Fighting Chance

by Paulette Oakes

  “Affirmative. Download complete. Which battle sequence should be initiated?”

  A triumphant smile curled her lips as she ordered, “Jarvis, initiate protocol ‘Mahoney Kicks Ass’.”

  “Affirmative. Download complete,” he replied.

  As one unit, the white, latex-coated robots came to life and bowed to her with one fist clenched against the open palm of the other. “Jarvis, have the bots grab weapons from the wall. I want each bot to have at least one each, if not two.”

  “Affirmative,” the bots answered with his voice.

  Each of the ten bots selected the first weapon that they came to. Some of them carried T’Kalan swords, some of them clenched knives, and still others were armed with staves and replicated hook swords that had so fascinated Mikael when he had watched her favorite movie with her.

  When each of the bots were armed, she called out, “Jarvis, dispatch seven of the bots immediately to loading bay A-741 and engage enemy forces at will. The bots are to be given the directive to incapacitate the enemy by any means necessary. The other three will accompany me.”

  “Affirmative,” seven of the bots announced. “Affirmative,” the other three called out, flanking her on all sides.

  The seven took off like a shot. They were wickedly fast, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up with them at a full run, and Mikael needed reinforcements faster than she could get there. The other three kept pace with her as she jogged from the room and headed down the corridor toward the lift. She tapped her foot impatiently as the lift lowered to the bottom level where the loading bays were located, each of the three bots imitating her movements.

  When the lift opened, she ran again, following the numbered bays. As they rounded the corner, she could hear distant shouts and the clanging of steel on steel. She could see several bodies littering the floor, but none of them wore the T’Kalan colors. She got her first look at a Warfarer soldier as she raced by the downed men. They were humanoid in appearance, but there was where the similarities ended. Their skin was pebbled and rough, and varied in shades from sickly gray to khaki green and their hair was long, greasy, and twisted into knots where it was pulled back into high ponytails. Their blood pooled on the floor from wounds received in battle.

  She was getting closer to the battle, and her blood raced with adrenaline. Mikael was in there, and she needed to get to him fast. They skidded around a corner and came face to face with a snarling Warfarer. He was at least a foot taller than her and armed with a jagged sword dripping with blood.

  “Jarvis! Engage enemy!” she shouted, as she took up a fighting stance.

  One of the bots broke rank from her left and sprinted toward the enemy soldier. The Warfarer roared a challenge and raised his blade to meet that of the android. He swung, aiming for the bot’s neck, but it sidestepped, grabbed the enemy’s arm, and used his momentum to flip him over onto his back. Before he could recover, the bot slammed his sword down into his chest with a sickening thunk. The Warfarer screamed, viscous blood bubbling from his mouth, but it was cut short when the bot followed up with a killing blow to his head.

  The whole thing had only taken seconds, but it had seemed like an eternity to Mahoney. Even though she had fought her whole life, she had never actually seen or been part of life or death combat. Her stomach wanted to rebel, but she swallowed thickly and ordered the bots to continue forward. Now was not the time to be squeamish. Mikael could be hurt or worse. She had to keep moving forward.

  They encountered three more enemy soldiers before they reached the loading bay, and she left the three bots behind to dispatch them with orders to follow when they completed their mission. She finally reached dock A-741 and skidded to a stop at the sight before her. The bay was huge, roughly the size of a football field, and full of battling T’Kalans, Warfarers, and training bots. Two of the bots were down, hacked into pieces, but the remaining five were engaged in battle utilizing her Kung Fu animal forms, Wing Chun, and Krav Maga skills.

  She ran across the space, stopping only long enough to look for wounded T’Kalans, but she couldn’t see Mikael anywhere. Her progress was halted, though, when a familiar voice called out, “Mahoney! Over here!”

  She made her way around the downed bodies of enemy soldiers until she reached Lieutenant Andreus. He was propped against the wall holding his obviously broken right arm and blood was dripping from a deep gash on his head. His pale gray eyes were glassy with shock, but he still offered her a wobbly smile as her three accompanying bots raced past to join in the fray.

