“Whoa, are you seriously engaging these guys?” Mac whirled back to tactical.
“Yep.” Danny reached for Overlook’s fire controls, starting first with the port and starboard gunnery clusters then proceeded to the launch tubes below the nacelles. The sequence was concluded when the nose cover retracted, revealing Overlook’s true identity along with her signature fangs—an over-under, quadruple-barreled R-78 railgun assembly packing forty-kilo crusher rounds.
Mac’s jaw fell open. “What the hell kind of trash barge is this?”
“Overlook’s only a barge on the outside.” Danny painted the lead shuttle in his targeting screen. “Under the hood, she’s a fully restored Alystierian battle corvette—Scythe class. Now, sit back and watch her work.”
Overlook’s forward batteries raged to life when Danny hammered the Fire button, sending a massive volley of weapon fire raining down on the shuttle. It reeled to evade the assault but only partially succeeded.
“Moderate damage to their primary hull,” Mac announced as Overlook plowed through the scene to set up for another pass. “Main engines are offline; target is disengaging from the combat zone and retreating to the edge of the system.”
Danny returned to his scopes to find shuttle two sliding into position for an attack run. “Reeg, targets are shifting into a Dex-cut assault pattern. I think they’re gonna—”
“I know, I know, I got it!” Reegan checked their position to the artificial horizon. “I’m swinging us around to zone…thirty-eight bravo.”
“Copy that.” Danny checked his ordnance. “Contact in three…two…one…firing!”
Another spray of projectiles erupted from Overlook’s main batteries, landing broadside on the second shuttle, which sidestepped the brunt of the blow with a ten-degree tilt to port. It returned fire.
“Hang on!” Reegan rolled the ship to counter, but a hard rumble rocked the portside-aft section.
Danny tapped his earpiece. “Lee, you guys all right back there?”
“Fine,” Lee growled past the sound of revving engines. “Appreciate the heads-up there, Ops.”
Mac turned in her seat to tactical. “How bad were we hit?”
“Portside armor’s holding steady at eight-three percent.” Danny’s fingers raced on his screen. “I’m adjusting reserves to compensate.”
“Heads up, Top,” Reegan said. “Looks like that destroyer brought some friends.”
Danny glanced back to his sensor data to spot six dots ejecting from the destroyer’s drop bay. They fell into formation and exploded ahead. “Lee, you guys are about to have company.”
“In the form of?”
“Six Alystierian Phantoms, inbound on an intercept course. ETA fifteen seconds.”
“Great,” Lee muttered. “We’ll make it work.”
“Hey, Shotz?” Danny asked. “You good with this?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Shotz grumbled. “I don’t want to die, either. Lock and load.”
The high-pitched solid beep of contact rang out in Danny’s earpiece as Overlook’s defenses engaged the Alystierian fighters. Manning the side clusters, Danny managed to pick off one of the aggressors himself. After that, the others reformed on their leader’s wing and circled back around for a stern attack. Lee and Shotz took over from there. Another Phantom fell, then another, then another, then—
Danny’s alert shrieked hard red. “Reegan, that destroyer’s got a lock on us!”
A lone blip emerged from the imperial’s topside launch tube assembly.
“Torpedo in the black!” Mac announced.
“Reegan, go!” Danny shouted.
Reegan ripped back hard on the yoke, sending Overlook into a lumbering climb as fast as it could go. The missile followed suit.
“Lock is strong,” Danny called out. “Repeat, lock is strong!”
“I’m working on it!” Reegan snapped back at the controls, and the ship let out a hard groan with the sudden about-face. Still, the torpedo held its course.
“Impact in five,” Danny said. “Four…three—”
“We’ve got another ship inbound!” Reegan’s eyes went wide. “It’s that damn Newbern again!”
The CS Mattingly dove hard in behind Overlook, breaking the torpedo’s lock and taking it onto itself. It then pivoted to port and engaged the second shuttle, which had already closed the gap to cut off Overlook. That gave it no room to maneuver and thus no chance for survival.
The vessel exploded into flames as Mattingly soared free of the blast.
