by Eric Warren
“C’mon, c’mon.” Cas hit the panel as he waited for the hypervator. The ship shook again, throwing him against the side wall. He glanced behind him to see one of the officers’ faces hit the ground with a smack. The hypervator doors opened and Cas jumped inside, allowing the doors to close again before the guards could scramble back to him.
Once he was inside he pulled the main control panel from the wall and yanked the two cables connecting the voice command system. The hypervator wouldn’t move for his voice, but he could still input a manual test code. Something he’d never forgotten from the academy.
As he worked he pulled his comm out of his pocket and sent a message to Box.
“Yeah, boss,” the robot said on the other side.
“What’s going on? I’m stuck in the middle of the ship, I don’t have any eyes down here.”
“According to the Excuse’s sensors,” Box said, “We’re under attack by Sargan ships. Hey! I bet that’s Veena. She really doesn’t give up.”
“You think?” Cas yelled, inputting the last command. The hypervator began moving again. “I’m headed back to the bridge to find out what’s going on. Get the Excuse as ready as you can. We might have to make a hasty getaway.”
“Already on it,” Box said and cut the comm.
As the hypervator rose the ship shook again, this time much more violently than the last two. What had happened out there? Why wasn’t Greene running? This ship should easily be able to put enough distance between them and the Sargans.
Finally the hypervator slowed and the doors opened. Except they opened on chaos.
The bridge was a different world than the one he’d only left a few minutes before. A piece of the bulkhead was hanging from the ceiling, having smashed the primary display system in the middle of the room. Greene and Evie were barking orders while smoke billowed from one of the side stations. Page and Zaal were frantically trying to maneuver the ship, and Cas could see why. Blackburn had taken a piece of the bulkhead directly to the middle of her chest. She was dead in her seat as Ronde tried to compensate for the loss of their navigation station. The whole room was flashing red. Cas glanced around the chaos to the 2-D display on the far side of the room. Five Sargan ships were on the screen; the largest being Veena’s own dreadnought warship, at least four times the size of Tempest. And there, trapped in her tractor beam was his old ship: the Achlys.
31
Cas dashed over to Blohm’s station, jumping over debris and ducking the bulkhead. She was bleeding from a cut on her head and was seemingly having trouble focusing.
“What the hell happened?” Cas yelled. “They were supposed to be thirty minutes away!”
“As soon as we locked on to their signal they appeared, it must have been a decoy,” she said, slurring her words.
Evie ran up beside them, taking Blohm’s head in her hands. “She’s got a concussion. Take the station!” Evie yelled, helping Blohm out of the chair.
Cas glanced down at the engineering station as the ship shook again. He had to grip the side of the console to keep from flying off his feet. There was an oof and a thump to his right. He glanced over to see Evie and Blohm sprawled against the wall. He ran over to help but Evie waved him away. “Get the goddamn engines back online!” she yelled.
Cas nodded and returned to the station, wiping part of the console covered in Blohm’s blood with his sleeve. He examined the systems; it looked like there had been an overload in the primary conduits when they came out of the undercurrent. The ship lurched to the left as Ronde worked his controls, almost sending Cas out of his seat again. He hit the emergency restraints which shot out from the seat and secured him in. A quick glance confirmed the dampeners were only working at forty-six percent capacity. That would make an undercurrent jump uncomfortable to say the least.
One problem at a time. He had to figure out how to get them out of here. Evie said the engines were off. But as far as he could tell they were working fine, but the primaries were out and the backups hadn’t kicked in which meant no matter how much power they shunted to the engines, they wouldn’t be moving until the connections were in place. Cas hit the comm button down to main engineering.
“Engineering this is the bridge. Are you seeing what we’re seeing up here? The primaries are out.”
“This is Ensign Tyler, sir,” a young voice answered. “We’ve almost got them back.”
“Transfer to the secondary for now, worry about the primaries later,” Cas said.
“Sir, but won’t that blow the—?”
