by A A Warren
“Never fight a superior opponent on his own terms,” Talon said.
“What’s that?” Zobo barked.
“Something my old battle instructor taught me. It was true in the arena, and it’s true here. We can’t match those battleships. So we’ll go somewhere they can’t follow.”
“I don’t think—”
Zobo’s protest was cut short, as Talon dropped the ship into a stomach-churning spin. They veered away from the debris, plunging towards a massive engine nozzle protruding from the derelict mining ship. The cockpit windows darkened, as the gaping wreckage engulfed them.
A blur of mangled, rusted metal flew past the windows. Talon maneuvered the ship through the narrow opening of the engine manifold. Keeping his eye on his holo display, he made tiny, banking turns as the metal tunnel curved left and right. Weapons fire exploded behind them, and a twisted girder fell in their wake. Most of the tiny dots on his display had veered off, but three fighters had followed him into the wreckage.
“Zobo, what the hell is this?” he called back, as the tunnel dipped down and snaked right.
“We’re in the engine manifold. These old Titan Class Ore Haulers were massive. Hold on, I’m calling up a blueprint from records.”
Salena stared forward, still in her navigation trance. Her holo display blinked green. “Star-path coordinates locked in. Arcane drive at full power.” Her voice was calm and serene, and she seemed oblivious to the energy bolts whizzing past them.
“Too dangerous to open a star-path in here," Zobo snarled. "Once we lose these fighters, we can get clear and jump before the battleships spot us!”
A twisted metal gantry hung down in front of them, blocking their path. Talon swung through the narrow gap between the mangled metal and the tunnel wall. One of the blood hawks pulled into a steep climb. It scraped against the roof and exploded, lighting up the tunnel with a brilliant orange glow.
The other two fighters darted around the obstacle. They continued pelting the Star Claw with their weapons.
“Listen up, boy!” Zobo spun his chair around to face the front of the ship. “I found the specs on this old junker. In eight-hundred meters, the manifold tunnel forks left and right. Go right… that should take us to the dorsal vents.”
“I see it!” Up ahead, the manifold tunnel split into two smaller passageways. Talon darted the ship to the right, and the two blood hawks followed. In the glow of the ship’s running lights, he could see a few hundred meters down the narrow passageway…
A giant metal slab blocked the end of the tunnel.
“Zobo… that’s not a vent, old man!”
The wolfish alien wrinkled his snout, and squinted at his display. “Hmm… On second thought, these plans may be upside down.”
“Zobo!”
“Pull up on my mark… there’s a secondary vent panel above those blast doors. We’ll have to shoot our way through. In 3… 2… 1… Mark!”
Talon pulled the ship into a swift, sudden climb. Zobo spun the lower guns around and fired. Twin beams of energy shot ahead of them, blasting a gigantic metal grate to glowing fragments. The Star Claw sped into the massive air duct and leveled out.
The two fighters swooped after them. More energy bolts ricocheted off the curved metal walls of the passageway.
The narrow air duct opened in a vast, spherical chamber. More fragments of debris drifted around them. A massive rod, clustered with machinery and hoses, ran through the center of the sphere. Rows of gleaming metal cylinders ran up and down the rod.
Talon dove down, evading another blast from their pursuers. They swooped along the walls, following the curve of the massive space.
“By the haunted stars, this thing is huge!” he gasped.
“This must be one of the engine reactors,” Zobo growled. “Look for another manifold tube… The power regulator in the center there controls engine output.”
Talon banked left, avoiding a tumbling cluster of rocks. “I don’t see anything… only way out is the way we came in, straight in the path of those battleships.” As they swooped around the rocks, he saw glittering red crystals dotting from the surface.
“Wait, is tha—”
Before he could finish his sentence, one of the blood hawks opened fire. The energy bolts flew wide, and struck the rocks. The debris exploded, sending a massive shockwave through the walls of the chamber.
“Cryocite ore,” Zobo said. “The refinery bay must have ruptured, and it drifted in here. The red crystals are flawed… they can’t be refined.”