Danny jumped forward in his seat when a familiar voice filled the comm. How in the hell…
“Overlook, this is the civilian ship, Mattingly. How can I be of assistance?”
Danny tapped Mac on the shoulder. “Are you frickin’ kidding me?”
She shook her head. “He demanded to come.”
“Mattingly, this is Overlook.” Reegan was all but giddy at his station. “Your timing is damn near providencial. Stand by for nav sync—” he pointed to Mac, who’d already dialed up the command, “—now.”
A moment passed.
“Nav sync is complete, Overlook. Artificial horizon is engaged; standing by to follow your lead.”
“Mattingly, this is Northern Star,” Mac said, giving her personal call sign. “Looks like that destroyer’s coming about for a fresh lock. By my count, they should be on us in about thirty seconds.”
“Copy that, Star. What’s the play?”
Danny checked his display and grabbed his headset, all the while thanking the stars that the pilot at stick for the freighter would understand everything he was about to say. “Mattingly, I want you to swing back onto our port flank and prepare to execute a dive-roller, z-back assault on a point-three axial tilt. Confirm.”
“Maneuver confirmed, Overlook,” the pilot’s voice said. “Good to hear your voice again, Sergeant. Been a while.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Danny rolled his eyes. “Prepare to move on my—”
“Belay that!” Mac’s fingers raced at her controls. “You said this was an Alystierian corvette, right?”
Danny blinked. “So what?”
“Yes or no, Danny?” Mac barked.
“Yes, Mac. Yes it’s an Alystierian ship!”
Mac leapt back to her keyboard as a screen of pure code filled her display. “I don’t care if you’re packing Airwolf-caliber heat on this thing. I don’t dance with gray destroyers unless I absolutely have to.” Line by line, she raced through the script. “Come on, baby. Come on.”
“Ah, Mac?” Danny asked.
“Destroyer contact in fifteen seconds,” Reegan counted out.
“Come on, baby, talk to me,” Mac murmured in a trance. “You know you want to.”
“Mac, what are you—”
“I know this is your ship, Danny, but just shut up and let me work.”
“Overlook, this is Mattingly,” the voice said. “We got a play here or what?”
“Almost there, Mattingly. Stand by.” A few more strokes, and the code before her flashed from red to green. “Booyah!”
Reegan’s face lit up. “Top, the destroyer’s systems are powering down!”
Danny jerked up to see the Alystierian ship go dark through the cockpit’s forward viewport. He grabbed hold of his fire controls and jumped on his comm. “Mattingly, target that destroyer’s starboard nacelle and fire!”
The freighter did as asked. A second later, both ships opened up on the helpless destroyer, which offered not even a cough of resistance.
“Destroyer is neutralized.” Reegan checked his reading. “Even if they do get her systems back online, she’s lost propulsion for good until they drag her back to dry dock.”
“The last two Phantoms are down, Ops,” Lee called over the comm. “We should be clear to bug out.”
“Copy that, Lee,” Danny said. “Shotz, you good?”
“Let’s roll, Top.”
“Link?” Danny asked. “How we doing back there?”
“Someone shit o
n the coats!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Danny turned to the freighter now in sight of the viewport. “CS-Mattingly, this is Overlook. Prepare to receive destination coordinates then set your clamps for a hyperspace dock. We need to talk.”
* * * * *
Chapter 8: Familiar Allies
Once both ships had safely entered hyperspace, Danny instructed Reegan to lay in a new course.
“Whoa, what?” Shotz bounded into the cockpit ahead of Lee. “We’re going where?”
“We’re going to Aura.” Danny slipped past them en route to the stairwell that would take him down to the forward hatch on Cargo Deck. From there, he’d cross over to the Mattingly, which had just finished its in-flight docking sequence. “Lee’s right. The ASC needs what we know about Kurgorian tech if they’re to have any chance in the war with Alystier. I intend to give it to them.”
“Yuh-you’re giving them Mr. Black?” Remy kuh-kawed in panic. “Yuh-you can’t do that, bossman! He’s one of us!”
“Mr. Black will leave when we do, Remy,” Danny said. “For now, though, the ASC needs to know what makes him tick, and that means we go talk to the brass.”
