Test Subjects

by R S Penney

Guilt shredded Anna's insides. Had the poor woman been hit following her orders to provide a distraction? Before she could say anything, the silhouette of Ensign Kellin came running up behind her.

  Anna turned to him. “You got the airlocks open?” At his hasty nod, she added, “All right then. Get Helliar back to the SlipGate; send her home, and have the captain send us some reinforcements. We're gonna make a mess.”

  Chapter 28

  Cassi stood in the middle of a narrow corridor lined with gray bulkheads, waving her left hand back and forth. The holographic projector on her multi-tool painted a thick red line on the wall, indicating the presence of a power conduit behind it.

  Standing a few feet away with one hand on the grip of her holstered pistol, Anna frowned and nodded. “There it is,” she said. “Everyone loves fireworks; let's not deprive them of a good show.”

  Cassi took a step back and pointed her gun at a spot well above the conduit. “High Impact!” That was Anna's cue to retreat to a safe distance. She found the rest of her team waiting further up the corridor.

  Cassi fired her weapon.

  There was a loud thunk as the high-velocity bullet tore a hole in the wall, and then Cassi jumped up to stick an EMP charge onto the dented metal. With the conduit exposed to open air, the electromagnetic pulse should be strong enough to disable it without doing too much damage. You generally didn't want to poke holes in a ship that was surrounded by nothing but yucky, black vacuum.

  Cassi ran to join them.

  “Everybody clear?” Anna asked.

  “Yes, ma'am.”

  Drawing air through puckered lips, Anna closed her eyes and felt her chest expand. “Okay,” she said. “Let's do it.”

  One button on Cassi's multi-tool triggered the pulse. A brilliant flash was followed by a shower of sparks, and then the hallway went dark. Emergency lights kicked in half a moment later, bathing them all in a sickly yellow glow. It was possible they had disabled life support in this area, but that wouldn't be an issue for at least an hour. She hoped.

  After leaving the hangar bay, they had crossed paths with two Ragnosian security teams, resulting in some very uncomfortable firefights in corridors that didn't offer much in the way of cover. On two separate occasions, one of her people had suffered a critical hit to an arm or a leg, and each time, she had ordered two officers to escort their injured comrade back to the hangar bay. Her numbers were growing thin.

  Captain Desarin had sent reinforcements through the SlipGate – fifteen of his best troops – but Anna had left eight of those behind to guard the shuttle. After losing Helliar, that left her with a strike team of fourteen people, including herself and Cassi. In the last half hour, she had sent six of those back to the hangar bay.

  Now she was down to eight.

  They had encountered two more of those Ragnosian battle drones, which required Anna and Cassi to take turns crafting Bendings while the other hammered the robot with EMP rounds. Anna skin was prickling, and she felt a very light throb in her temples. She had only been forced to maintain a Bending for a few seconds at a time, but that was still enough to tire Seth.

  There was no way to know what kind of resistance they would face; there could be thirty Ragnosians around the next corner. They were reaching a point where they would soon have to head back and regroup. At least their sabotage would make things difficult for their enemies. Power failures generally disabled internal sensors.

  Cassi wore a bright, beautiful smile as she stepped forward and gestured to the hole in the wall. “That's three now,” she said. “Bet they're gonna have a hard time tracking us after that.”

  “That's three,” Anna agreed.

  “Ma'am?”

  She turned to find Joal Stamon in the middle of the hallway with a hand on his belly. Though he was still in pain, he insisted on joining the strike team. His body armour had stopped the bullet he had taken, but it was a good bet there was an ugly bruise under his shirt. “I think we should look for the detention area.”

  Wrinkling her nose at that suggestion, Anna shook her head. “No,” she said. “It's a big ship. We could be searching for hours.”

  “Our mission is to recover Agent Hunter.”

  “Yes, but we stand a better chance of accomplishing that if we disable this ship and allow Leyrian troops to come aboard. Believe me, Commander; no one wants to find him more than I do. But we play this smart. Which means we get to be gremlins.”

  “Gremlins?”

  Anna smiled down at her shoes. “An Earth legend,” she said with a quick shrug of her shoulders. “Mythical creatures that pilots used to blame for unexplained malfunctions in their aircraft.”