“And they’re highly unstable,” Talon muttered.
He pulled in closer to the machinery in the center of the chamber. The Blood hawks shot past him, and dove around another floating chunk of rock. Talon swung closer to the towering power regulator.
The fighters on their tail opened fire. Their pulse bolts streaked past the Star Claw, striking the power regulator in the center of the chamber.
As the pulse-fire rippled over the regulator tower, the metal cylinders began to glow. Bolts of energy crackled from the giant rod, dancing across the chamber walls like a lightning storm. The bolts arced back and forth through the massive sphere, striking the drifting chunks of ore. The red cryocite crystals began to pulse and glow.
The chamber walls shook, as another chunk of rock exploded. The blood hawks veered away, dodging the glowing particles that flew around them. Energy bolts continued to surge through the sphere, striking more debris. One by one, the other floating rocks in the chamber began to glow.
“Best be leaving, Fledge. I don’t like the reading I’m getting off that power regulator,” Zobo said.
“What do you mean?” Talon asked as he dodged fire from one of the blood hawks. “What kind of reading?”
“The fighter’s weapons triggered a discharge… there’s still some residual power left in the core.”
“So?”
“So when the rest off this ore detonates, it could set off a chain reaction. If there’s any anti-matter left in the containment tanks, this engine could fire!”
Talon spun the Star Claw around. The room was getting brighter now, as more and more chunks of rock began to glow and pulse. A thousand miniature stars swirled around them, each one burning with crimson fire.
He plunged back into the manifold tunnel. Glancing at the display, he clenched his jaw. “Brace for impact!”
The two remaining blood hawks streaked out of the sphere, and followed him down the tunnel. Then the wreckage rumbled and shook. The tunnel grew hot and bright, as a wall of white-hot plasma vaporized the blast door behind them.
Chapter Twenty
Commander Ecotyl marched across the command deck of the DNS Paladin. He glanced out the massive battleship's sloped windows. Outside, rocks and floating debris disintegrated as they struck the vessel’s powerful shields. The brief pulses of light reminded Ecotyl of the fireflies he chased in his youth, back on his home planet.
Beneath the raised command deck, an array of consoles curved before the windows. As the bridge crew guided the Paladin towards the derelict mining ship, Ecotyl consulted a holo display near the edge of his deck. They were almost through the debris field, and within firing range on the wreckage. The drifting hulk’s massive engine nozzle filled the windows… a black maw large enough to engulf even the mighty battleship.
Let Sartarus keep his ancient religion, and accursed dark energy, he thought. I’m a Commander in the Dominion Navy. Not a zealot in his fanatical cult.
With a snap of his fingers, Ecotyl knew he could unleash a barrage of destruction that could level a city.
So why did High General Kyr entrust the destruction of the renegade prince to that withering madman?
“Sir," a voice called from below. "I have sensor contact. Looks like a pair of our fighters in pursuit of an unidentified vessel.”
Ecotyl blinked, as the intel report dragged him from his jealous thoughts. He glanced at his display and saw the three blinking dots. The holographic image was hazy,
and flickered in and out of focus. Something inside the wreckage was blocking their sensors.
“Forward guns, stand by to fire at my command,” he snapped. The sensor readings flickered again. “Tighten up this signal… Why can’t we get a solid lock?”
An officer below consulted his display. He touched his ear, as he spoke into a comm unit that broadcast his voice through the air.
“I’m reading some kind of massive energy surge inside the wreckage, sir. It’s interfering with our sensors.”
Ecotyl was about to answer, when a chill run through his body. He stiffened, and sensed a presence behind him. A cold, hissing voice whispered in his ear.
“Pull up, Commander.”
Sartarus…
Ecotyl clicked his heels, and spun around. The cloaked man loomed behind him, although he had not heard him approach. The commander stared into the man’s intense sapphire eyes. They glared at him from behind the shimmering gold mask.
“Lord Sartarus, I—”
“You heard me, Commander.”
