Captive Embers (The Wardens' Game Book 1)

by Brian Mansur

  Captain Paulson folded her arms and scowled at the tactical map. “Signal the Capable. Proceed with option two on the snatch-and-dash.”

  Rafe’s innards curdled. They had just given up on the Capable making the rescue herself. Instead, the destroyer’s small courier ship would sprint ahead, take on as many survivors as possible, then blast away at high-g.

  While the young woman at comms relayed Paulson’s orders, Rafe had an uncomfortable moment to consider how few people the Capable’s shuttle could extract. From almost a hundred refugees on Lifeboat 19 alone, perhaps only a few dozen could get out. Worse yet, some of the wounded might be too weak to endure the escape burn.

  But at least my kids will have a chance.

  A minute later, the comms chief said, “Captain, the Capable is on emergency channel five, ordering the lifeboats to kill their master breakers for the next half-hour.”

  “Very well.”

  Rafe flinched. He had been the first to suggest that they “safe” the lifeboats against further manipulation by Lilith. He imagined Anna squirming fearfully as the main cabin lights and electronic distractions shut off with little notice. Only emergency life support, short-range radios, and a few battery-powered lamps would still function.

  They’ll be fine. They’re together.

  He watched the plot. One by one, the lifeboats faded to a darker shade of blue until the entire flotilla coasted unguided. He prayed for his girls to be brave. All the while, the Lakshmian frigate did not alter course or acceleration.

  The comms tech lady said, “Capable is broadcasting their intention to conduct a rescue mission to retrieve children and wounded from the lifeboats.” She pressed a hand over her ear then added, “They’ve issued a final hostile challenge to the Godavari.”

  Rafe smirked. They were checking procedural boxes for the sake of moral legitimacy.

  The tech shortly reported, “No response from the Godavari.”

  Seconds later, a new icon appeared next to the Capable and Rafe’s pulse began to throb.

  The plotter announced, “Shuttlecraft White Knight has launched. She’s thrusting for the lifeboats. Rendezvous in ten minutes.”

  Paulson said, “Message to White Knight. Godspeed. Signal to the Capable. Weapons free. Fire ten missiles at ten thousand klicks from the Godavari, then it’s captain’s discretion from there. Good hunting.”

  Rafe’s fingers kneaded at his biceps. They were committed. He watched the blips of the Capable and White Knight crawl across the Warden-imposed engagement boundary with the Godavari. At just under the ten-thousand-kilometer mark, ten multi-stage nuclear warhead Reaper missiles shot away from the Mykonian warship on invisible trails of scorching gas.

  “Godavari is launching!” the plotter said with animated fervor. “Ten blips tracking on a line between Capable and the lifeboats.”

  Rafe saw Paulson exchange knowing glances with Merrick. The attack was no surprise to anyone in the CIC, but Rafe writhed inside anyway. The Capable, her missiles and Zeus’s escape shuttles all lay along the same axis headed in more or less the same direction. The enemy could send their missile barrage against any combination of Mykonian targets.

  The girl at comms spoke up. “Capable is repeating her intentions to protect the rescue and orders Godavari to break off.”

  Another useless box checked.

  More arrowhead blips raced away from the Mykonian destroyer.

  The plotter said, “Capable is firing counter-missiles. Target is the enemy missile wave.”

  Rafe heard Lieutenant Merrick mutter, “So far, it’s all by the book.”

  Rafe nodded. Even a non-line officer like himself recognized the tactics. The Capable’s fire would force the incoming missiles to maneuver. The destroyer could saturate the battlefield with guided weapons until the threats needed to dodge, expending precious propellant. Should any of the inbounds survive this barrage, the Capable’s main laser battery would cook them once they drew within effective range.

  Then the news that Rafe had dreaded came. The plotter shouted, “Enemy missile vectors have changed to bear on the lifeboats. They’re accelerating.” After a full minute, he said, “Intercept in twenty minutes.”

  Rafe spat a curse. The attack was a flagrant violation of the laws of warfare.

  From her chair in the CIC, Paulson snapped, “Order the Capable to fire a protective spread.”

