Wings of Pegasus

by Jay Allan

  “Surrender!” The tone was harsher, more demanding, and Barret could finally detect some level of stress in it. He was still trying to get an idea how many soldiers were positioned around the ship. He’d seen two, but he had no idea how many more there might be.

  And the two he’d found were too far apart to target with one shot. At least too far to guarantee taking them both out.

  He glanced down, watching the laser’s power reading rise. His hands were on the firing controls, but even as he honed his targeting solution, he felt his insides tense. Pegasus’s lasers were designed for combat in space, at ranges measured in the thousands of kilometers. He’d set the weapons for one-tenth strength, but he still had no idea what they might do to the rocky shelf holding up the ship, or the sheer cliff wall rising above. There were just too many variables, and firing lasers underwater was one thing his years of naval training and experience had never covered.

  He tapped the controls slightly bringing the targeting sight around…and then he heard a loud sound. And then another.

  The soldiers were firing at Pegasus.

  He was out of time. The gunfire was dangerous enough, but he had no idea what other weapons the Foudre Rouge had. He watched the power up sequence continue, the last two seconds or so feeling very much like an eternity. Then he tightened his finger, and he fired Pegasus’s topside laser.

  * * *

  Samois-0079 dove to the side, half swimming, half pulling himself along the rocky shelf back toward the airlock. The ship had fired its laser, a wild and reckless act, one that threatened to destroy the rock shelf, and even the ship itself.

  Samois called for the private on the comm, but he didn’t expect a reply. He was almost sure the laser blast had hit the soldier dead on. He doubted there was anything remaining of his comrade, and that left him as the sole member of the expedition aware of the situation, who understood that the only way off the planet was to take that ship…before the insane person or people onboard destroyed it in an effort to kill him.

  The water was frothing about wildly, boiling violently in spots closer to the laser pulse, sending huge streams of bubbles toward the surface. The sergeant was no naval expert, but he’d been shocked at what he’d just seen. The vessel had seemed almost entirely powered down, at least according to his scans. He understood energy systems enough to guess that it should have taken five minutes more, at least, and more likely, ten, before that vessel should have been able to get its reactor back online with sufficient output to power the guns.

  His best guess was, he had two minutes more before the ship could fire again, but he’d been wrong the first time, and he wasn’t going to rely on his limited knowledge. He considered opening up at full auto, targeting fragile looking sections of the hull. But that was a fool’s game. He was alone, and he didn’t have the firepower he needed.

  And he was injured. His leg hurt like fire. He followed his training, focused on the area, trying to determine what had been damaged. His knee.

  He doubted he could walk if he went back inside, or even wriggle his way out of his suit. He had no choice. He had to wait until help arrived. And the best way to survive that long was to get back to the airlock, into the recessed area that led to the facility’s entry point.

  He made it back to the broad tunnel, and he worked the airlock controls as quickly as he could in the cumbersome suit. The door slid open and he lunged inside, reaching out and closing the door behind him.

  He’d made it, for the moment.

  At least unless whoever was on that ship decided to start shooting at the facility itself.

  * * *

  “Go…now. Lieutenant…send six of your troopers forward now. They are to leave their crates just inside the airlock and get into their suits. I want that ship taken, and in operable condition. It’s our only way off this rock.” Our only way to escape what we set in motion here.”

  “Yes, Commander.” Javais turned and shouted out crisp orders in the Foudre Rouge battle tongue. Half a dozen of the soldiers moved forward, quickly accelerating to a fast jog, about as close to a dead run as they could manage with the heavy crates in their arms.

  “Let’s pick up the pace here, too. We’ve got to get moving.” The news that both landing sleds had apparently been destroyed had come as a terrible surprise to Caron. He was still trying to get his bearings. He’d sent the Foudre Rouge to seize the enemy vessel, but he still wanted to get up there himself as quickly as possible.

