Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2

by Michael Kotcher

Corajen tore forward into the attackers, until her rifle clicked empty, one more of the mercs fell, bullets riddling his chest and she was already into the others, hands and claws moving faster than they could actually see. The one with the bag went down in a shower of blood as the lupusan’s claws tore into his throat, and she raked her other hand down the back of the closest of the ones in the phalanx. As he was screaming and her wicked claws sliced through his armor and the flesh beneath, Corajen was already hitting the next. And then the next.

  Glacis, who heard he noise and realized something was happening, dove forward an instant before the flash bang and the slimmer went off. Both devices exploded, one filling the confined space with light and sound, the other with expanding foam, which actually managed to dampen the fury of the flash grenade. Glacis somersaulted, then leapt forward, managing to get clear of the lupusan’s killing frenzy. And what few she missed, her deputies mopped up, but not before Glacis made it back to his feet and raced off toward his men further down the corridor.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “Missed one!” Corajen raged as her team came out and checked the soldiers on the deck. There was little to check, truth be told, the lupusan as a race were very efficient killing machines and with the addition of the flash bang, the immobilization of the slimmer grenades and plain old surprise they didn’t stand any chance. Of course, they did have their back to her, but she wasn’t going to quibble about an advantage.

  “Move up,” she ordered, her voice returning to a normal level. The hatch to operations was sealed behind them and they moved up. Corajen’s rifle was out of ammo, so she left it. Drawing her blade in her right hand, she led the way to the junction, a wicked look in her eye. Saiphirelle will be chewing the bulkhead on the Grania Estelle with jealousy for missing this!

  Tamara took a deep breath, running one hand through her hair. What in the hell is going on over there? She wondered silently. The Cavalier had been receiving a near-constant update from Operations Control on the station, but that wasn’t the same. She wanted to be over there, trying to help, trying to figure a way out of this mess. But over here, on the corvette, there was nothing she could do.

  Her eyes fell over the displays, scanning the status feeds, but not really seeing anything of interest. Nothing to do out here. All these weapons and there was nothing she could do with them. But then her eyes fell on the Kara, which was still listing, falling away from the station and her mind snapped to order.

  “XO,” she said, and the Romigani turned to face her, “We’re going to send a party over to the Kara. We’re going to secure her and take her a-prize.”

  The squid-like creature made a gurgling sound in his throat and clear membranes slid over his black eyes. “Pardon, ma’am, but we’re going to what?”

  “We’re going to take that ship as a prize, XO,” she repeated, earning stares from everyone on the bridge. She glanced up and everyone looked at her for another moment before hurriedly returning their gazes back to their own displays.

  But the XO didn’t back down. “The government wouldn’t appreciate that, Captain,” he warned.

  Tamara chuckled. “No, XO, I’m sure they wouldn’t. But then, they shouldn’t have sent soldiers to try and take my station. We’ll deal with the fallout later. In the meantime, Mister Ykzann, scan the Kara. Best guess, what is the crew complement?”

  The zheen consulted his sensors. “Eighteen, ma’am. Perhaps as high as twenty-five, spread out along the port and forward section of the ship. They’re giving the breached section a wide berth. Probably can’t do much more than seal off the damage.”

  Tamara nodded. “I suspect you’re probably right. Boarding party of twelve, XO,” she said, turning back to the Romigani. “Armed with hand weapons and also make sure they all have breathing hoods. We don’t know how much of the ship is depressurized.” She turned back to the bridge proper. “Comms, open a channel to the Kara. Find me someone to talk to. I’m going to accept their surrender.”

  As Leicasitaj hustled off the bridge, the comms specialist nodded to the captain. “I have the captain for you, ma’am.”

  “What do you want, you butcher?” Ferrod demanded. He looked harried and flustered, and sported a cut on his cheek and another above his eye. When the ship took fire he must have fallen and struck his head on something, a console, perhaps.