  Before her words could be relayed, more map icons raced from the destroyer. The Godavari responded by firing a second spread of its own at the lifeboats.

  As the nail-biting minutes mounted, a thought struck Rafe. He said, “The Godavari is making sure the Capable sticks around to protect the refugees.”

  “Yes,” Paulson agreed, suspicion thick in her voice.

  With each passing minute, Rafe felt his sense of foreboding darken. The Godavari was luring the Capable in. So long as the destroyer had to defend the lifeboats, she couldn’t change course to keep away from the enemy frigate—exactly as Captain Paulson wanted.

  Eventually, the plotting chief said, “White Knight is on final maneuvers to Lifeboat 19.”

  The vice around Rafe’s shoulders tightened. Help is almost there, girls. Hold on just a bit longer.

  Location: Zeus Lifeboat 19_

  Even though Commander Hagherty had tried to prepare the shuttle’s passengers for possible rescue, some people screamed the moment the lights faded. As Karen’s eyes adjusted to the gloom, she twisted about to glare at a hysterical lady.

  Disgusted, Karen closed her eyes and drew her sister tight against her. She nestled Anna’s head beneath her chin and sniffed the comforting mix of scalp oil and lavender shampoo.

  Karen said, “We’ll make it through this.”

  Several minutes later, she sensed movement in front of her. She opened her eyes to see the distraught woman floating to the airlock’s minuscule porthole.

  “Hey, miss,” Master Chief Torrens said, “You need to get strapped back in.”

  The hyperventilating woman asked, “Why aren’t they here yet?”

  “It may take them a little while. Now go sit down.”

  The lady stared out the porthole, took two more desperate gasps and asked, “Can’t you call them? Make them realize they have to get us out of here?”

  “I said sit down.”

  “You don’t get it!” the woman cried. “I grew up in Lakshmi. I know what people like Lilith will do to us.”

  Karen had heard enough. “Hey, lady,” she said. “Shut up. You’re scaring us kids.”

  Startled, the woman turned to regard Karen and Anna. Recognition dawned over her, followed quickly by disbelief, anger, and horror. “I know you,” she said. “You were in the news. You’re Rafe Hastings’ kids!”

  A sour burning trickled up Karen’s sternum. She grew aware of others paying attention to the exchange.

  Master Chief Torrens shoved the hysterical female back toward her seat. In a barely controlled voice, he told her to sit down. She obeyed, but the damage had been done.

  An angry male several rows back said, “Is that true? You’re the kids of the guy who got us into this war?”

  “Shut your hole!” Torrens barked. Karen leveraged herself slightly up from her chair to get a peek at the speaker. The agitator’s thick hair and beefy face told her he was a civilian who’d worked at Zeus. He caught sight of her and narrowed his eyes.

  “Is that why they’re really up there? Special treatment for the brats of the so-called hero? What about the rest of us, eh?”

  Another man further back tried to shout the vitriolic male down, but the trouble-maker called out, “We should be drawing lots for the rest of us!” A chorus of assent rose up from several aisles.

  Commander Hagherty emerged from the cockpit. “What’s going on here? Help’s about to dock. Stay put until we call you forward.”

  At that news, several faces crowded the lifeboat’s few windows. Someone yelled, “I can see it! It’s just a small shuttle. We won’t all fit in
that thing!”

  Karen’s blood chilled by several degrees. She saw the passengers shifting and mumbling to each other. She heard a distant voice say, “They’re going to leave us behind! We have to do something!”

  Hagherty called out, “Children and wounded first, people!”

  The clunk of metal reverberated throughout the cabin. Everyone jerked toward the sound. An even louder thunk followed. As if it had been a starting pistol, people popped out of their restraints and advanced.

  Karen drew a sharp breath as bodies poured into the aisle where she and Anna waited. She wrapped herself tight about her sister, hoping to shield the child from the growing mob. She heard Torrens and Hagherty bellowing for everyone to go back to their seats, but no one listened.

  Within moments, angry voices gave way to blows. Through the glut of people, Karen saw service members trying to fight off the crowd.