  My God…there’s no way to disarm that warhead…

  He felt the fear begin to take him, like a cold hand gripping him inside. He increased his pace, walking right after the troopers he’d sent forward. His people had enough artifacts to guarantee that everyone—Gaston Villieneuve included—would call the mission a great success.

  But they had to get out first. In less than an hour, the facility, and a good chunk of the planet’s surface, probably, would be engulfed in an immense explosion.

  Caron had left enough time to get away, to reach the ships, load up, and launch. But was there enough time to fight for control of the only vessel remaining that offered hope of escape?

  He shook his head as he walked forward, and increased the speed of his gait again, almost to a jog. “Come on, all of you. We have to get out of here.”

  * * *

  “Everybody okay?” Andi knew they weren’t, even as she asked. Jackal was dead, and that hung over them all like a thick fog, a dense gloom that weighed down every step. Pegasus’s crew was a family, and they had lost one of their own. The true pain would come later, Andi knew, in the somber darkness, but even as they raced to get back to the ship, she could almost feel her lost comrade, as though he was looking at her, watching every move.

  Besides the loss of Jackal, Anna and Gregor were wounded. So was she, for that matter. Vig was battered, no doubt in as much pain as any of them, but probably in the best shape of them all.

  Gregor was the worst off. There was no doubt in her mind about that. Her giant comrade had been coughing, doing his best to hide it from her, and especially the blood coming up with each spasm. He was slowing down, too, though Andi knew he was doing his best to keep pushing hard. She’d been a little intimidated by Gregor when she’d first joined Nightrunner’s crew, but she’d come to love her hulking shipmate like a brother.

  “We’re fine, Andi.” Gregor answered first, the struggle in his tone suggesting anything but what his words said. The others followed, all trying to sound like they were better than they actually were.

  “Alright. Well, we’ve got to get moving again.” They’d stopped for a brief rest, just a few minutes. Andi would have pushed on right through, but she knew her people were hurt, worn.

  The break had provided another benefit. The room they’d ducked into was dark, all but one of the small ceiling lights out, but when her people had pulled out their portable lanterns, they’d discovered boxes of imperial artifacts. She’d opened one of them, and she’d been shocked at what she’d seen. Electronics, circuit boards and all sorts of bizarre looking chips…in the best shape she’d ever seen ancient swag. The things looked almost new, and Andi’s natural mental reflexes started estimating the value of it all.

  She’d been resolved to return empty-handed. The booby-trapped antimatter stores left her no choice. There was no time to search the facility, much less deal with the Foudre Rouge. But her people had just stumbled on this horde of artifacts.

  “Take what you can manage.” She grabbed a box, and she panned her eyes around the room, sharing a brief glance with each of them. “I know this stuff is valuable, but remember, we’ve got to get back to the ship…and we may have some fighting to do.” She looked down at the box in her arms. It seemed watertight, though whether it was sturdy enough to stand up to the pressure two kilometers under the surface, she couldn’t even guess.

  She turned, but then she saw something else, and she paused. It was a smaller box. No, not a box, some kind of folio. It had writing on the front,
but it was a variant of Old Imperial she couldn’t read. She opened it and looked inside. There were data chips, twenty of them. It wasn’t the kind of treasure the circuit boards were, but she found it intriguing, and she slipped it into the bag on her back.

  “Alright, let’s get the hell back to the ship.”

  Everyone in the room grabbed a box, except Gregor. He grabbed two, and he looked like he was going to try to manage a third one when Andi stopped him with a stare. She turned and walked back out into the corridor, her comrades following her in a rough single file. They walked for two minutes, maybe three.

  Then Andi stopped suddenly, her hand flying up, signaling to the others to halt. There were sounds up ahead…boots on the metal floor, moving quickly. Running.

  She stayed where she was, listening, trying to count. Five, maybe six. It was a guess, but she knew she was close.

  She kept her hand up, holding back the others, until the sounds died down. Her stomach felt like it had shrunken to a quarter its normal size. The sounds were moving back toward the entrance.