  “Gremlins,” he said. “I like it.”

  “Good. Then let's not wait around for a security team to find us.”

  “We've lost another power conduit on Deck 7.”

  Telixa sat forward with hands gripping the arms of her chair, grinding her teeth at this latest piece of bad news. Her security officers were spread too thin. The backup team she had sent to the hangar bay had found over a dozen of their comrades unconscious. It was becoming increasingly difficult to track the Leyrian intruders without the internal sensors. What's more, the Justice Keeper had escaped his cell, and the latest report said that he had incapacitated even more of her officers.

  Lieutenant Hadarial turned away from her station with a sheen of sweat on her face. The woman was breathing hard. “The power outages have affected our defense systems,” she said. “Ventral cannons are down, as are the shield generators.”

  Pressing her lips together, Telixa nodded in response to that. “Move us away from the Leyrian ships,” she said. “Keep our dorsal side toward the enemy.”

  “That may be difficult. They're more maneuverable.”

  “They also won't want to fire on their own people.”

  Sitting back, Telixa looked up at the ceiling and blinked. “My my, these Leyrians,” she said. “Much more dangerous than I would have expected.”

  Strapped into the cockpit of a Pyro-Class fighter, Ensign Zara Travol set her jaw as she stared through the cockpit windows. She saw nothing but an endless void punctuated by distant stars, but the SmartGlass enlarged the image of a Ragnosian battlecruiser. This one had just arrived moments ago. Unlike the admiral's ship, it had taken no damage.

  Zara licked her lips and glanced to the side at a sensor display. Commander Jaan's voice came through the speaker. “Okay, people, we're going in,” he said. “I want a full pass over their top-side. Target cannons and shield generators.”

  Zara sucked in a breath.

  The distant ship was growing larger and larger in her window. Its forward cannons loosed streams of green plasma. With a quick flick of her flight-yoke, Zara rolled to the left, allowing them to streak past the fighter's belly.

  She righted herself to fly head-on toward an enemy that was now close enough for her to see cannons on the battlecruiser's dorsal hull. Those fired on her as well. At much closer range.

  Zara thumbed the hat-switch.

  Her fighter slid upward so that the incoming fire sped past beneath her. Dipping the fighter's nose, she launched a barrage of charged bullets from the wings. Those pounded the nearest cannon, disrupting its circuits and causing a minor explosion.

  Flickering electromagnetic force-fields appeared over the enemy ship's hull, but she kept firing. Most of her bullets phased through them and damaged shield emitters.

  She saw another on her right, skimming over the battlecruiser.

  That must have been Marc; he was always trying to compete with her. With her and no one else. She suspected he had a little crush and was trying to show her up. Well, two could play that game.

  “Zara, you have a bogey on your tail.”

  Her screens displayed an enemy fighter coming up behind her and firing particle weapons. This time, she slid downward, letting the super-heated plasma pass by above her. She was almost scraping the battlecruiser's hull.

  Stepping on the peda
l. Zara yawed around and flew backward. The bogey was in her sights, SmartGlass on the window drawing a red circle around it. She squeezed the trigger and unleashed streams of white tracers.

  Her enemy pulled up, though some of those bullets phased through his shields and pelted his belly. Once he was out of sight, she let him go. She had other-

  Zara was thrown forward when something pounded her fighter from beneath. The alarms screeched, and her screens flickered. Cannons on the battlecruiser. Some must have targeted her and-

  Once again, she was jostled.

  Luckily, she passed over the battlecruiser's back end, and now the Ragnosian ship was receding into the distance ahead of her. Cannons on its top-side swiveled around to target her.

  Zara fired first.

  Glowing bullets attacked the cannon just as it loosed another stream of plasma, and the result was an explosion of green and orange that was almost beautiful to look at. She wasn't done. They had to disable this ship.

  The massive, bird-like shape of the Vasane came into view, flying straight “down” toward the battlecruiser and releasing an orange beam from its nose that battered the Ragnosians' shields.

  Zara let out a whoop.

