 14, when the computer diverted an incoming broadcast to him.
‘This is Captain Aisling O’Mara of the Starship . . . er . . . Dublin. I don’t know who’s still in command of Tiger, but you’re dead meat! Whoever it is had better bloody well surrender, or we’ll . . . er . . . phaser you again!’
He couldn’t believe it. The treacherous, murderous, two-faced trollope! He pressed a button to respond to her. ‘LaCroix here. What the hell are you up to O’Mara??’
‘Ah you’re still alive! That’s a shame, I was hoping you’d have been fried on the Bridge, but I guess you were still being . . . er . . . re-testicled? Is that even a word?’ she asked herself distractedly.
‘Unfortunately for you, I’m still intact. You can’t win, you know. Even if you destroy Tiger and kill me and the Magistrate, Admiral O’Connor is on his way here with the rest of the Third Fleet. He’ll hunt you down and destroy you’ snarled LaCroix defiantly.
O’Mara giggled. ‘Oh poor Emmanuel! That’s why you’re only a Captain, but I will be an Empress. This ship, this copy of your vessel is a gift from the gods. If you’d been paying attention instead of getting completely dick-obsessed, you’d have found out that this ship travels back-wards in time as well as forwards in space at incredible velocities.’
She let the implication of this sink in. ‘My ship, ISS Dublin, is virtually invisible, is ten times faster than your wreck, and can travel backwards in time. It doesn’t matter how many ships O’Connor brings, I’ll just go back in time more often so I can out number him with a hundred or a thousand versions of my one beloved ship! It’s the ultimate weapon, sat right under your nose, and you didn’t even notice it! I’m going to destroy O’Connor, then assassinate the Emperor, let the other Admirals slug it out and then crush whoever’s left standing. I’ll be Empress within a year!’
LaCroix cursed to himself. He had to get to the Emergency Bridge and get the warp-drive up and running before she continued her attack. ‘It’s not over yet, O’Mara . . . ‘
‘Oh but it is, Emmanuel!’ she mocked. ‘We’ve already broken through your shields and knocked out your phasers and torpedoes. And when you get to the Emergency Bridge, as you’re undoubtedly trying to do right now, you’ll find I’ve locked out the warp-drive so you can’t escape. Oddly, there isn’t a single scientist aboard your crappy ship who can help you!’ she sniggered.
‘Just be a lamb and die nice and quietly so I don’t have to kill everyone else aboard the ship will you?’ she hissed.
LaCroix cut the comm-link. Well, she was clever, and ambitious, and ruthless as well; that much was clear. But she wasn’t a Starship Captain, and it showed. She’d attacked before managing to get the other ship’s shields on line, which meant he still had one card up his sleeve.
&n
bsp; His bodyguards, Yeomen Viera and Singh helped him down to the Transporter Room.
Viera scanned the Bridge of the other Tiger and LaCroix watched as the sensors picked up the transponder codes of his own crew manning the Bridge of their assailant. The traitors! To think of all the things he’d done for them! Well he’d not killed them at least.
But now? Now they’d find out what it was to cross Emmanuel Dominique LaCroix. Bastards!
He locked the Transporter onto them and personally operated the controls. As six steaming piles of partially cooked Haggis appeared on the Transporter platform he roared in triumph ‘WHO’S DEAD MEAT NOW, O’MARA, EH?!?!’
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Dave and Delgado reached the Emergency Bridge and Dave jumped into the Captain’s Chair. Tapping a button on the arm of the Chair, he said ‘Susan, Commander David Hollins, First Officer USS Tiger: Haggis for breakfast!’
‘Welcome back Commander Hollins. I am removing the secondary computer interface and unlocking all control protocols. You have command’ said the computer smoothly.
‘Please disable Bridge control functions, authorization . . . ‘
‘That will not be necessary, Commander, the Bridge has already been vacated’ stated the computer calmly.
‘What?? Why . . . I mean . . . who . . . ‘
‘It would appear that the crew of ISS Tiger attempted to transport their away team back to their ship. I suspect that they didn’t get them back in human form’
Dave sighed. What a way to go. Sadly he didn’t have time to mourn for anyone.