  Toward Pegasus.

  “Okay, let’s go. Whoever that was, they’re heading toward the ship.” She moved forward again, her rifle out, ready. They were Foudre Rouge, she was sure of it. She had no proof, but she knew it for certain. And there was no way she was letting them get to her ship.

  No way in hell.

  * * *

  “Are we clear?” Barret could hear Lex’s voice on the comm. The engineer sounded tense, but under control. Righter’s cool in dangerous situations continued to surprise him.

  “Nobody is shooting at us, not right now. That’s about all I can tell you.” Barret was moving his scope, scanning all around the ship, looking for movement, for any sign of the enemy. “I’m almost charged up again, and I’m going to keep the laser ready, just in case.”

  “I think that’s a good idea.” A pause. “We’ve got the scanners back close to normal, and the reactor looks good. I’ve checked all the power lines, especially to the weapons, and they look fine, too. I’d love to have time to replace some of the transmission network, but I doubt we have time, and I couldn’t anyway without shutting the reactor down.”

  “We’ll just have to rely on what we’ve got. Pegasus is a good ship, Lex. She won’t let us down. And neither will Andi.”

  “She’s something, isn’t she?”

  “Andi? You bet. Captain Lorillard was our skipper for a long time, but…he was killed on a mission. He left Pegasus—and the rest of us—to Andi. Best thing he could have done. He was watching out for us right up to the end.”

  “I’ve never met anyone quite like her.”

  “I don’t think there are many like her, Lex. I know she was hard on you, but…”

  “But she saved my life.” A pause. “I wasn’t sure I wanted it saved…but I think I owe her.”

  “She doesn’t want you to owe her, Lex. She wants your loyalty…and as long as you’re part of her crew, she’ll do whatever she has to do to look out for you, just like she does with us.”

  “She’s pretty young for so much responsibility, isn’t she?”

  “You don’t know where she came from, Lex. Andi crawled out of one of the worst pits in the Confederation. Normal ages don’t apply to her. She’s…” Barret paused, and when he continued, his voice was stern, serious. “We’ve got something outside, Lex. Looks like more Foudre Rouge coming out of the tunnel.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Free Trader Pegasus

  Rocky Shelf Under the Endless Sea

  Planet Aquellus, Olystra III

  Year 302 AC

  “Good shot, Barret, but you better be careful. Any closer to that rock face and you’ll bring the whole thing down…and trap Andi and the others.” Lex was speaking just like one of the crew, his concern for his shipmates of so short a tenure sounding heartfelt and sincere. “You’ll be powered up again in forty seconds.”

  Righter looked at the tiny display down in the engineering section. The screen had been designed for schematics and scrolls of numerical data. But just then, the engineer was watching the outer feeds, the AI moving from one exterior camera to another, trying to track the activity outside.

  The Foudre Rouge had scattered, clearly aware of the destructive capability of Pegasus’s laser. Barret had gotten three in one shot, just as they were coming out of the facility. That was the pulse that had prompted Righter’s warning. Barret was a good shot, but he was guessing at what effect the laser would have on the cliff wall at a range so insanely short. Even the best placement was far from a guarantee against fracturing a small fault line…and bringing tons of rock down on the exit from the facility, or even burying Pegasus under a crushing avalanche.

  His eyes were focused on the edge of the screen, as the power reading clicked back to full. He tensed, expecting to hear Barret’s next shot. But there was only silence.

  Maybe he’s checking his aim…

  But still, nothing.

  He waited, not wanting to distract the gunner. Finally, he tapped the comm unit. “Everything okay up there?”

  “Yeah…I just can’t get a shot. They’re all tucked back in the tunnel. If I fire there, I’ll collapse the entrance to the complex. Andi and the others will be trapped.”

  Righter heard a series of clangs, reverberating through the engineering section. His head darted around to check the instruments, but then he realized what was happening.

  They’re firing on us.

