by Ryk Brown
“Yes, sir,” Ensign Yosef answered.
“Try to contact the shuttle once we’re clear,” Nathan told the acting comm-officer. “Let them know we’re coming to get them.”
“Crossing the exit threshold now,” Cameron announced. The rocky ceiling passed over them and was replaced by the black star field. The exit tunnel dumped directly into another long trench that eventually widened and became shallower until it was level with the primary surface and disappeared altogether.
“Where are they, Kaylah?”
“I’m not seeing them, sir,” she admitted, double-checking her display to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.
“They’ve gotta be out there somewhere.”
“The gas-giant might be between us and them,” Jessica suggested. “Based on their last course and rate of deceleration, it is possible.”
“They can’t be that dumb,” Nathan said. “Even I’m not that dumb.”
“I’ve got them,” Kaylah announced with relief. “They just came out from the far side of the seventh planet.”
“He’s definitely not stupid,” Jessica commented. “He had to have picked up speed to make it that far over in such a short time. He did not want to be anywhere near where we thought he would be.”
“Should I change course to bring the gas-giant between us?” Cameron asked.
“No, keep on a straight bearing to Corinair, best possible speed, no finesse.” Cameron looked at him quizzically. “During our conversation, I got the impression he was surprised by my age. He probably thinks I’m young and dumb.”
“Well, he’s half right,” Cameron said under her breath. Nathan didn’t take the bait, but he did like that his XO was starting to become more relaxed under pressure, as it helped keep him in the same mood.
“Let’s not give him any reasons to think otherwise,” Nathan added. And remember, no finesse,” he added as he turned to go to tactical.
“So, just fly like you then?” she said to herself.
“Comms, any luck with the shuttle?”
“Not yet, sir. But there’s a lot of traffic coming from Corinair.”
“He’s right, sir,” Kaylah agreed. “There are at least twenty large transports in orbit, and I’m seeing at least a hundred shuttles coming from the surface of Corinair. And that’s not counting the ones that are still in the lower atmosphere, which we can’t see from here without going active.”
“What, are they evacuating?” Nathan wondered aloud as he stepped up next to the tactical console.
“Could be,” Jessica said, “if they know about that warship. After what was showing on their news the other night, wouldn’t you?”
Marcus looked out over the top of his makeshift gun emplacement along its double barrels. He could feel the humming of the power cells as he watched and waited for the rear hatch to lower enough to give him a clear line of sight on his target. But as the door nearly reached its platform position, the small police interceptor was nowhere to be seen. Before Tug could react, the interceptor suddenly jumped back up into sight from below them, and Marcus let go a double-shot of bright red balls of destructive energy that leapt from the ends of his barrels out toward the interceptor. “Surprise!”
The interceptor dropped back down slightly, avoiding Marcus’s first shot. The interceptor changed its angle to return fire, but as he did so, the rear hatch dropped down into its boarding ramp position, putting its trailing edge into the shuttle’s airflow.
The sudden disruption of the airflow under the shuttle’s tail caused its back end jump sharply upward, causing the interceptor’s volley to pass just under their tail.
“What the hell!” Josh cried out as he fought to compensate for the sudden change in the shuttle’s flight characteristics.
Josh’s over compensation for the sudden upward movement of the shuttle’s tail caused it to dip back down sharply and below their flight path. Fortunately, the motion put the little police interceptor right in the middle of Marcus’s view. Marcus again squeezed the trigger, letting out another pair of red balls of energy.
The police interceptor snap-rolled to try and avoid the incoming fire, but one of the red balls of energy caught its wing, clipping off its outer half. The little interceptor immediately began to yaw to the right. A few seconds later, the canopy shot up off the interceptor and the pilot’s rocket-powered ejection seat fired, sending the pilot well above his now tumbling ship.
“Oh yeah!” Marcus screamed as he watched the pilot’s chute open. He reached over and started cycling the hatch closed again. “Get us the fuck outta here!”
“You got it, pops!” Josh declared as he started to climb again.
Marcus looked over at Tug and Jalea, both of whom were still in disbelief. “Not bad, huh?”
The bridge rumbled as the ship decelerated sharply on its approach to Corinair.
“Captain, I’m getting multiple hails from Corinair’s militia demanding identification and intent.”
“Ignore them,” Nathan ordered. “I doubt they can spare anyone to deal with us right now, considering the chaos on the world right now. Besides, once they see us change course and veer away, they’ll likely lose interest.”
“If not, then they surely will when that Ta’Akar warship unloads on them,” Jessica said under her breath.
“You don’t think he was bluffing?” Nathan asked.
“You saw the video,” Jessica reminded him.
“Yeah, but we still don’t know for sure who was responsible for that, the Ta’Akar or the Karuzari.”
Jessica looked up from her console to look Nathan in the eyes. “Nathan, at some point you’re gonna have to decide once and for all who you can trust.”
Her words hung in the air for what might have been an eternity, had his thoughts not been immediately interrupted a moment later.
“Captain, I have the shuttle,” the comm-officer reported.
“Loki!” Nathan called over his comm-set. “Did you pick them up? Are you on your way?”
“Yes, but we almost didn’t make it, Captain. It’s a mad house down there. The entire spaceport is locked down. We had to bust our way out!”
“Cam, can you send them an intercept heading and speed?”
“Heading, yes. Speed? Tell them to go as fast as possible.”