  The girls cringed as a figure slammed into them. They yelped. A moment later, the mass shifted off, but then hands grappled their bony shoulders. Someone released their restraints. The children screamed and thrashed while someone lifted them.

  Karen looked up to see two wild-eyed men. One of them said to the other, “Let’s get them to the back!”

  Location: CIC, MSV Tsunami_

  “White Knight reports good airlock seal,” the communications tech announced. The news brought a measure of relief to Rafe’s growing tension.

  The fusion-rocket courier had enough propellant to break for a friendly colony in higher Belian orbit. The trip would take almost a week, but the girls would be safe at last.

  While everyone waited for word from the rescue shuttle, the Capable’s ordnance closed with the incoming missiles. Icons flared then winked out until only four red arrowheads remained on the map. Rafe stared at those baleful lights as they hurtled at his daughters.

  The plotter said, “Capable has cut her drive and is changing aspect. She’s readying her main laser battery.”

  Lieutenant Merrick turned to Rafe. “We’re still good here sir. It will take a while to shoot down those last missiles from that range, but they should be able to scrag them all.”

  Rafe nodded gratefully for the assurance. We’re still good here, he repeated to himself.

  The woman at communications called out, “White Knight reports a problem with Lifeboat 19.”

  Rafe felt every drop of blood leech from his veins. He stopped breathing even as the room’s chatter ceased.

  The astronaut continued. “They say there’s a riot outside the airlock. They can’t get into the lifeboat.”

  Someone called up the Capable’s telescopic view and put it on the main screen. Through the hazeless image, Rafe made out the boxy shapes of escape shuttles strewn about in a ragged formation. One of them was mated to the courier.

  Rafe’s fists clenched. His girls were there, right there, and he couldn’t get at them. His eyes switched back to the plotting screen. The enemy’s lead missile winked out.

  The plotter said, “Scrag another zombie. Capable is retargeting.”

  “Captain,” Merrick said, “She’s going to be stuck inside the combat envelope if she doesn’t veer off now.”

  Rafe watched as Paulson worked her jaw. She glanced Rafe’s way, and their eyes met. Rafe begged her with his expression not to abandon his kids.

  Paulson spoke with authoritative calm. “Signal the Capable. We’re all-in on this. Have White Knight detach and try for another airlock. Fire all remaining Reapers on the Godavari. Protect the lifeboats.”

  Rafe exhaled.

  “We have a problem with Lifeboat 47,” the plotter abruptly announced. “She’s powered back up! She’s maneuvering!”

  “What vector?!” Paulson demanded, but she needn’t have asked. Everyone could see the icon was headed directly for Lifeboat 19.

  Location: Zeus Lifeboat 19_

  Pandemonium reigned in the darkened cabin. While Anna screamed, Karen demanded to be let go.

  The pair of men holding her ignored her thrashing. They focused instead on carrying her and Anna to the craft’s rear. Unfortunately for the girls, most everyone was too focused on moving forward, either to try to escape or else to help restore order. Those few who tried to intervene received sharp elbows to the face.

  Sometime during the panicked jostling, Karen understood that neither she nor her sister could free themselves on their own.

  Take care of your sister, the voice of her parents rang.

  The surging crowd pushed the man holding Karen into the one bracing Anna. Karen’s face smashed against a hairy limb. She chomped hard on it while clawing at the hand grappling her sister. With a curse, the male loosened his hold enough for Anna to break free. Karen had one fleeting glimpse of a black ponytail before the glut of bodies eclipsed Anna.

  Karen’s kidnapper shouted, “Help me with this one!”

  More thumps of metal on metal sounded.

  “They’re leaving!” someone screamed. The mob withered in despair. By then, the men had stuffed Karen into a toilet room.

  She banged her fists on the door, but the men kept it braced shut. She cried out for Commander Hagherty and Master Chief Torrens, but they had been knocked unconscious in the fighting. The few people who’d noticed the abduction were the timid refugees who’d kept out of the way.

  Less than a minute later, the lifeboat shook again as the White Knight mated to another airlock at the rear. Karen heard the crowd crescendo into a new frenzy. Shouts and screams filled the rear cabin, drowning out her own pitiful cries for help. She upped the ferocity of her assault on the door.