  “Butcher?” Tamara replied acidly. “I’m not the one who was releasing armed soldiers onto a peaceful station. Oh, don’t try to deny it. I have very clear sensor readings and security footage from the station showing exactly where those soldiers were coming from. Now,” she said, glancing over to Garidhak at Tactical and flicking two fingers at her, “I will give you thirty seconds to surrender your ship and your crew over to me. Failure to comply will result in another volley fired into your ship. And this time I won’t be aiming for your airlock.”

  “You bloody pirate,” Ferrod blustered. “You cannot attack a government chartered ship in that government’s star system! This is piracy! It’s illegal! You’ll hang when the government’s warship gets here- ulp!” he cut himself off, but it was too late.

  Tamara’s face went feral. “Ykzann!” she barked. “Long range sensors, go full active. Tell me what you find. Now.”

  He hissed. “Yess, Captain.” His sibilance slipped more as his nervousness reared up. But he was doing his job, just as ordered. This was a very green crew, Tamara knew, but they weren’t as wobbly as they once were. After a moment, he looked over to her. “Not seeing anything new on the ssenssorz, Captain,” he replied. “Not sure what they were talking about.”

  Tamara pursed her lips, looking to her own display. He was right, aside from the Kara, all ships in the immediate area were all company assets. But Ferrod wouldn’t have said what he had if something else weren’t coming. Something big and impressive, perhaps? She looked up at his image on the screen. “Your time is up, Captain,” she said, managing to keep her voice calm. “What is your answer?” She held out one arm toward Garidhak at Tactical, who tensed her own hand over the button.

  The man gritted his teeth, his face completely white. “Very well. Send your boarding party.” He cut the connection.

  Tamara sighed. “Helm, move us into position for hard dock.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Wymea replied, working his helm controls. The ship smoothly sailed over to the freighter, readying for the docking maneuver.

  “Mister Ykzann, keep one of those eyes of yours fixed on the long range sensors. I want to know the instant you find anything coming this way from the planet.”

  The zheen’s antennae perked up. “You expecting company, Captain? I mean the freighter captain could have been lying. Or referring to the backlash by the government.”

  Tamara shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But we were surprised once and that bastard snuck troops onto the station. I don’t want to be surprised again.” Her voice was very firm.

  The zheen nodded. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, looking back to his displays, sounding chastened.

  Tamara sat back, watching the pilot maneuver the ship into position, acknowledging Leicasitaj’s call saying that he had a boarding party of fifteen, some from gunnery, engineering and even two from environmental. They were all outfitted with hand weapons and breathers and were ready to go. A moment later, the ship eased over and matched speed and rotation with the freighter. She tapped her lips with her forefinger, trying to pin down where this bad feeling was coming from. Was it the boarding action? Her people were green, yes, but they were all armed and would be watching for any tricks from the freighter crew. They might have one or two soldiers left aboard the ship, but even still, her people should be able to handle it.

  She took a deep breath to steady herself. She had to trust her XO to be able to handle the freighter crew and secure that ship.

  Once the ship hard docked with the freighter, Leicasitaj secured his breather, thanking the stars for the evolutionary gift his race had been given: his skin was toughened to
the point where he could stand short periods in hard vacuum, a few minutes at least. It meant that for the boarding, he didn’t have to worry about wearing a skinsuit and if there was a decompression aboard the freighter, he could survive long enough to make it into a pressurized area, so long as his breather was still secured.

  One of the engineering crew, a young woman named Nona, attached a datapad to the controls on the freighter’s airlock and within seconds, she’d cracked it open. The airlock slid to the side, and the boarding party hustled aboard, weapons ready.

