by M. D. Cooper
Katrina pursed her lips.
Katrina noticed that Usef didn’t chastise Erin for speaking up, but she supposed he might have done it privately. She pushed the thought from her mind, and focused on following the trail left by the Widows while being as invisible as the tall grass and other undergrowth allowed.
Usef had just passed the pond, and Katrina was halfway around the bowl, when shots rained down from the cliff above, some striking Usef, others hitting the dirt around Katrina. She dove back and flattened herself against the cliff, sending out drones to search for the shooters.
On the combat net, she saw Usef lunge behind a rock. It gave him cover from the fire originating on the cliff to the left, but as she’d predicted, several Widows began to fire from the edge of the bowl, shots striking the Marine as he moved to better cover.
Katrina didn’t have a clear line of sight on any of the attackers and moved further along the cliff, easing underneath a shallow overhang. Above, her drones located the shooters and fed their positions to the combat net.
Seeking bullets didn’t strike with as much energy as normal projectile shots, but the explosive tips they bore added to the punch. One of the rounds hit its target, but the other was destroyed by a defensive beam.
“Shit,” Katrina swore as her drones got a clear visual of the target she’d hit.
She fired another salvo of seeker rounds before backing further from the base of the cliff and firing a barrage of pure kinetic shots at the final target.
Rock rained down around her as she backpedaled further, turning her attention to the battle at the pond. Usef had moved to new cover and was firing at anything that moved along the edge of the cliff.
He’d weathered a few strikes, but his armor was holding out so far. On the combat net, Katrina saw that Carl was moving along the cliff, nearly in a position to engage the Widows hiding over the edge.
Amidst it all, Malorie was still perched atop a rock, motionless and invisible despite the chaos around her.
Katrina launched a salvo at the Widows firing over the cliff edge, and then moved to new cover. Her drones were still scouring the cliff above, and they flagged a heat signature. She wasn’t sure if it was another shooter or just a piece of debris, but fired on it anyway, not caring about conserving her ammunition.
An enemy drone fell from the location, and she gave a satisfied laugh, turning her attention to the fight at the edge of the ledge, where she saw that Malorie still hadn’t moved to assist Usef and Carl.
The spider-woman laughed.
Katrina saw a splash as an invisible object hit the water, then an ethereal shriek sounded as one of the Widows met the business end of Malorie’s talons.
No further fire had come from the cliff face above, and Katrina turned her full attention to the other side of the bowl. She moved through the sparse undergrowth to the largest tree on the ledge, leaning around it and taking aim at the pool, waiting for a clear shot.
Katrina’s visual overlay showed the spider-woman scampering away from the pond. Behind her, water sloughed off another figure as it rose and gave chase. Katrina didn’t hesitate, firing a trio of kinetic rounds at the Widow. Armor cracked, and the assassin became visible, blood leaking out where the third round had hit.
Usef circled around a group of boulders, moving toward the edge of the cliff. He was almost in a position to fire when rounds struck him in the back. Katrina spun to once again see shots raining down from the cliff above. She moved to the other side of the tree and returned fire, noting that Usef had gone prone behind a boulder before crawling to the edge.
The man let out a gargled cry, his vitals spiking. Katrina broke cover, rushing to the edge. She was still only halfway there when she saw that Erin had beat her to the brink, jumping off and firing at the enemies below.
Katrina skidded to a stop at the edge, shots from the cliffs above raining down around her.
Seconds later, beams came down through the clouds, two striking the cliffs above, and one hitting a target below the ledge.
Usef grunted as he leant out over the drop and fired a trio of rounds.
Katrina could see a small figure outlined in the entrance. Then a second appeared.
Nance elbowed Misha.
The Marine shook his head.
Katrina said dryly.
It took a few minutes to get Carl safely aboard Sabrina, after which, the team searched the shelf again before following the narrow ledge around the mountain to the ridgeline. Sabrina flew passes overhead, scanning the slopes for activity. After an hour with no further signs, the team gathered the Widows’ bodies and loaded them onto the ship.
“So that’s twenty we’ve taken out, right?” Cheeky asked as she met Katrina in the ship’s galley, where Misha was nearly done with dinner.
“Twenty-two,” Katrina corrected. “I just got word that Tangel and Sera took out a pair.”
“Shit!” Cheeky exclaimed. “Are those ugly faceless bitches hitting the I2 again?”
“No,” Katrina shook her head. “Troy told me that Tangel and Sera are down on the ring helping Bob find Helen.”
Cheeky glanced at one of the optical pickups. “Sabs! How come you’re not sharing the AI intel like Troy does?”
“Sheesh. That’s not going to get confusing at all,” Katrina muttered as she walked to the counter and poured herself a cup of coffee.
“Tell me about it,” Misha said as he cut slices of pork off a roast. “I can’t keep them straight now. In my head, I have to think of them as ‘Ship’ and ‘Chrome Ass’.”
Sabrina’s laugh filled the room.
Katrina leant against the counter, sipping her coffee as she watched Cheeky grab plates for dinner, while joining in needling Misha.
She’d never been aboard Sabrina before, but interactions with her own crew had always been generally fun and humorous affairs. Standing in the ship’s galley, she could tell that joking and needling was the norm for this crew as well; laughing off stress and cares was their way of life.
What was most interesting to Katrina was that this crew had initially been put together by Sera. The dark-haired scion of the Tomlinson house wasn’t without a lighter side, but she wasn’t likely to have been the genesis of this modus operandi.
If I had to bet on it, it’s Cheeky and Sabrina. Those two just exude an energy that fills this whole ship.