“No, that means you go talk to the brass.” Shotz aimed a finger at Danny. “For the rest of us, it means a trip to the stockade.”
“Not happening.” Danny glanced to Lee. “I’ve made arrangements. You’ll all be fine.”
Reegan shifted uncomfortably in his pilot’s seat. “Why are we doing this now? Don’t misunderstand me, Top; I’m all about throwing some aid to the good guys where we can. It’s one of the things I like about this job. But we’ve never broached this topic before—us going home.”
Danny put up his hands. “Masterson is everybody’s problem, Reeg—ours and the ASC’s. He’s gotta be stopped, and that means stopping the machine as much as the man.”
Remy scratched his head. “You mean stopping the advance of his fleet.”
“Exactly. Otherwise, we all lose.” With that, Danny swung open the stairwell and headed in. He’d barely descended a flight when he heard the door swing open behind him.
“Shotz is right, you know.”
Danny looked up to find Doc peering over the guardrail.
“Arrangements or not, going to Aura is not a good idea for some of us—me especially. You know how I’ll be received, if I’ll even be received at all.”
Danny shook his head. “That all happened a long time ago, Doc. You’re with me now. Nobody’s gonna give you a hard time.”
Guilt, worry, and dread collided in Doc’s expression as he looked away. “Some things are never forgotten, Danny. Believe me. I’ve been trying for years.”
“Hey, Doc?” Danny caught the old man’s eyes. “I don’t give a damn what happened ten years ago or what mistakes you made. I wasn’t there for that. What I was there for was the night you pulled me, broken and bleeding, out of that pod, not to mention the countless others you’ve gone out of your way to help both before and after we started all of this.” Danny patted his own chest. “That’s the Doc I know, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s the only one who’ll be next to me when we dock with Praetorian.”
The old man threw Danny a grateful look.
“Now, go be useful and put on a pot of coffee already.” Danny started for the next step. “Our friend on the Mattingly might want a cup, and I know I do.”
Doc smiled and turned for the door. “Aye, Captain.”
Exiting the stairwell into the main corridor on Cargo Deck, Danny arrived at the hatch and entered his code into the access panel. There was an audible clack as the indicator light flashed green, and Danny pulled down on the lever to unlock the metal opening.
Thin streams of decompressed oxygen trailed Danny through the entrance as he stopped to look around. Weird. The last time he’d darkened the Mattingly’s halls had been the day he, Hamish, and Link had presented the ship to Lee and Mac as a wedding present. That hadn’t even been a year ago. And yet to Danny—and the others as well, most likely—that might as well have happened in another life.
Danny crossed the floor beneath the dim light of Mattingly’s main passenger cabin and halted outside the cockpit.
“Oh, for the gods’ sakes, Tucker—what’s the holdup?” The pilot tossed a data tablet onto the cockpit dash and swiveled around in his chair. “I mean, it only took you—what, ten months to make this rendezvous?”
Danny extended a hand as Nathan Briggs rose from his seat. “Good to see you, Captain.”
Briggs took it. “Likewise. Although I’m pretty sure you can drop the formalities. From where I stand, neither one of us has worn rank for quite a while now.” He studied Overlook through the forward viewport. “Not officially, that is.”
Danny nodded, all the while noting Briggs’ appearance, which seemed to underscore his point. He still looked like the same guy Danny had fought his way off the Axius with ten months before—slender and fit—but he looked like anything but an officer. His dark hair had grown out a bit as had the hair on his face, which now cast his jawline in shadow.
Then there was the matter of Briggs’ attire.
“Are you wearing—” Danny cocked his head, “—cowboy-cut jeans?”
“Huh?” Briggs glanced down at his trousers. “Oh, right. Yeah, Lee got me turned on to these a while back. I made him a bet that Alystierian comfort-fit BDUs were the most comfortable trousers around. He begged to differ and brought me these. What can I say?” He shrugged. “The damn things really are that comfortable.”
“They’re also hideous.” Danny noted the pants’ stonewashed finish. “Lee’s not peddling this crap at the Manning PX these days, is he?”