“Don’t argue, just do it, we stay here any longer and we won’t have primaries, understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Tyler said, cutting the connection.
“Evasive maneuvers! Page, where is my firepower?” Greene yelled.
“Blades away,” Page said. Cas glanced up to the screen momentarily to see two curved energy beams make their way toward the closest Sargan ship. They made a good hit but as soon as the damaged ship pulled back another took its place and continued firing on Tempest.
Cas worked as fast as he could on the console, reinforcing the secondary systems with temporary force shields, hoping they could hold the amount of power he was about to send through them. It was just like falling back into an old habit. He’d used the same maneuver on the Achlys more than once when they’d been in dire straits. It was amazing how quickly it all came back to him. This ship might be the most advanced ship in the fleet, but it was still a Coalition vessel underneath.
Seconds later the secondaries came online. “Thank you, Tyler,” Cas said under his breath. Instead of waiting for an order Cas initiated the array and opened up the nearest undercurrent.
“Get us there, now, Lieutenant!” Greene yelled, pointing at the undercurrent on the screen.
Ronde, sweat pouring down his brow, nodded and focused on the task at hand.
“Page, cover the rear!”
Three seconds later they reached the undercurrent.
“Full thrust!” Greene yelled, his hands gripping the sides of his chair.
“Brace!” Cas yelled, keeping his eye on the dampener fields. He only hoped they’d be enough so the entire crew wasn’t turned into soup accelerating so quickly.
The ship lurched dramatically and pulled Cas back into his seat so hard he thought it would break from its housing. Within a few seconds the sensation dissipated.
“Clear,” Evie announced. Sometime in the confusion she’d made it back to her station.
Greene slumped back into his chair. “Get me a full damage report.” He took a look at Blackburn, slumped over in her chair, her eyes still open. “Medical, to the bridge.”
Cas secured the engineering station and made sure everything was stable. The secondaries were holding—thank goodness—which meant they should be able to sustain their speed for at least long enough to get out of range of Veena. He made his way over to Evie.
“What happened? It’s like as soon as I left everything went to hell.”
“It was a trap,” Evie said. “She knew our position the moment we entered the undercurrent. We thought we could sneak up on her, but she was ready with her…fleet. They ambushed us. The ship took a direct hit before we could even get the main shields up.”
The secondary hypervator doors opened to reveal two medics who hustled into the bridge. One hunched down over Blohm who was sprawled out on the floor behind Evie’s station. The other made her way over to Blackburn.
Cas released his restraints and pulled his comm from his belt. “Box, what’s your status?”
“Shaken, but only barely stirred,” Box replied.
“The ship?”
“I’ve got communication equipment all over the place and your room is a mess but other than that she’s fine. The ship smells like alcohol; I think your bottles broke.”
“Get up to the bridge as soon as you can, I need you up here.” Cas heard what sounded like a high-pitched squeal on the other end as Box cut the communication.
“
Diazal, report,” Greene said from his chair. He was out of breath and sweat peppered his brow, but he was focused, determined not to let his crew down. For the first time in a long time, Cas saw a captain he could actually admire.
“We should be out of range by now,” Evie said, “Cas got the engines back up and with our advantage if she’s coming after us it will take her twice as long to reach our position if we stop now.”
“Understood, full stop,” Greene said.
Ronde worked the controls and the ship lurched to a halt, the dampeners still only providing minimal protection from the inertia. Cas took a moment to survey the bridge; it was a mess. It would take weeks in space dock to repair. Somehow Veena had known right where to hit them.
“I want to know what the hell happened. How was she there waiting for us?” Greene asked.
“I can take a pretty good guess,” Page said, looking at Cas from the tactical station. He had a cut above his right eye and the blood had run down the side of his face.
Greene ignored him. “Zaal?”
“Checking now, sir,” Zaal said. His hard-light simulation was unscathed. Though Cas wondered if the creature underneath had suffered any injuries.