‘Ok, shields up. What’s the status of ISS Tiger and Goldberg?’
Delgado quickly swept the ship’s scanners across the Imperial vessels and shook her head ‘Don’t know what the hell’s been going on, but both ships are drifting. Tiger looks relatively intact, but her phasers and torpedo bay have been destroyed. Drives are cold. She’s made no attempt to move. Goldberg is a mess though, lots of hull damage, engines are destroyed too.’
Dave sighed. ‘Well at least we don’t have to worry about them. Which is just as well. We won’t be able use the weapons until we can evict their crew from the weapon control compartments, so . . . ‘
‘Incoming call from the surface for Lieutenant Delgado’ noted Susan.
‘On audio please computer’ said the Latina, looking completely unsurprised.
‘Tigereye, this is Hollins, we’ve got some bad news . . . ‘
Chapter 18
Dave hadn’t recognised his own voice at first, and even when the person speaking identified himself as ‘Hollins’ the penny didn’t drop immediately.
It wasn’t until the conversation developed he understood that Delgado had been contacted by the leader of the Rebellion against the Terran Empire, which meant that she too was a rebel.
The voice continued ‘We’ve taken out the Imperial troops guarding this damned bomb, but Jim-Bob says the thing’s armed and locked out. His best guess is that the Magistrate has set a six hour delay and encoded the trigger so only she can reset it.’
‘Is there no other way to disarm it?’ asked Delgado.
‘Disarm what?? The bloody thing looks more like a ship’s warp-core than any damn weapon I’ve ever seen! There are a dozen components we can’t even identify, let alone work out what they do. If Grosvenor was serious and this is some kind of mega-bomb, I figure we don’t chance anything until the last second.’
There was a pause as everyone let the implications sink in.
The rebel leader continued ‘The display says we’ve got just over five and a half hours until the big bang. That means we’ve got five and a half hours to either find Grosvenor and drag her down here, or get everyone else off this planet and away. Have you secured the ship?’
‘Yeah, and weirdly someone up here has already disabled ISS Tiger and Goldberg’ said Delgado with a shrug.
‘WHAT?? Who . . . er . . . ‘ said Hollins sounding confused.
‘Don’t know, don’t care. Whoever did it or whatever happened has saved us a major headache’ shrugged Delgado.
‘Great! We can focus on finding that bitch Grosvenor and dragging her sorry ass down here. If she doesn’t disarm it, at least she’ll find out first-hand just how much of a bang this thing will make’ growled Hollins.
‘Do you have any idea where she went?’ asked Dave.
‘No, when our team attacked she took off in one of the shuttles.’
Dave paused. ‘Her choices are limited. If she goes back to ISS Tiger or Goldberg, she’ll be a sitting duck. She could try and free the Marines on Devil’s Island?’
Hollins voice chuckled ‘She can try, but she’ll find they’ve got other issues that will hinder them. When Kennickie arrived on Goldberg he beamed down a weapon that we’ve used to render them . . . impotent . . . for the next few weeks.’
Dave wanted to ask, but figured his time could be spent better otherwise. ‘If she’s not going to the island, I assume she won’t hide. She’d be signing her own death warrant. She has to get off-world and preferably out of the system . . . ‘
Delgado interrupted him ‘One of the Sha T’Al ships is powering up . . . it’s the small scout vessel . . . ‘
Dave kicked himself. The Falcon. They’d had no further use for her and left her unattended in orbit.
‘Do we give chase?’ asked Delgado.
Dave checked his console and shook head. ‘Damn! Our warp-drive isn’t on line and we still haven’t regained control of the phaser banks and torpedo bay yet.’
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On board the tiny scout vessel, Commander Jervis and his second in command were struggling with the controls of the alien vessel. They were both excellent security officers and enforcers, but they weren’t ship operators.