  The Foudre Rouge had clearly guessed that Pegasus wouldn’t risk closing off the imperial ruin…and they’d taken cover there, just outside the entrance.

  Where they had an open field of fire on the back of the ship.

  Righter didn’t know Pegasus all that well yet, but he was willing to bet the engine cone was vulnerable to enemy fire. A few shots in the right place just might take out a vital connection.

  And if Pegasus lost its thrust capability, they were all finished.

  * * *

  “Okay, they were heading back toward the ship. We’ve got to get down there and take them out before…” Andi didn’t finish.

  Gregor knew her mind was swirling with images of Pegasus under attack, of Foudre Rouge forcing their way aboard, taking control of her ship. But his tone got her attention immediately. “We’ve got more coming, Andi.” Gregor pointed not toward the ship, but back in the direction the first group had come from. Andi listened, and he could see she heard it, too.

  “Damn!”

  “Andi, we can’t let them get behind us. We’ve got to take out this group first.” Anna had stepped up from behind, and she had her rifle in hand. She was limping, but she was just as clearly ignoring it.

  “But what about the ship? We’ve got to…”

  She never finished. A series of dark figures appeared at the far end of the corridor, and they opened fire. One of the first shots hit Andi. She dropped hard, and her head slammed into the intensely hard imperial alloy.

  “Andi!” All three of her companions shouted as one, as Anna and Gregor opened fire down the corridor.

  One of the approaching troops dropped, just a few seconds after Andi. Gregor was holding his autocannon, hosing the corridor down with deadly fire. It looked like more Foudre Rouge approaching, but for all the skill and weaponry of the Union soldiers, they couldn’t match the firepower of the immense weapon Pegasus’s giant wielded with the practiced ease with which they handled their rifles.

  “Go! Get Andi out of here. I’ll hold them back.” Gregor’s shout was like that of some titan from mythology, and it seemed to shake the very walls.

  Anna looked up at him, uncertain, even as Vig shook his head vigorously. “We can’t leave you here, Gregor, not alone.” Pegasus’s youngest crew member shouted piteously, clearly realizing even as he argued, that there was no choice. If they wanted to get Andi out, they’d have to leave Gregor. He’d have to hold back the enemy, buy some time.

  “Go,” he growled, even as the continued d
eep crack of his autocannon echoed off the walls. “Go now…get her out of here. I’ll handle this.” Even as he spoke, he threw the autocannon over to his right side, and somehow wielded the massive weapon one handed. His left hand reached around his back, pulling around a regular assault rifle, and he aimed that down the corridor and opened fire.

  Aim was a strong word, perhaps. Both weapons were shaking in his overburdened arms, even his massive strength struggling to hold them in place. But hold them he did, and he swept the corridor with withering fire. Three of the Foudre Rouge were down, and the rest had pulled back to whatever cover they could find.

  “Go!” Gregor shouted again, even as Vig and Anna were struggling to grab Andi, to carry her down the corridor. They’d gone perhaps four meters when a shot slammed into Gregor.

  He felt the projectile hit him. Somewhere in the gut, he guessed, but though there was pain, he couldn’t quite pinpoint it. He was focused entirely on maintaining his deadly fire. He had to hold the enemy back, buy Anna and Vig time to get Andi into her suit. He couldn’t fail her.

  He wouldn’t fail her.

  He saw another Foudre Rouge drop…and then his arm erupted in pain, and blood sprayed all around. The assault rifle went skittering across the floor, and he swung the stricken arm around toward the autocannon, adding what little support if offered to his grip. He could feel his strength slipping away, but he managed to hold the heavy weapon, and he continued to fire.

  He coughed hard, and a blob of semi-congealed blood spit out from his mouth. He gasped for air, struggled to keep his weapon up and firing.

  Then, another round slammed into his leg, and he dropped forward, wobbling for a second on his knees. He reached down, deep inside, pushing away the pain, the fear, clawing for every scrap of strength that remained to him. He was a killing machine, and he would hold that corridors. He would never stop.