“Sir, our fighters are flushing out the prey, we have the Star Claw in our—”
The robed man’s arm flew out. He grabbed the collar of Ecotyl’s black and red uniform and yanked the commander close. Ecotyl winced, as he smelled the hint of decay wafting from the man’s gray, withered flesh.
“Do as I command, Ecotyl…” Sartarus shoved him away. Ecotyl flew back and struck the railing of the command deck. He gasped in pain, and grabbed the thin metal bar to stop himself from flying over the edge. Sartarus cocked his head and stared at him. His monstrous golden mask reflected the lights from the exploding debris outside. “I won’t ask you again,” he hissed.
Ecotyl caught his balance. He ignored the stinging pain in his back, and gave a quick bow. “Of course, sir.” He spun around, and tapped the glowing lights of his holo display. “Helm, take us up, one quarter thrusters.”
The helm officer’s fingers danced across her panel as she responded to his command. “Aye sir, ascending at one quarter thrust. Z-axis at plus— By the gods! Sir, look!”
The officer stood in her chair and pointed out the front windows. Ecotyl squinted, as he peered into the gaping black chasm of the derelict’s engine nozzle.
Three tiny dots exploded from the darkness. He could just make out the ship in the lead… the sloped wing and bulging canon of the old Sidegunner. The twin crimson blood hawk fighters followed in its wake.
The darkness behind the three ships rippled and swirled, like a heat mirage in the desert. A faint glow bloomed from the center of the engine nozzle, like a tiny sun rising against a black horizon.
Ecotyl grit his teeth. “Helm, full thruster power, now!”
The helm officer threw herself back in her chair. “Aye, sir! Diverting power to maneuvering thrusters!”
Ecotyl grabbed the railing again as the behemoth vessel groaned in protest. The massive battleship ascended. The glow from the engine nozzle grew as bright as an exploding star. Its white-hot light filled the windows, casting long, grim shadows across the bridge.
Ecotyl looked back at Sartarus. The man seemed to have little trouble maintaining his balance as the ship's bow tilted at an extreme angle.
Beneath the rising battleship, the Star Claw cleared the rim of the nozzle’s cone. It powered into a tight-banked turn, screaming away from the wreckage as the blazing glow intensified.
With thunderous roar, the mining ship’s engine fired.
A lance of atomic fire spat out from the dark nozzle, annihilating everything in its path. The blast reduced the drifting bits of rock and metal in its line of fire to atoms in the blink of an eye. The Paladin rumbled and shook, as the destructive blast clipped the edge of the port fin. Despite the damage, they kept rising, flying up and out of the engine’s path of destruction.
The tactical officer’s voice shouted up to him. “Sir, the Adjudicator… it’s right behind us!”
The second battleship was cruising in formation behind them. It took the blast from the massive engine head on. For a few seconds, its forward shields seemed to hold. The wave of engine fire glowed cobalt blue as it broke against the powerful energy barrier. Then the field buckled… the crimson hull of the battleship vanished in a white-hot cone of fire and plasma. Burning metal fragments exploded into space, spinning off into the black depths of the void.
The mining ship’s engine sputtered. The stream of fire narrowed, then flickered. A moment later, it died out. The energy stored in the power regulators had been expended. The wreckage was now just a lifeless hulk.
As the Paladin leveled out, Commander Ecotyl barked orders to the officers below. “Damage control, get me a status report on decks one through nine. Lock off the power regulators from all systems in the port wing.”
Sartarus stepped up beside him at the railing. The taller man glanced out the windows at the burning debris in the distance.
He chuckled. “Well done, Commander.”
Ecotyl glanced up at him, his face flushed and dripping with sweat. ‘Thank you, sir, I—”
“You only managed to lose one battleship, and a score of the fighters. And what of our prey?”
Ecotyl swallowed, then glanced down at his officers. “Tactical! Get me a sit-rep on those ships!”
The young man below flicked through a series of data slides on his holo display.
“The two blood hawks didn’t clear the blast, sir.”
