“No make it,” the Night Hunter said. His voice was flat and matter of fact.
“Yes they will. They better or they’re gonna have to— There!” Irons pointed up at a flickering shape reflecting the nearby star’s light. It was getting bigger by the second. “Come on you old boat,” he muttered.
He flew up above the trees to give them lit signal. The blue jet flame under his feet would have to do.
The Slagschip Lucky Liberty slowed down as it neared the tree tops, forcing them to sway back and forth as the massive ship got closer to the ground.
The cargo bay doors opened and Irons saw Durham rushing down the gangplank.
“Boss!”
It was already a great relief to see the ship. Even more so to see Durham reverted to his older self. Cold cynicism didn’t suit the Private very well.
“Where do we land this thing?”
“Gonna have to crush some trees,” Irons said.
“But—”
“Listen, kid, this whole place is gonna go up any second. A few trees ain’t a concern.”
Durham nodded and reached for the cargo bay radio. He spoke into it. “Bring it down as close to the ground as you can.”
Irons flew back down to the local inhabitants. “We’re gonna get you all outta here.”
* * *
Haddron watched the bomb as the symbols changed from three to one. “For Erra and for Earth,” he said with a smile, dropping the bomb into the shaft. He took one more look at his planet. “Forgive my wrath, Earth. I meant not to harm you.”
He closed his eyes and listened as the explosion erupted from the bottom of the hole. The machines around him whined and reeled at the sudden pressure of the blast. Steam and smoke began to fill the room and Haddron calmly bowed his head.
* * *
The land quaked and started to split.
“What’s going on?” Durham asked as he helped guide the Night Hunter’s people into the ship.
“That’s the signal!” Irons grabbed two of the former slaves and flew them onto the ship. There was no more time to be gentle. He’d see to any new injuries once they were back in orbit.
The Night Hunter moved quickly to get others on board. One of them turned to the sound of a larger explosion. She pointed to a wave of light arcing in the sky.
“Double time!” Irons started teleporting those who could not climb up the gang plank. The woods strobed with the white flash of the Nordic transportation device. In the time it took him to get two, the Night Hunter had helped three up. His speed may have rivaled Haddron’s.
“We’re in! Launch!” Durham yelled into the radio.
There was no waiting to close the cargo bay door. Irons hit the FAC, closing the cargo hold off to the outside.
With the others safely in the ship, Irons, Durham and the Night Hunter watched the arcing light grow wider and brighter as more of it spilled out from inside the planet. The metal hemisphere creaked and groaned as it was cracked and split open by the eruption. Trees on the dark side fell and sank into the ground as it opened up, letting more of the light escape.
A new sound blasted through the air, accompanied by a massive shockwave. The ship was struck by the wave and rocked forward.
Irons grabbed the radio. “Hannah, Slipstream full!”
“We’re in planet, sir! If we do that—”
“We’re gonna blow up if we don’t!”
Another eruption burst out from the planet, sending another wave out in all directions. The wave struck the ship, knocking it off course. Irons, Durham and the escapees were all knocked off their feet.
“Teleport, dammit!” Irons yelled.
“It’s down, Captain!” Syracuse yelled back. “Got hit in the fight!”
Durham stared at Irons. “We’re not gonna make it.”
Thirty-Three
Final Run
James Irons rushed onto the bridge and, without saying a word, took control of the wheel from Syracuse. Running behind the Captain, Durham jumped into his seat and began going over how to get more power from the engines. Even Hannah was having difficulty figuring out the numbers. The Slipstream Regulator with the Slagschip had enough trouble getting anywhere near max velocity in space. In planet was going to be much worse and they had yet to hit escape speed.
“All redundant systems are offline, Captain!” Hannah said. “That gave us a one percent power boost.”
“One percent?” Lou asked, shocked.
“I still haven’t figured out how the Slagschip fully works,” Hannah explained.
“Somebody better figure something out!” Irons yelled as the ship rumbled under the force of another wave. “Gimme a visual!”
The fully orbital three-hundred-and sixty degree display lit up above them. It was as if they were standing in the sky. All watched as the ground beneath them shook and lit even brighter.
“The core is expanding.” Hannah’s voice was low. “The whole planet is going to explode.”
“I got that, Specialist. Gimme a way to escape it.” Irons hit the already maxed throttle, hoping that it wasn’t at full acceleration.
Another shock wave crashed into the ship, tumbling it forward and shifting its course to head right back toward the ground. Irons pulled up on the wheel, trying to gain lift.
“She’s too heavy!”
“Disconnect!” Sitasha yelled.
“What?”
“The Slagschip,” she went on. “Disconnect from it.”
“But the Lucky Liberty is a wreck,” Lindsay said. “Without integration—“
“Trust me,” Sitasha insisted.