  Jarron Ford considered himself very lucky. He’d managed to get himself hired into Ghovorak’s mercenary company after a tour in the army, something that he’d been particularly proud of. Ghovorak and his troops were considered the best, and were sent in to areas that no one else would go and the pay reflected that. He’d managed to make a name for himself among the mercs during his first op, holding off opposition forces with his rifle and a box of plasma grenades. He was also the only survivor from the mercenary group that hadn’t made it into the station. His squad was to be the last off the ship and when the small warship fired on the airlock and sent the freighter reeling, spewing atmo and the others of the outside company of soldiers out into the black. He’d managed to grab hold of a stanchion and pull himself out of the danger area before the emergency bulkhead slammed down, sealing off the breach.

  And now he was here, waiting on the other side of the airlock as the bitch on the warship sent a boarding party over to the freighter. She had the biggest pair of brass ones that Ford had ever seen, and he admired her gumption, but the idea that Ghovorak’s soldiers would bow to a jumped-up businesswoman in a gunship. No, he was going to show them exactly the kind of man he was.

  Leicasitaj was second through the airlock into the freighter. One of the engineering ratings was first, aiming his pistol with a two-handed grip, moving forward cautiously. The Romigani was right behind, his own stunner pistol held at the ready. He could feel and hear the others moving at his back, as they advanced into the ship. He was nervous, they all were, he knew that, but if the sensors were right, then there was nothing to worry about. There was only the freighter crew left aboard and they should be easy enough to deal with.

  He saw the man dressed in body armor and pointing an assault rifle in their direction, crouching just beyond the next bulkhead at a corner, an instant before bullets came their way. He only had the chance to shove the rating forward hard and then dive that way himself before bullets ripped through the air. There were screams from behind him but Leicasitaj couldn’t look back from his prone position on the deck. He raised his stunner and fired, and kept firing. The man with the rifle took a hit in the face, the neck, the chest and he twitched uncontrollably before collapsing to the deck unconscious.

  Picking himself and the rating up off the deck, Leicasitaj turned and saw the others in his boarding party. Three of them were down, unable to rise. One was dead outright, the woman had a bullet hole right between her eyes. The other two were moaning in agony, as blood poured from their wounds.

  He got on the comms. “Captain, it’s Leicasitaj. We encountered heavy resistance. We have three people down from the boarding party. We need medical assistance in the airlock, now.”

  “Understood,” Tamara’s voice came over the channel. “As soon as they get there, continue with the operation.”

  In less than a minute, two of the sick berth attendants arrived to take charge of the two wounded crewmen, and the boarding party, slightly smaller now, rushed into the ship. Two more crewmen hustled in and tied up the unconscious mercenary with plasticord ties and took all of his weapons. It took less than a half hour to go through the rest of the ship. Leicasitaj split his force, sending six to main engineering and lead the other six to the bridge. Once they reached the bridge, the Romigani stuck his pistol in the Captain’s face and the man sagged in his command chair. The other bridge personnel raised their hands in surrender.

  “Captain, we’ve secured the ship,” her XO reported a short while later. “I’ve got all nineteen crewmen, including one of the mercenary soldiers secured. Slight problem, though, we don’t have enough people to actually run the ship and I don’t dare trust any of Ferrod’s people.”

  “Have you swept the whole ship?” she asked, trying hard to keep herself calm.

  “Yes, Captain. We went compartment by compartment and went through everything. We have everyone. Captain Ferrod is screaming bloody murder about the whole affair, and only quieted down when I threatened to stun him and lock him in a closet.”

  Tamara suppressed a grin. She’d wanted to do that after he’d gotten all pompous at him about how she wouldn’t dare do anything to him and his government chartered ship. “Very well done, XO. I don’t have any more people to send you, unfortunately. I’ll try and get in touch with the station and the Samarkand. It’ll be a while before Galina can get back here to help, though, she’s a few light minutes away.”

  “I understand, ma’am. We’ll hold things together as best we can until then.” There was a pause. “How are Ramza and Be’jilla?”

  Tamara sighed. “They’re in medical right now. They’re in critical condition. The medics are doing what they can, but we’d need to get them to the Tyannikov on the Samarkand or to the medical facilities on the station. Even then, I don’t know if they are going to pull through. The medics aren’t optimistic.”