The doors to the main hypervator opened to reveal Box, his yellow eyes blinking rapidly in excitement. Cas jumped up from his station and ran to his companion. “Help us over here, we have to get this bulkhead off Blackburn.” Cas glanced over at the medic who was trying to reach the ensign but with the massive piece of metal in the way was having little luck. Blackburn deserved more than to stay pinned to her station like a piece of skewered meat.
Box jogged over and pulled the bulkhead away, the sharp piece of metal that had penetrated Blackburn’s sternum coming out easily. Box set the bulkhead down as the medic reached the ensign, closing her eyes. Behind her, Ronde seethed. They must have been close.
Box stood back. “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind during my first visit to the bridge,” he said.
“Sir, I believe I’ve found the issue,” Zaal reported. “The tracker provided by Mr. Robeaux had a failsafe built into it. It didn’t activate until we were within a certain proximity of the Sargan ships.”
“I knew it,” Page said, coming out from around his terminal. “Just can’t help yourself can you, Robeaux? Have to kill crewmembers on every mission you’re a part of.”
“Lieutenant!” Greene shouted, standing again. Page froze but didn’t take his eyes off Cas. “Mr. Robeaux, Commander, with me. Right now!” He turned and made his way to his command room. “Page, you have the bridge.”
Cas noticed the other medic was already helping Blohm to the hypervator.
“Backup shifts report to the bridge,” Page yelled as Cas followed Greene into the command room with Evie right behind him.
As soon as the doors closed behind her Greene laid into him. “I do not take being played for a fool easily, Mr. Robeaux,” Greene snapped. “Tell me I haven’t misjudged you.”
“You haven’t,” Cas said. “Sir.” Adding the last bit because it felt wrong not to do so.
“Did you have any idea about a backup in the tracker?” Greene asked.
“No, sir. But it’s my fault. Box wanted to destroy the tracker as soon as we found it. But I thought we could use it. It was my idea to use it to trace her position back. I guess she was counting on that.”
“She knows you,” Evie said. “She knew if you found it you wouldn’t want to let her get away.”
Greene walked around behind his desk. “It seems she’s had the upper hand this entire time.” He pressed a panel on his desk. “Lieutenant Zaal.”
“Sir?” Zaal’s voice came through the comm.
“Destroy that tracker.”
“Yes, sir.”
Greene cut the comm. “It appears I have underestimated the Sargans’ desire to have that ship.”
“It’s not even about the ship,” Cas said. “Veena probably still doesn’t know what it can do. She’s more interested in selling the weapon to one of the other Sargan dealers. Someone who will use it to their own ends. She might even try to sell it to the heads of the Sargan Commonwealth themselves.”
“And then we’ll have a war on our hands,” Greene said. “If they have a weapon based on Sil technology nothing will stop them from breaking right through our borders and taking whatever they want.”
“I don’t understand,” Evie said. “She already has the ship and crew in her possession. Why does she still want you?”
Cas shrugged. “My bet would be she doesn’t like losing things. There’s an old Sargan saying: once inside doors disappear. It means you can come and go, but you never really leave. I’m her possession. Also if I had to guess the crew of the Achlys isn’t being very cooperative. Maybe she thinks I can help her use the weapon.”
“Do you think she captured the crew of the dry dock as well?” Evie asked.
Greene shook his head. “I don’t know.” He tapped his panel again. “Lieutenant Page, report to my command room.”
A moment later the doors opened to reveal page. Blood still smeared the side of his face. He shot a nasty glance at Cas but kept his composure.
“Lieutenant, give me a tactical analysis of the Sargans out there,” Greene said.
“Five ships in total, we disabled two of the smaller vessels. But the largest ship, the dreadnought, we’re no match for. We need a Coalition Warship or Destroyer to take on something of that size. We can’t survive another confrontation like that. Especially if they know we’re coming.”
“We’ve taken care of that issue,” Greene said.
“Are you going to tell him about how you tried to have me arrested?” Cas asked.
Page furrowed his brow as Greene stared at him. “Lieutenant?”