  “Lieutenant, are you okay? Where’s the commander?” she demanded, dropping her weapons and stepping closer to inspect his wounds.

  “The commander is battling by the doors, doing his best to keep more of their forces from boarding. When I saw the training bots come through the doors, I knew you would not be far behind. It is thanks to you and one of your bots that I am not a dead man right now,” he confessed, his body slipping down the wall.

  She forced him to sit and grabbed one of his knives from the bandolier-style belt that was slung over his shoulder and across his chest. She raced over to the closest dead Warfarer and used the knife to cut the thick cloth of his pant leg until she had a handful of the stuff. She folded the material into a thick pad and pressed it to the gash on his head.

  Picking his hand up to take the place of hers, she ordered, “Keep pressure on the wound. If you feel like you are about to pass out, press harder. Don’t move. We’ll send a medi-tech for you as soon as we have this under control.”

  When she was sure he would comply, she grabbed her weapons and raced away as he called out, “May the stars go with you, warrior!”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The sounds of combat were all around her as bodies and machines clashed and roared their battle cries. Several excited voices cheered “Mahoney!” as she ran past, but she didn’t stop long enough to return the greeting. The only thing that mattered was getting to Mikael.

  Her forward progress was halted when a Warfarer soldier barreled toward her with his sword raised. With practice born of instinct, she blocked his thrust with one sword while spinning into him with her elbow raised to smash into his flat nose. He bellowed in pain, but she did not hesitate before sweeping low to the ground and knocking his feet out from under him. She was already back up before he even hit the ground. With one foot, she kicked his sword out of his hand and brought her own two swords in a crisscross pattern across his neck to release a spray of his life’s blood.

  She didn’t stop to think about what she had just done. She had never taken a life before, but she had also never been in a situation like this, either. She continued to battle her way through the throng, stopping to help outnumbered T’Kalan warriors along the way when she could. Her swords flashed and sliced, her legs spun and kicked, and her three android companions flanked her on every side as they cut a swath through the enemy forces.

  It seemed to take hours for her to get close to the thickest part of the battle, but in reality, she knew it had only been minutes. She finally caught sight of Mikael close to the opened portal in the hull. He was like lethal poetry in motion. Combining T’Kalan sword fighting and Krav Maga evasion and force, he battled three snarling Warfarers as more of them trickled through the narrow opening to engage his warriors. He was covered in splattered blood, but whether it was his own or the enemies, she had no clue.

  “Jarvis!” she called out. “We need to plug that hole! Send all unengaged bots to take position blocking the portal!”

  “Affirmative,” she heard four bots reply as they raced past her to do her bidding.

  She ran for Mikael, stopping only when an enemy came into view. She briefly felt a searing pain on her upper left arm, but she ignored it as she thrust her sword through the chest of a soldier. She pulled her weapon free from the downed alien and finally made it to where Mikael was fending off the attack of the three Warfarer soldiers. With a cry of rage, she launched herself through the air, both sword
s pointed downward and gripped in her hands, and landed on the back of one of the aliens. Her swords sank deep into his back as she rode him down to the ground.

  Leaving her weapons behind, she rolled over top of his head and sprang to her feet in front of another of Mikael’s attackers. She bent backward to avoid the swing of his sword then twisted to the side to deliver a roundhouse kick to his weapon hand. The Warfarer’s sword sailed through the air to clatter to the floor. He roared a guttural curse and advanced with swipes of his meaty fists, but Mahoney was too fast for him as she bobbed and weaved. She ignored Mikael’s colorful cursing and shouted warnings while she focused her laser precision jabs and kicks everywhere she found an opening. She took one powerful blow to her ribs, but she refused to succumb to the blinding pain. She watched for her opening, waiting patiently for just the right time as she circled him. He snarled and lunged toward her with his arms open as if to grab her.