  A smile crinkled the corners of her eyes as she laughed. “Yeah!” she shouted. “And that's what you get when you take our people.”

  She swooped low to make a pass at the battlecruiser's belly.

  Jack did not like these Ragnosian weapons.

  Pressing his shoulder to the wall near an intersection, he panted and tried to catch his breath. He wiped sweat from his brow. “Okay,” he said. “We've got three more in the adjoining corridor.”

  On the other side of the intersection, Arin and Novol were both huddled up against the wall, both holding weapons. Arin was in front with a pistol in both hands, its muzzle aimed down at the floor.

  He leaned forward for a glance up the adjoining corridor, then quickly jerked back mere seconds before a bullet whizzed through that space. “I would have expected more resistance,” he mumbled. “What are they doing?”

  Jack closed his eyes, breathing slowly, and nodded his agreement. “My guess is we aren't the only ones causing trouble,” he answered. “If the Leyrians are here to rescue me, then maybe they sent a boarding party.”

  “We can pray.”

  “Skinah,” Novol muttered.

  “He said, 'Hurry.' ”

  Jack's head whipped around, and he felt deep creases in his brow. “You can speak Vanasku?” he asked. “Boy oh boy…Sure wish I had known that.”

  Arin stepped back, averting his eyes as if the subject embarrassed him. “I've conducted missions for Slade,” he mumbled. “Missions that took me to Ragnosian Space.”

  Suddenly, the lights went out. For a moment, the hallway was mired in darkness. Then emergency lights with an ugly yellow tint provided just enough illumination to see. “That confirms it,” Jack whispered. “We have friends on this ship. Which means it's time to get epic.”

  Keeping his body behind cover, Jack aimed his rifle around the corner, using only the exposed skin of his hand to see. Through spatial awareness, he sensed three men in the adjoining corridor: two in front and one behind.

  He shot the one on the left, knocking that guy to the floor. Ragnosian body armour was strong enough to deflect the bullet. The other guard adjusted his aim.

  Jack pulled his hand back.

  That momentary distraction allowed Arin to spin around the corner and fire into the other hallway. Jack heard grunts at the sound of boots scuffing on the tiled floor. Damn it, but he really hated these weapons.

  Just like Leyrian firearms, the bullets were magnetically propelled, but there was no option to use stun-rounds. In fact, they had no advanced settings of any kind. Just the basics. Ragnosian guns would fire ammunition with enough velocity to rip through flesh and light armour, but that was it. It was almost as if…as if they were designed to be used against people who couldn't fight back.

  Once again, he aimed around the corner, using spatial awareness to see that two of the three men were flat on their backs, and the third was aiming at the spot where Arin had been standing.

  Jack shot that guy.

  He doubled over, wheezing from what must have felt like a horse's hoof to the stomach. That was just what they needed: a few seconds to act without having to dodge incoming fire. “Novol,” Jack said.

  After having done this several times, the Ragnosian man knew his job by rote. He unclipped a smoke grenade from his belt, pulled the pin with his teeth and then tossed it into the adjoining hallway. Novol had been collecting them from every unconscious guard they passed. Jack heard the hiss of smoke expanding.

  He tossed his rifle aside.

  When he spun into the other corridor, he saw the shadowy figures of three men bent over and coughing as they tried to get their bearings. The thick smoke would blind them, but Jack didn't need eyes to see. He shut them tight and held his breath.

  Relying on spatial awareness, Jack moved through the corridor like a ghost. Arin came up beside him, silent and swift as they converged on their enemies. Jack drew his stun baton, activating it. One of the Ragnosians must have heard the crackle because he twisted around to point his gun at Jack.

  Jack fell backward, sliding on his bum as bullets rushed past above him. He lifted the stun baton, pointing its sparking tip at the other man, and released it with a tiny surge of Bent Gravity.

  It flew point-first into the guard's exposed chin, crackling on impact. Tremors went through the man's body as he dropped to his knees and toppled over.

  Arin capitalized on the chaos, grabbing one of the two remaining guards by his vest and shoving him backward into the third Ragnosian. They both tumbled to the floor, one landing on top of the other.