“It was for the safety of the ship,” Page said. “I didn’t want him roaming around when we were going into a combat zone.”
“Couldn’t just confine me to quarters? Or to my own ship?” Cas asked.
“That’s enough,” Greene said. “This bickering gets us nowhere. Lieutenant, return to the bridge and oversee repairs. Commander, as you’re the only one who doesn’t hate Mr. Robeaux I want you to escort him back to his ship where he will remain until we have sorted through this mess.”
“Yes, sir,” Evie and Page said together.
“And get that robot off my bridge,” he added.
“Wait, what are you going to do?” Cas asked.
“I see no choice but to make my report to Admiral Rutledge and await reinforcements from the fleet,” Greene replied.
“You can’t do that; Rutledge won’t just send reinforcements,” Cas said. “He’s already skittish enough. You tell him the ship was captured by the Sargans he’ll probably make a case for all-out war to the Coalition council himself. Remember he’s not the only one who knows about this project.”
“What project?” Page asked, glancing between the three of them.
“Then what would you suggest, Robeaux? You heard the lieutenant. We’re outclassed and outgunned. They have the ship. What am I supposed to do?” Greene asked, flustered.
“Send me over there,” Cas said. “Send me and I’ll blow it up.”
32
Page had to contain himself to keep from bursting out laughing. “You? We’re supposed to trust you to go back over to the woman you used to work for and blow up your own ship?”
Cas nodded.
“Give me a break.” He glanced over to the captain. “You can’t seriously be considering this. As soon as he gets over there he’ll reveal our position and the Sargans will have two ships to tow back instead of one.”
“Seems to me if he’d wanted to betray us he would have already done it by now,” Evie said.
“What do you call that out there?” Page shouted. “They were waiting for us! He led us straight into a trap with that damn tracker of his!”
“And if he’d wanted us to stay dead in the water he wouldn’t have gotten the engines back up and runni
ng,” Evie argued. “The Sargans had us dead to rights.”
Page turned back to Greene. “Sir. Don’t do this. He’s a convicted criminal. Twenty-four deaths because of his actions. Another five today. He’s a walking slaughterhouse.”
Five. A pit erupted in the bottom of Cas’s stomach. He’d hoped the casualties had been limited to Ensign Blackburn. But he’d been wrong. Maybe he didn’t deserve to take down the Achlys. Maybe he deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison. Was Page wrong? After all, if not for Cas, all those crewmembers would still be alive.
Greene faced Cas. “How would you do it? Get to your ship?”
Cas shook the thoughts away. He needed to focus. “I would need the Tempest to create a distraction. I’d launch the Excuse here and follow you through the undercurrent, both of us coming out at the same time at different points. Tempest would take a strafing run at the nearest ships while I got the Excuse close enough to dock with the Achlys. My ship is small enough that a big distraction should keep me off their scanners long enough to match the hull frequency of the Achlys. I know it by heart; it won’t be hard. Then I get on, enable the self-destruct, and get out. Meet back up with you here.”
Page sent him a hard stare. “Or how about this? You never show up at the fight at all and run away, just like you did five years ago,” Page said.
“Commander?” Greene said to Evie. “Your thoughts.”
“It’s a sound strategy, but I agree he can’t go alone,” Evie said. Cas shot her a look. “If something goes wrong, if there’s a malfunction we won’t get another chance. There needs to be at least two people on the mission.”
“No way,” Cas said, stepping forward. “I’m not putting any more lives in danger. If it’s just me, no one else can get hurt. I can do this, captain. I just need the chance.”
“See?” Page said. “He just wants to do it himself so he can run if it gets tough.”
Cas turned and decked the man, sending him sprawling back. Page’s eyes turned to fire as he regained his balance, holding himself up against the wall. He bared his teeth and made a lunge for Cas, only to find Greene standing in his way. Cas tried to move forward but Evie had wrenched her hands around his, holding him back. He tried to lunge against her but found he couldn’t quite move as much as he thought he should be able to. She was strong.