  At one point, she thought she heard someone calling her name and Anna’s. Then another voice yelled, “Impact in one minute!”

  Location: CIC, MSV Tsunami_

  Paulson said, “What the hell is going on with Lifeboat 47?!”

  The lady at comms replied, “Capable is relaying White Knight’s radio on Emergency Channel 1, ma’am.”

  “Give us the feed.”

  A voice distorted by static burst onto the CIC’s speakers. “Lifeboat 47, veer off! We do not have time to dock with you!”

  “Then you’d better make the time,” a female said. “We have wounded here. You have to take them.”

  The White Knight’s pilot replied, “Lifeboat 47, you’re coming in too fast! Break off now and shut down! You’ll hit us in less than a minute.”

  Above a banging sound, the voice returned, “Then you’ve less than a minute to agree to take my criticals onboard.”

  Paulson moved to the communications station. “Patch me into that conversation.”

  A maddening five seconds later, the enlisted tech said, “You’re on, ma’am.”

  The captain snarled into her microphone. “Lifeboat 47, this is BELCOM flag. Break off immediately. That is an order under military authority and Zeus transit law.”

  The voice on the other end responded with righteous conviction. “Zeus is gone, BELCOM flag, and I’m not fleet. I don’t answer to you, and I’m not going to let my wounded die today.”

  The pounding in the background intensified. With a start, Rafe realized that the other passengers must be trying to force their way into the cockpit.

  “Lifeboat 47 pilot,” Paulson growled, “if you do not change your course, so help me I will put you in front of a firing squad!”

  A cacophony of angry voices and scuffling erupted over the line.

  Someone new said, “We’re going to crash! How do I turn this thing!”

  A moment later, the radio crackled with the voice of White Knight’s pilot. “Impact in thirty! Shut the door! Now, now, now!”

  Across the room, Rafe stared at the visual from the Capable’s telescope. He saw one lifeboat eclipsing the other. The courier shuttle moved from between them.

  “White Knight is away!” the plotter called. The words sent Rafe quaking with unbearable anticipation.

  As thrusters pushed the shuttle out of Lifeboat 47’s path, the pilot said, “Switching to
secure comms. A burp of static later and the voice continued. “Reaching safe distance now. Going to one g in three, two, one.” A roar spilled over the radio along with several yelps and the din of crying children.

  Paulson said, “Comms, pull up telemetry. Did we get who we needed off?”

  “Passenger list compiling, ma’am.”

  A roster of names splashed onto the main screen. The White Knight’s computer generated it by reading the implanted ID chips from everyone aboard. Twenty-three names appeared in alphabetical order by surname. Rafe jumped straight to the H’s.

  His mouth dropped open. He tried to breathe. He tried to say something, but his tongue wouldn’t move. Inside, a scream, part joy, and mostly horror, fought to break free.

  The White Knight’s pilot said. “Capable, confirm we retrieved Anna Hastings. Were unable to locate Karen Hastings before we had to detach. It was chaos aboard. I’m sorry.”

  Rafe’s eyes moved back to the live view of the shuttle flotilla. Lifeboat 47 was rolling and edging down on its maneuvering jets. It wasn’t enough. Helpless, he watched the ship collide with Lifeboat 19 and send it tumbling.

  Location: Zeus Lifeboat 19_

  Inside the lavatory aboard her escape ship, Karen listened to the wails of those who had been left behind. She joined her sobbing voice to theirs. Then a hammer-like clang of struck metal pierced her ears. At the same time, the bulkhead slammed into the side of her head.

  23

  Location: CIC, MSV Tsunami_

  When word arrived that Karen Hastings had been left behind, Sean glanced back at the girl’s father. The man’s pale face pricked at Sean’s heart.

  Turning back to the screens, Sean watched as Lifeboat 47 collided with Karen’s ship. Even from nearly a thousand klicks away, the Capable’s telescope relayed the slow-motion crash with nauseating detail. He flinched as flecks of glittering metal shot away from between the ships.