  In seconds, Arin was standing over them and ducking low to jab his stun baton into the side of one man's leg, producing a fit of convulsions. He gracelessly shoved that guy aside and stunned the third Ragnosian.

  Somersaulting backwards across the floor, Jack came up in a crouch and then stood. He backed away to get out of the smoke. “Vile stuff,” he said, waving it away. “You okay there, Arin?”

  The other man emerged from the smoke with a grim expression…a grim expression that quickly melted into a smile. “That was actually kind of fun,” he said. “And…And I'm glad we didn't kill them.”

  “Feels good, doesn't it?”

  Arin blinked.

  Crossing his arms over his chest, Jack smiled and shook his head. “Not killing other people,” he clarified. “Kind of leaves you with a case of the warm fuzzies.”

  “I…”

  It dawned on Jack that now really wasn't the time for sarcasm. He stepped forward and clapped a hand on the other man's shoulder. “You should be proud of yourself, Arin,” he said. “Today, you're a Justice Keeper.”

  Arin blushed.

  “Come on. Let's grab our gear and get out of here.”

  With the VR goggles on, Morris saw a simulation of the battle. The Endeavour's wireframe outline surrounded him, and beyond that, he saw the blackness of space with the second battlecruiser coming toward him.

  The two ships were on course for a nose to nose collision – which the Endeavour would not survive – but Morris wanted to get right down their throats. The Ragnosian's forward cannons shot green plasma bolts.

  He felt his lips part to show clenched teeth. “Lateral slide!” he barked at his crew. “Vector 0 by -90.”

  The Endeavour dropped a few dozen metres, which he perceived as the enemy ship sliding upward in his field of vision. Those plasma streams flew right past above him. A good thing too. Some of Endeavour's dorsal shielding was compromised.

  “Status!”

  “Their starboard shield emitters are damaged,” Zarese yelled.

  Morris smiled and nodded. “Then let's go that way,” he said. “Adjust your heading to take us around their starboard quarter.”

  His ship veered to the left to fly around
their enemy. Soon the massive battlecruiser was scrolling past on his right. “Yaw 90 degrees,” Morris ordered. “Standby on primary weapons.”

  With one quick pivot, his ship turned to the right, now flying sideways alongside the enemy. A blazing orange particle beam streaked from Endeavour's nose, stabbing the Ragnosians and drawing a scorching line across their hull.

  Morris was jostled when enemy fire hit them, but Endeavour could take it. She was a tough little ship and-

  A crash like thunder made him gasp, and for a second, Morris thought he was dead when the VR simulation went dark. It came back quickly enough, revealing that they had passed the enemy cruiser.

  He lifted the goggles to reveal lights flickering on the bridge and frantic officers tapping at their screens. “A small fighter came up from beneath us,” Zarese shouted. “It overpowered our ventral force-fields. We have a hull breach on Deck 5. Emergency procedures are in effect.”

  “Gravitational drives are sluggish,” Ensign Savari shouted. “Switching to backup systems.”

  Morris put on the goggles.

  When he looked down, he saw a small Ragnosian fighter coming up toward him, loosing twin streams of plasma from its wings. Once again, his ship was pounded, and without shields in that area, the damage was severe. “Take them out.”

  Cannons on Endeavour's belly released orange plasma bolts, but most just splashed against the fighter's shields. “Again!” Another volley pummeled the tiny spacecraft, and this time, they overpowered the pilot's defenses. The fighter exploded.

  Morris sighed.

  He slumped forward with his elbows on his thighs, covering his face – goggles included – with both hands. “Initiate repair protocols,” he said. “Evacuate Deck 5 and get us back to the fight.”

  Arin felt something new, something hard to describe, something that he wasn't sure he had ever felt before. It almost seemed unreal, but if he had to put it into words, then he would have to describe it as a sense of camaraderie.

  He made his way through the corridors with Jack Hunter and the Ragnosian man, incapacitating the few security teams they passed and otherwise creeping along, hoping to go unnoticed until they reached the hangar bay. From there, the plan could go one of two ways. Either they used the Gate on Hunter's shuttle to escape, or they put Novel behind the controls of a Ragnosian spacecraft and hoped for the best.