  Leicasitaj grunted. “It was my fault, ma’am,” he said. “I should have tossed in a flash grenade before we went in.”

  But Tamara shook her head. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, XO. I’m the one who ordered the boarding action, knowing we don’t have trained security or troops aboard. Besides they’d surrendered to us.” She waited for a moment, trying to figure out what else she could possibly say to him. “It will haunt us both, XO.”

  Leicasitaj didn’t answer for a long moment. “Understood, Ma’am,” he said. “I’ll hold the fort here. You might want to detach in case anything else comes our way.”

  Corajen sliced forward with her blade, easily slicing through flesh and parting this careless mercenary from his head. She reveled in this, but was slightly worried at the amount of time it was taking. Also, the number of deputies still remaining with her had dwindled from a full squad to only two: the zheen Garank and a young human male named York, both of whom were doing pretty well for themselves, considering this was their first real taste of combat.

  “Where to now, Chief?” Garank asked, a slight hum emanating from his thorax. He was nervous, clearly, but he was holding it together. Corajen, with her very sensitive ears, did her best to ignore the noise and focus.

  She bent down and picked up the dead man’s rifle. A quick check showed it to still be in working condition with half a magazine still full. She grabbed the last remaining clip of ammo out of the pocket of the man’s vest and stuffed it into her own pocket. “We keep on. We’ve taken out eleven from this group, there can’t be that many left.”

  York shrugged as he scanned the corridor, making sure his rifle was pointed in that direction. “I suppose, Chief, but we don’t really know how many there are. What I do know is that there aren’t that many of us left. Do you really think we can win this?”

  The security chief scowled at him. “Are you giving up on me?”

  His antennae drooped. “No, Chief,” he replied. “Sorry.”

  She got right in his face. “We do not stop, ever, until every last one of these invaders is dead or captured.” She stared at him for a long moment more. Then she flicked her muzzle in the direction of the corridor they’d been moving down. “Now let’s move. I want to get up to section eleven and ambush them there.”

  Chapter 29

  That great furry bitch, Glacis Ghovorak thought, grinding his teeth. That last ambush had been bad. The lupusan and her two deputies had blown through the bulkhead right in the middle of his force. Superheated metal blasted out, crushing two of his men against the opposite bulkhead. Gunfire savag
ed his people while they were all disoriented. The return fire was sloppy and uncoordinated and as it turned out, ineffectual. That security chief and the few deputies that were with her managed to take down three times as many of his men. Glacis himself hadn’t particularly showered himself in glory then, though he was sure that he had winged the zheen with one of his shots before the bug had ducked back into the hole and out of his line of sight.

  “This way,” he ordered, leading the remainder of his soldiers in this group back down another corridor. So far, the bitch and her small force hadn’t gone this way, and perhaps Glacis and his men could rush down this corridor and loop back around and take Operations. And they had to get into Operations. Right now they were just running in circles, burning through his soldiers and truly accomplishing nothing.

  “They’re headed for Ops,” Garank said, wincing in pain as York sprayed a coagulant and painkiller on his shoulder wound. The deep hum coming from his chest was low in volume, but it was constant now. Corajen couldn’t help twitching her head every few seconds, trying to get the sound out of her ears, but it didn’t work, of course.

  “I know,” Corajen replied, her ears flattened against her head. “But that’s a straight shot, down that corridor. They’ll make it back to Ops through the same door that we came out of before we can cut them off. We’ll be fighting them just as they reach the hatchway.”

  “There are only ten or so of them left, Chief,” York replied. “But can we really take them on with just the three of us? And with them knowing we’re coming?”

  Corajen shrugged. “It’s either that or we let them into Ops and end the game.”

  “But they know we’re coming!” York exclaimed. “There’s no cover in that corridor and they’d just mow us down.”

  “Anyone got any grenades left?” Corajen asked, patting her own armored vest. “I have one slimer left.”