Irons gritted his teeth, straining to pull the ship out of its nosedive toward the exploding planet. “Do it!”
Sitasha ran to Hannah’s console and input a series of commands. “There. Now run!” She dashed back to the wheel. The others followed her lead and joined around Irons. Syracuse tried to help pull the ship back up, While Durham and Lou ran up the steps just as the walls started to ripple.
Everyone watched the interior of the Lucky Liberty revert to its original form. The walls eased inward, shortening the size of the bridge. The stairs reformed into the floor and the consoles moved closer to one another. The display that surrounded them collapsed into a front display showing the various angles across multiple display screens.
The nose of the Lucky Liberty finally swung upward. Durham noticed the hulking Slagschip on the display as it fell away from the Earth Fleet vessel. They were solely in their ship again. To their relief, its systems and hull all appeared normal.
“How?” Hannah asked.
“The Slagschip’s reactive material. It repairs all—”
Irons cut Sitasha off. “Science lesson when we’re outta this!”
* * *
The old Earth Fleet cruiser raced upward, Slipstream Regulator at its narrowest. The explosion from beneath it finally tore the planet apart, blasting huge chunks of land and rock outward. The smaller pieces were jettisoned as fast as the ship could fly. Rocks struck the back of the hull, denting the parts it hit. Other pieces were vaporized in the intense heat and pressure of the thrusters.
The final shockwave enveloped the Lucky Liberty, rocking it even as it cleared the atmosphere and entered the lower gravity sphere where the thrusters became even more powerful. The Slipstream Regulator launched the battle cruiser well ahead of the exploding chunks of planet, finally clearing the blast zone and making it to safety.
* * *
Irons grabbed the throttle and pulled it down. His action failed to slow the ship’s initial momentum. “Give me full reverse.”
“Aye, Captain.” Hannah input commands into her console.
The display showed several short jet bursts emanate from the front of the ship. The velocity numbers on Irons’s console dropped rapidly. He turned the wheel, steering the ship to reface Erra. All that remained of the half terraformed planetoid was a few large pieces of rock. Beyond that floated the wrecked husks of Catter ships.
/> And Earth Fleet ships, too, Syracuse realized. “I guess it was too much to hope for.”
Beyond the destruction lay Erra. From this far out, no one could tell that an attack on the planet had taken place. It was going to take some time to rebuild what the Catters had damaged. But at least the threat was over.
Irons released the wheel and walked to Sitasha. “There’s some people in our cargo bay who are gonna need a good home. Haddron said—”
Sitasha smiled. “They are most welcome.”
Admiral Mona Collins appeared on the display “Commander Hill—” She stopped suddenly at the sight of Irons.
Everyone on the bridge saluted.
“At ease,” Mona said. She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “I’m glad to see you alive and well, Captain.”
“I don’t know about well.” He turned the dial on the vest and collapsed the armor. “Gonna have to live with this thing, now.”
“I’m sure Wartech will have something to say about that. In the meantime, I want to congratulate you and your crew on a job well done.”
“Couldn’t have done it without you, Ma’am,” Lindsay said.
“Regardless. The Catter threat is gone. Erra and Earth are safe. And it is in no small part due to the crew of the Lucky Liberty. I don’t know all the details of your mission but I’m glad to know it was a success.”
“Me, too, Mona,” Irons said.
Mona cleared her throat.
“Apologies,” Irons smiled. “Me, too, Admiral.”
On Earth, Mona’s sly smile may have gone unnoticed but on the display screen it was there for all to see. Durham covered his mouth with his hand and glanced at Lindsay who rolled her eyes.
“We’ll see you back home, Lucky Liberty.”
“Actually, ma’am.” Syracuse said. “We lost our teleporter. Even with the Slipstream Regulator on full, getting home is going to take a while.”
“I see. Specialist, do you have any thoughts?” Mona looked at Hannah.
“Roy ain’t busy,” Irons said.
Lou Trevern let out a hearty laugh.
“Link up with the Drastic Nova on Erra,” Mona ordered.
Irons saluted. “Aye, Admiral.”
Thirty-Four
End Of An Era
Benjamin Stevens paced around the front door of the Wartech offices, frantically talking on his phone. “But we need it tomorrow! Do you know who this is?” He listened. “Yes, I understand that the riots caused a lot of problems for everyone but those are over, now.” He listened, again. “Yes, I know Officer McCallum is the reason—Fine, He’ll be in the parade, too. Now can you please?” A fake smile made its way across his face. “Thank you.”
He shook off the frustration and put his phone away as he faced the Earth Fleet crew. “Sorry about that. It’s all set up. Huge downtown parade in honor of the crew of the USS Lucky Liberty.”
“I seen enough parades,” Irons said.