Briggs laughed. “No, nothing like that. He did say he’d grab me a few more pairs the next time he was back in Florida, though.”
Danny furrowed his eyebrows. “So, you know about Earth, then.”
Briggs slipped his hands in his pockets. “I must say, Tucker, a lot of things fell into place for me when I found out you were from another world. Your mannerisms, your bizarre, off-the-cuff sayings, the Weekend at Bernie’s thing you did with that dead alien on the Axius.”
Danny recoiled. “Don’t tell me Lee’s got you hooked on eighties comedies now.”
“Not so much,” Briggs said. “Just the jeans, the stock-car-racing thing, and your domestic light beer is all.”
Danny sighed and rubbed his face. “Ah, crap. He made you a redneck.”
Briggs laughed.
“So, how’d you guys get to be so buddy-buddy, anyway?” Danny asked. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but the last time I saw you, you were wearing Alystierian gray and executive officer stripes for the Kamuir. One typically doesn’t forget that overnight—not Lee and the others nor especially the ASC.”
Briggs turned a pensive stare to the blue haze of hyperspace outside. “Oh, trust me. My previous occupation is far from forgotten. Of that, you can be sure.”
“Really?” Danny found that hard to believe. “How is it, then, that they saw fit to sign off on your release so you could come after me?”
“Trust had little to do with it, Tucker.” Briggs rolled up the sleeve of his olive drab T-shirt and presented a bright red mark above his left bicep.
Tracker. Danny knew it at once. “So, they took you into custody after all. I’m sorry, man. That shouldn’t have happened.”
Briggs brushed off the comment and dropped his sleeve. “In fairness to the ASC, it’s not like they had much choice. Like you said, prior to ten months ago, I was the enemy. Were our roles reversed, I wouldn’t want me out roaming around free of supervision, either. Besides, it’s not like they’ve charged me with anything. Well, not yet, anyway.”
“That still doesn’t make it right,” Danny shot back. “You and Zier have sacrificed as much as anybody to stop Masterson, if not more. You ought to be rewarded for that, not kept on a damn leash.”
Briggs shrugged. “I got to come on this mission, didn’t I?”
&nb
sp; “You did,” Danny said. “Which raises a completely different question. Why?”
Briggs raised a shoulder. “Why what?”
“Why this mission?” Danny pointed behind them. “Have ya seen Iglyah 4? It’s not exactly posh resort living with all-you-can-drink cocktails and Izarian dancer girls in skimpy outfits. It sucks.”
Briggs drummed his fingers on the back of his chair. “I’m waiting on a point here, Tucker.”
“My point, Captain, is if you have a chance to get offworld, mission or not, Iglyah 4 is not the place you choose, and yet you did. So again I ask, why?”
Briggs leaned back against the dash. “Well, for starters, Lee said he might need the help. And considering that he and the others have gone out of their way these last few months to keep me from feeling like an outcast, I thought obliging that request was the least I could do.”
“And the other part?” Danny asked.
Briggs looked Danny in the eye. “Let’s be straight here, Tucker. You and I both know there’s no way that Chancellor Zier and I would’ve made it off Alystier alive without your help, much less to Aura. You may not have liked it at the time, but you made that happen with your actions on the Axius.”
“I did what I had to, Briggs.” Danny huffed. “You didn’t owe me anything for that.”
“Perhaps. But the last thing I said to you before Zier and I punched out was ‘See you back with your fleet.’” Briggs stood up straight. “I don’t leave people behind, Tucker, even if they willingly choose to stay there.”
“Fine, whatever. How is the old fart anyway?”
“The chancellor’s well,” Briggs said. “He sends his regards. He’d be here, too, if he could, but he’s held up on business with President Wylon in Retaun.”
Danny cocked his head. “How is that Zier’s free and clear to enter the capital while you’re tucked away under lock and key?”
Briggs chuckled. “He’s not without his leash, either. But he has a rapport with Wylon from their days working together in peacetime, and he’s providing the Aurans with intel for their plans versus the Kurgorians. Rumor has it you’re coming back to help them with that.”
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