Magistrate Grosvenor sat fuming in the Captains Chair. It was bad enough that she’d been forced to make a tactical withdrawal by that rebellious scum-bag Hollins, but to have to leave without at least gloating was beyond the pale. ‘Hurry up you idiot! I need to speak to them before we go to warp!’
Jervis pressed buttons at random, until something went green. ‘I think that’s it Ma’am’
She glowered at him, and pressed a button that had illuminated on the arm of her chair. ‘This is Magistrate Grosvenor. I trust you’re enjoying your victory? Good!’ she mocked. ‘Enjoy it while it lasts. The sub-elementary bomb thing is still armed and will detonate in about five hours. Within that time Admiral O’Connor will arrive with the rest of the Third Fleet and a large element of support from the Fifth and Ninth Fleets too.’
‘It’ll be the biggest Armada ever assembled by the Empire and will crush the Sha T’Al before sweeping through the Tana Empire too. If you manage to escape this system you’ll have a first-hand demonstration of the fleet’s power as they hunt you down and destroy every last one of you.’
‘And just to let you know, I’ll be on the Bridge of the Nebula with Admiral O’Connor watching you die. Grosvenor out.’
Chew on that Hollins! She smiled to herself.
‘Right Jervis, get us to warp. We need to intercept the Third Fleet and warn them to stand off this system when that bloody bomb goes off!’
Jervis hesitated ‘Magistrate, the Admiral will not be impressed by us being chased off by the Rebels. Should we lay low for a while?’
‘No Jervis, we have to warn the Admiral about the bomb as soon as possible. This affair looks bad, but I’m afraid you’ll have to take the blame for that.’ mused Grosvenor.
Jervis was horrified. ‘BUT IT WASN’T MY FAULT!!!! I’VE DONE NOTHING WRONG!’
The Magistrate looked at him condescendingly. ‘I didn’t say it was your fault Jervis . . . ’
Jervis breathed a sigh of relief which evaporated on his lips as she continued.
‘ . . . I said I was going to blame you. Do pay attention!’ she chided.
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On Tiger’s Emergency Bridge, Dave and Delgado had been joined by some of Tiger�
�s Bridge crew. Delgado had grudgingly given up the helm to Crash and slid into the Navigators seat as Dolplop was still drifting up from the Hangar Deck. ASBeau had arrived too, having left Janus in charge of trying to clear the main weapon compartments.
Shearer had occupied the Comms Station and had barely sat down when she picked up a signal. ‘Incomen signel from the Sha T’Al scout sir. Ah canna work it owt thaw, itsen cripted liek?’
Dave had an inkling there was some kind of message. ‘I doubt there’s anything the Magistrate would say that will be of value to us. Decrypt it and relay it later. Right now, I need you to concentrate on the Sha T’Al. Get hold of the Council and warn them we’ve got five hours to evacuate everyone still on the planet. And if the scout’s still in range after you’ve done that, send a return message to the Magistrate that she’s left over fifty thousand of her own troops and ship’s crew on the surface of the planet. I can’t believe she’d be willing to sacrifice them to save her own ass.’
Delgado merely mumbled ‘Don’t put money on it.’
He contacted the Engineering Deck. ‘Commander Romanov, we have a situation. Can we get to warp in five hours?’
She replied calmly ‘We’re nearly there already. Susan did an excellent job of hiding the drive management protocols, they’re virtually all intact, sir.’
‘That’s excellent news. Now if you can spare the staff, get Engineers on all of the Federation transports and start working the Transporters. We’ve got about four hours to evacuate the remainder of the Sha T’Al population.’
‘Four hours?!!’ gasped Romanov ‘That’s not enough time! We’ll never make it! We’re not bloody miracle workers you know!’
‘I’m sorry Commander, it’s out of my hands. The Sha T’Al need a miracle and you’re going to have to provide it.’ Dave could hear the distinctive tinkle of vodka being emptied into a tumbler. The sound carried on for quite some time, although it was mostly masked by Commander Romanov screaming commands at everyone in the vicinity. ‘We’ll get it done’ she said bluntly and cut the comm-link.