The entire crew was standing on the sidewalk outside of the building. Every one of them looked as if they just wanted to go home and sleep.
“Oh no,” Benjamin said. “This one is gonna be bigger than the others. It’s the end of the war. The real end, this time.”
“You sure about that?” Lindsay asked.
“Even if it ain’t, I can guarantee, it’s gonna be a long time till we see any Catters again.”
“And we’ll be more than ready for them,” Benjamin said. “By the way, Captain, smart move leaving the Slagschip in orbit. No sense alarming the citizens. Wouldn’t want any new riots to start up.”
“What are you on about, Stevens?”
“The— It’s up there, isn’t it?” Stevens pointed upward.
“Destroyed in the fight,” Syracuse said. “Sorry to disappoint, Mr. Stevens.”
The Wartech CEO felt suddenly ill. “But…How are we gonna build—I was going to have a whole fleet of them. I needed that ship to replace the notes Private Brooks destroyed.”
“Good soldier,” Irons said.
“Thank you, sir,” Lindsay replied.
“Erra has new citizens, correct, Captain?” Mona asked.
“Correct, Admiral. Sitasha is acting as an emissary on their behalf. Near as we could tell the Nordics welcomed them with open arms.”
“They’ll need help rebuilding, ma’am,” Durham said.
“Are you volunteering, Private?”
“If that’s what it takes.” The slacker side of Durham was practically gone. All that was left was a soldier with a light attitude and a sense of duty.
The doors to the Wartech building burst open and a tall, thin young man in a white lab coat and thin framed glasses power walked toward the group.
Irons let out a laugh. “Forgot about him.”
Lenard Basque hurried to the group, stopping next to the Admiral. His breathing was short and he seemed very excited.
“Granted, Private Durham. As soon as you’re rested.” Mona continued. “Any other detail requests?”
“I have one,” the medium tone of Lenard replied.
“You get this eye fixed, Len?” Irons pointed at the Cyber Eye.
“I think so.” He glanced at Hannah who smiled at him, then he nervously looked away. “If I may.”
The Captain pulled the Cyber Eye out from its socket and handed it to Lenard.
The young engineer opened a small slot on the eye and inserted an even smaller chip. “This should reroute and convert the military signals—”
“To a Wartech system,” Hannah finished Lenard’s sentence.
Lenard looked at her as he closed the slot. He handed the eye back to Irons.
Stepping forward, Hannah held out her hand. “Earth Fleet Tech Specialist Hannah Xuyen.”
“Um…” Lenard’s eyes darted to Irons but the Captain looked away with a smile.
“Basque—Doctor Lenard Basque.”
“Maybe you two can figure out a way to get this thing off me without killing me,” Irons pointed at the Gevecht Bepantsering.
“It’s hooked into his immune system,” Hannah told Lenard.
The two of them traded information back and forth. Irons had no idea what they were talking about.
“Doctor Byer will want to know what’s going on,” Lindsay said, trying to hide a smile.
Irons looked to Syracuse. “What is going on with my crew?”
“Been cooped up too long, sir.”
Irons worked the eye back into its socket and watched as his vision came back online. He raised his eyebrows in an attempt to adjust to the new flow of data. Names, genders, weights and heights. Names of objects, their color and other statistics all flashed in front of him. Anything the Cyber Eye happened to see within the lens, was all recorded and logged. Irons covered his eye with his hand, stopping the flow.
“You want this?” Mona held out an eyepatch.
He took it from her and covered the Cyber Eye. “That’s better.”
“There’s the Captain we all know,” Benjamin said.
“Good job, Len,” Irons said.
The young engineer was too enthralled with his conversation with Hannah to hear him.
“What’s next?” Lou Trevern asked.
“I think I’m gonna have me a drink,” Syracuse said. “You’re welcome to join, Lieutenant.”
“Captain Allen wants to—”
“Allen can wait,” Irons said.
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait, as well, James,” Mona said, walking past the group to a waiting car parked at the curb. “I need to debrief you on what happened, exactly.”
Irons took one look at his crew, proud of them all. This time, it really felt like the war with the Ka’traxis Brood was over. He smiled and stepped, lively, toward the car and the waiting Admiral.
“Oh, Captain!” Hannah ran to Irons. “I forgot to tell you. Just before the planetoid explosion, there was an ion spike.”
“A teleport signature?” Durham asked.
Irons looked up at the blue sky of Earth then continued his walk to the car. “Probably nothing. Ain’t no use worrying till there’s a need to worry.”
“Aye, sir.”
“But, Boss, what if—”
“Shut it, Durham.” Irons smirked at the Private and climbed inside the sedan with Mona, shutting the door behind him.
ROYAL LINE (War In The Void Book 3) Page 22