  Mahoney sprinted straight for him. At the last second, she dodged to the left, hooked her right arm into the crook of his left, and used his arm as a fulcrum to swing onto his back. He immediately tried to shake her off, but she wrapped her firm left arm around his neck and braced it against the upraised arm of her right and squeezed. Her ribs screamed in protest while the alien in her choke hold gagged and clawed at her shielded arms, but she refused to let go. With one last force of effort, she twisted his neck with a sharp jerk and it cracked like gunfire under her hands. She dropped her arms and braced her legs as the alien soldier collapsed to the ground dead at her feet.

  Mikael, having dispatched his own attacker, grabbed her and pulled her into his chest for a swift hug. “I told mina to keep you safe in the medical ward! What are you doing here, Katsuko?”

  She broke free from his embrace and flashed him a triumphant smile. “Saving your sexy ass, Commander. What does it look like?”

  Even with his jumpsuit in tatters and dripping with blood, he made her heart soar with happiness. "I cannot argue with that, little warrior,” he answered with his own devastating grin. “Your training bots turned the tides in our favor. It was an inspired idea.”

  She nodded her head in agreement and craned her neck around him to see that the portal was now being blocked by five androids that were fending off the Warfarer reinforcements with their weapons.

  “How do we close that doorway?” she shouted to be heard over the noise.

  He raised his own voice to reply, “Command will need a two minute window to repair the breach with our security shields, but their reinforcements are too many to allow us the time.”

  Mahoney’s mind raced for a solution and her eyes brightened when it came to her. Digging into her pocket, she pulled out three stun flares and held them out in her palm. “Will these work?”

  His nostrils flared and his teeth flashed as he threw his head back with a bark of laughter. He swooped down to press a searing kiss to her lips and swiped the flares from her hand. He ran toward the portal where only three bots were left holding the reinforcements. Holding the small devices in his hand, he pressed the three buttons and threw them through the portal and into the midst of the Warfarer soldiers in the tunnel that connected their ship to The Ax’Sandre. With a bright flash of light and the electrical buzz of current, the stun flares ignited. The tunnel filled with the noise of falling bodies as spots filled her vision from the flares.

  She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision, while Mikael yelled, “Command, initiate hull repair and disengage from enemy vessel.”

  “Affirmative. Hull repair initialized. Time remaining until complete: two minutes. Disengaging from enemy vessel will commence upon completion,” he replied.

  A cheer went up from the T’Kalan warriors across the bay and Mahoney added her own cheer to the chorus. Her vision was still full of flash burns, but she was too high on victory to care. She could barely make out Mikael’s broad outline as he turned away from the portal after ensuring the doorway was clear and she waved at him when he started to walk back toward her.

  Suddenly, he broke into a run heading straight for her. “Katsuko! Behind you!” he shouted, his voice full of desperate fear.

  She whirled to search behind her, but the blank spots in her vision revealed no clues about where the threat was coming from. She tried to focus her hearing to determine the approach, but the noise from the remaining few battles obscured everything else. She froze, dread and uncertainty keeping her from moving for fear it would be the wrong move.

  “Jarvis, engage!” she cried out desperately, her eyes blinking fruitlessly.

  Strong arms grabbed her from behind and spun her around. The sound of metal sinking into flesh assaulted her ears and a familiar grunt had her crying out, “Mikael!” She rubbed her eyes hard and peered behind her. Mikael was still standing, but was otherwise not moving. His hands were clutched over his abdomen while the sound of clanging steel rang out behind him. She stumbled forward, her hands reaching for him blindly, and managed to catch him as he started to fall. Buckling under the weight of her muscled lover, with her ribs and arms protesting, she eased him down to the ground.

  “Mikael!” she sobbed, running her hands over his face and down his chest until her hands covered his. “Talk to me, dammit! I can’t lose you now, you stubborn ass! Please, talk to me. I haven’t told you yet. I haven’t explained,” she cried, her hands pressing down where the hot, bubbling feel of his blood seeped through her fingers. “I haven’t had the chance to tell you that I love you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The pounding of footsteps had her back tensing up, but she refused to release the pressure on Mikael’s wound. Her shoulders sagged, though, when a familiar voice called, “Mahoney! What happened?”