“And the Star Claw?”
The officer shot Sartarus a nervous look. “She’s out of sensor range, sir. Residual energy indicates a star-path opened in this area. We tried to run tracking protocols, but there was no time.”
Sartarus clenched his fist, and nodded. “As I thought. Prepare my shuttle. My guards and I will travel to the surface.”
“The surface?" Ecotyl took a step back, as Sartarus glared at him. "Our ground forces devastated the target zone. What’s left to find down there?”
“Come see with your own eyes, Ecotyl. I want you to accompany us.” The man spun around. His robes whirled behind him as he stalked off the bridge. “That way, you can explain your failure to High General Kyr yourself.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Sartarus and Ecotyl marched into the crumbling remains of the bathhouse, flanked on either side by a pair of Holy guards. A haze of dust filled the air, and puddles of water and blood spattered the tiles beneath their feet. A sickening stench hung trapped beneath the high, domed ceiling… a reeking miasma of scented oils, ionized rock and charred flesh.
A floating holo projector drifted through the air above them. It cast a glowing, flickering projection that appeared to walk between the two men. The translucent image displayed a short, muscular man with a broad forehead, topped by a shock of thick white hair. He wore a crisp, pressed uniform, decorated with a plaque of medals and honor pinned over his right breast.
His dark, beady eyes glared at Ecotyl for a moment. Then he turned to face Sartarus.
The man in the hologram was High General Kyr.
“Ecotyl’s failure to capture the enemy's ship is unacceptable.” Kyr's voice boomed from the speakers in the projector drifting above them. “But why are you still on Bakala? Our forces are preparing to jump to Vendaru as we speak. We need to deploy the weapon, and crush Prince Lucian’s coalition once and for all. I ordered your ships to return to the fleet.”
“Yes, General,” Ecotyl said. His face flushed as red as his uniform. “I swear, I—”
Sartarus raised his hand. The flustered commander quit his stammering, and stared at his feet as they continued marching forward.
The tall, robed man kept his eyes focused ahead, and did not look at the hologram as he spoke. “General, I will return as soon as possible. It is in both our interests that I find what I seek. If you had given me the time I requested to locate the missing relics, the weapon would have functioned properly at Hadros, and the Prince’s coalition would no longer be a problem for you.”
The general’s eyes
narrowed, as his hologram flickered in and out of resolution. “I’m told you’ve wasted the resources I placed at your disposal. You’ve been tearing apart the galaxy searching for one man. A slave, of all things. A gladiator.”
Sartarus tilted his head. Ecotyl could not tell if the man’s sapphire stare was glaring at the general’s hologram, or if he was staring through it, scrutinizing the guilty fear Ecotyl displayed on his own face.
“If I were you, General, I would spend my time planning your containment strategy for Vendaru, rather than listening to the twittering of little birds in your fleet.”
The general’s eyes opened wide, and his cheeks bulged around his thick, pursed lips. “I’ve had enough of your insubordination. I am High General! I hold the throne of the Tygon Dominion, and I order you to abandon this foolishness. Return to—”
“The man I seek is far more than a slave. He is the one thing that can stop us, although I doubt he even realizes it. He is a liability, and we must eliminate him before the weapon is deployed again. Did your spy do as I commanded?”
The general glowered in silence, then nodded. “He did. The launch tubes on Vendaru were destroyed. Repairs will take weeks.”
“Good. Then the prince isn’t going anywhere. I will purge this enemy from the stars, and recover the final piece of our great weapon. Until then, you must hold the planet. Prevent any ships from getting through.”
“I don’t take orders from you! I gave you ships and men, a small fortune in chips, and—”
“And I gave you a weapon that annihilated half your enemy’s forces,” Sartarus snapped.
“A vow half kept is still a vow broken,” the general snarled. “I warn you Sartarus… don’t make an enemy of me.”
Sartarus sighed. “I grow weary of this conversation. I will rejoin the fleet when I have found what we seek. Until then… hold Vendaru.”