The realization caused her to feel a modicum of sadness that the Voyager hadn’t echoed with laughter as much as it could have over the years. She didn’t think of her crew as a dour bunch by comparison, but they always seemed to carry the memory of how they had first come together.
Memories of Juasa flooded into Katrina’s mind, and she let them wash over her, her long-ago lover’s smile still perfectly rendered in her mind’s eye.
I miss you, Juasa. And I’m still sorry.
“Well, Kat?” Cheeky asked, her voice rising a half octave as she spoke.
“ ‘Kat’?” Katrina scoffed, drawing her attention back to the present. “Do I call you ‘Chee’?”
Cheeky shrugged. “You can call me anything you like. A natural redhead is my kryptonite.”
“Everything’s your kryptonite,” Misha said as he set the platter of meat on the table.
“What’s kryptonite?” Katrina asked as she pulled up a chair and settled next to Cheeky.
“A green rock from the planet Krypton,” the captain explained. “It makes SuperGuy weak.”
“SuperGuy?”
Misha nodded as he began to make a pitcher of lemonade. “Yeah, from the ancient SuperGuy vids. We found some of them in a vault awhile back. There was a huge stash of ancient shows and we have been watching them together. The SuperGuy ones are from the twenty-sixth century.”
“Not as old as Star Wars,” Cheeky said. “Which is totally my favorite. I think it’s a true story.”
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” Misha intoned in a mysterious voice.
“That makes no sense,” Katrina interjected. “When was that made?”
Cheeky shrugged. “Somewhere back around the dawn of time.”
“Twentieth century,” Misha supplied. “So a few years after the dawn of time.”
“Close enough.”
“What’s it about?” Katrina asked, nodding to Nance and Usef as they entered the galley.
Cheeky placed both hands on the table and leant forward, eyes narrowing as her voice dropped to a whisper. “A dark lord, powerful in the Force, and a young boy who is given a mythical weapon to stand up against the evil empire!”
“Star Wars?” Nance asked.
“Uh-huh,” Misha said.
The ship’s engineer turned to Katrina. “Has she tried to tell you it’s a true story yet?”
Katrina nodded. “Not really buying it.”
“That’s because you’ve never met a space wizard.” Cheeky fixed Katrina and then Nance with a serious look. “If you had, you’d have no trouble believing that, out there, somewhere, Darth Vader is waiting.”
“Didn’t he die, though?” Misha asked as Erin and Sabs entered the galley.
“Spoilers!” Cheeky shouted. “Some of us didn’t go ahead and watch the next movies without the rest of the crew!”
“Well, it’s been weeks!”
The cook glared at one of the optical pickups, then directed his glare to Cheeky. “Huh…yet you still expect your food on a schedule.”
“OK…” Sabs held up a hand to deflect further ire from the cook. “We’ll schedule a vid night as soon as possible. Maybe on the flight out of the Huygens System.”
With a haughty sniff, Misha turned back to the counter, and grabbed a bowl of salad and a basket of bread. He opened his mouth to say something more, but ended up gently setting the food on the table before settling into his chair and muttering something about being sorry for letting a spoiler slip.
“Sooooo…” Katrina stuck a fork into a slice of meat, pulling it onto her plate. “I assume Carl’s going to be OK?”
“He’s in the medtube right now,” Nance replied. “He should be patched up in a few hours—made me promise to save him some leftovers.”
“Is Malorie with him?”
“She’s not…hurting them, is she?” Misha asked.
“I suppose not,” the cook replied. “So what is she doing?”
“Please tell me you’re recording it,” Katrina said, watching Erin lift a hand to her lips, hiding a smile.
Katrina didn’t bother hiding her own grin as she cut off a piece of her meat. “That’s going to be some amazing blackmail material.”
a change in the ship’s engines.
“What is it?” she and Erin demanded at the same time.
Usef set his fork down and rose from the table. “Suit up, people. We’re going back in.”
PURSUING MOTHER
STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: The Unnamed Forest, Airtha
REGION: Huygens System, Transcend Interstellar Alliance
“I’ve been on a lot of rings,” Tangel said as she and Sera reached a clearing in the forest. “But Airtha is still blowing my mind.”
“We need a new name. I really don’t want to keep calling it that,” Sera replied. “Maybe Finaesia.”
Finaeus glanced at his niece and grunted. “No.”
“Finland?” Tangel asked.
“Extra no.”
“Stars,” Sera muttered. “Who died and made you king of Airtha?”
The ancient engineer snorted. “Ironically…Airtha.”
“He got you there.” Tangel laughed. “OK, so Helen is somewhere in this forest, topside, too.”
“There are no sub-layers here,” Finaeus explained. “Just a kilometer of carbon beneath this stretch of woods, and then space.”
“Why’s that?” Tangel asked.
“Balance,” Finaeus said. “Had to make things thinner here, and it was easier to route sub-level stuff elsewhere so as not to harm the ring’s structural integrity.”
“Hence the forest?” Sera asked.
“Hence the forest.”
Tangel surveyed the tall oak trees, noting the elms and poplars interspersed amongst them. “OK.… So Helen would know that there’s no way out. Why’d she come here? We’ve got a platoon with shadowtrons moving through these trees, and Bob’s watching over us from above. She’s out of options.”
“Which is why I don’t like it,” Finaeus replied. “Not one bit. She’s up to something.”
“Has to be,” Sera agreed. “She’s not stupid.”
Tangel glanced at Sera, trying not to actively pity the woman next to her. Helen had lived in Sera’s head for over four decades, and as such, they had developed a very special bond.
Their union had lasted much longer than the generally safe norm, but the two had never shown any signs of intergrowth—though now it was apparent why. Tangel had since learned that Helen had never hidden from Sera that she was a shard of Airtha.