  “Zandar, thank God you’re alright. The stun flares blinded me and I can’t see shit right now. Mikael saved me, but he took a blade through his belly. He’s non-responsive, but his chest is still moving. Where is Lieutenant Gregori?” she demanded.

  “He is dead, Warrior, and resting with the stars,” he replied, his voice full of sorrow and respect.

  Mahoney pressed harder on the bubbling wound in Mikael’s abdomen. “What is the status of active battles remaining?” she barked.

  “All Warfarer soldiers on board are either dead or incapacitated.”

  “Excellent. Inform the men to take any soldiers still alive to the brig. Your king will want to question them about their cloaking tech.” He replied in the affirmative and ran off to relay her orders. “Jarvis! Terminate protocol ‘Mahoney Kicks Ass’ and download all information you have on field emergency medical care to the remaining bots and direct them to wounded T’Kalan warriors,” she snapped, her eyes leaking tears.

  “Affirmative. Protocol ‘Mahoney Kicks Ass’ has been terminated. Download complete,” he replied.

  “Jarvis, patch me through to the chief medical officer immediately!” she shouted, her voice full of desperation.

  She waited a few tense seconds before Ax’Sandre’s voice came through the speakers. “Mahoney! What has happened? I cannot reach the commander!”

  She almost buckled under the relief of hearing her voice, but she firmed her spine and rattled off the details. “Command has sealed the breach and all invading forces have been neutralized. We’ve got wounded in loading dock A-741 and need emergency medical attention. Mikael has been gravely injured. We need all available hands on deck, and as many stretchers as you have, and quickly!”

  She could hear the pained gasp of his mother, but her voice was crisp with command. “Affirmative, Mahoney. We will be there in two minutes flat. Hang on!”

  She knew his injuries were serious and didn’t know how much longer he could hold on. Once again, she called out to the ship’s computer. “Jarvis, patch me through to Officer Felonia!”

  “Mahoney, this is Officer Felonia speaking. What do you need me to do?” came the feline woman’s purring voice.

  “Contact the T’Kalan home world and inform them that The Ax’Sandre has
suffered many casualties. They need to be ready to transport the wounded as soon as we dock. How long until we reach our destination?” she asked, praying for a miracle.

  She heard the sound of several people murmuring and conferring with each other before she replied, “The chief engineering officer is here with me. He says if we push the ship too hard, the repair on the breech in the hull will not hold. Estimated time for landing is at least 13 hours. The T’Kalan home world has been notified and will anticipate our arrival. They are sending several support ships to meet us and escort us back to the planet,” she reported.

  Mahoney blinked, her vision still fuzzy, but she could see a flurry of activity as the medical crew raced into the loading bay. “Officer Felonia, inform the chief engineer to push The Ax’Sandre as hard as she can go and do not let up until the breech begins to fail. Slow down only long enough to shore it up and make repairs, and then do it all over again. We have to get there quicker!”

  A deep male voice replied, “This is chief engineering officer Nicolo Sa’Pali. We will do our best to reach T’Kala with full speed. May the stars lead us home.”

  The sound of light, running footsteps reached her ears, followed by Jessica’s voice. “Mahoney! Thank God, you’re alright!” She gasped and dropped to her knees next to her friend. “Oh, no,” she moaned, softly, as her hands reached out to cover Mahoney’s.

  More footsteps pounded toward them, and Ax’Sandre’s voice rang out with authority. “Jessica, report to Fallon for instructions on field wound dressing. I will take over from here,” she barked.

  Jessica complied with a meek, “Yes, ma’am.” She swooped down to kiss her friend swiftly on the head and raced away.

  Mahoney couldn’t hold back the tears any longer as Mikael’s mother and another crew member worked over her lover feverishly. She couldn’t hold back the sobbing babble that fell from her lips. “He saved my life, Ax’Sandre. I was blinded by the stun flares and couldn’t see the enemy coming at me from behind. He pushed me out of the way and took the blade meant for me. You have to save him. Please!” she cried.