“Jessica, how are we looking?”
“It’s going to be close,” she admitted. “If I had a more exact idea of their weapons range-”
“Abby, adjust your plot to start from a few hundred thousand kilometers downrange of the intercept point that Cam is calculating.”
“Got it,” Cam announced. “Sending course data to Abby and the shuttle.”
“Loki. We’re sending you a course heading. Taking that heading at full speed.”
“Uh, okay.”
“You’re going to have to land at full speed. We’ll try to slow down to match you as best we can. But we’ve got bad guys on our tail.”
“Yeah. I’m starting to notice that you guys kind of attract them.”
“We’re three minutes from intercept,” Cameron announced.
“Jess?”
“Four, maybe five until they can get missiles on us.”
“Holy crap, I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Loki exclaimed as he stared out the forward view ports. They were approaching the Aurora at full speed, more than ten times their usual landing speed. Loki knew that it was all relative; all that was important was the difference in velocity between the two ships. But still, both ships were traveling incredibly fast. And the fact that they only had a minute or two to land before the warship that was chasing them both got close enough to fire didn’t help calm his nerves.
“Relax, Loki, I’ve got this,” Josh assured him.
“Incoming!” Jessica announced from the tactical station. “She’s launched four missiles. Impact in two minutes.”
“Prepare to fire all rail guns, point-defense mode, aft,” Nathan ordered.
“The shuttle is
still in the line of fire,” Jessica warned.
Nathan snapped his fingers at the comm-officer. “Get me the shuttle.” A moment later the comm-officer turned his head back toward the captain and nodded. “Josh, I need you on the deck now. We’ve got incoming and you guys are blocking my point-defense systems.”
“Working on it.”
“How long?”
“One minute, max.”
Nathan looked at Jessica.
“It takes at least thirty seconds to spin up a point-defense field.”
“Damn!”
The shuttle drifted over the Aurora’s main propulsion section as it continued on its way forward toward the flight deck.
“Can’t you move this thing any faster?” Loki begged.
“A minute ago you were complaining that we were going too fast. Now we’re too slow?”
“Just get us down.”
The shuttle finally cleared the propulsion section and began rapidly descending toward the flight deck.
“Our firing solution is clear,” Jessica announced.
“Fire all rail guns,” Nathan ordered.
Having already been deployed and aimed, the rail guns immediately began to open fire, just as the shuttle touched down gently on the flight deck.
“We’re down!” Loki announced.
“Abby,” Nathan asked. “How quickly can you plot a jump to just out of their weapons range?”
“How far?”
“I don’t care. Whatever is quickest. Just get us out of the range of those missiles!”
“Give me a minute. Cameron, send me your new course.”
Cameron stood slightly and stretched over to her left to reach the middle of the unmanned navigator’s station on the other side of the center pedestal that separated the helm and the navigation consoles in order to transfer the course data to Abby.
“Oh shit,” Jessica exclaimed suddenly. “One got through. Brace for impact!”
As the shuttle began to roll off the landing apron and into the hangar bay, a missile streaked overhead, no more than twenty meters above their heads just to the left of them.
Josh and Loki looked at each other. “Uh oh.”
The missile passed over most of the ship, skimming along until it struck the upper portion of the hull just forward of the primary bulkhead line. The force of the explosion was immense, sending pieces of the outer hull flying in all directions.
The bridge shook violently as the missile exploded. The entire room suddenly shifted to the right, taking the floor out from under anyone standing, as well as sliding the chairs right out from under anyone sitting. Everyone on the starboard side of the bridge immediately found themselves on the floor. Nathan and Jessica, who had been standing at the tactical station, found themselves in a pile just to the left of where they had been standing. Kaylah and the acting communications officer, both of whose consoles were on the port side of the bridge, found themselves slamming into their consoles face first. Cameron, who was partially standing and stretching to her left to try and reach the navigation console went toppling over the center console and into the navigator’s chair, ending up in a pile on the far side of the entire flight console.
The lights went dark, with only the illumination from the main view screen lighting the bridge. A few systems shorted and sparked, but the lights quickly came back on, and the crew picked themselves up. All but one.
“Abby!” Nathan called out. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she answered as she climbed back into her chair.
“Tell me you have a jump ready?”
“Yes, sir. I do.”
“Jump! Jump! Jump!”
As Abby initiated the jump, Jessica, who had just gotten back on her feet quickly killed the point-defense fire. The view screen darkened and a moment later the room was bathed by the blue-white flash of the jump.
“Cam, verify our position!” Nathan turned toward the helm, but Cameron wasn’t there.
“Sir!” Kaylah cried.
Nathan turned his gaze to the left and saw Kaylah dropping to her knees next to Cameron’s motionless body.
“Med-Team to the bridge!” Nathan ordered as he rushed over to Cameron’s side. “Is she?” He couldn’t bring himself to say the word.
Kaylah felt for a pulse at Cameron’s neck. “She’s alive, sir. But her breathing is very shallow, and I can barely feel her pulse.”
“Stay with her, Kaylah.” Nathan rose and immediately sat at the helm to assume the job of flying the ship. “Abby, start plotting me another jump out of here, just in case.”
Nathan scanned the helm displays as he took control of the ship. They were still on the same course and at the same speed. But they were five light minutes farther away from their last location than they should’ve been at their present speed. It wasn’t very far. In fact, Nathan hadn’t even realized that the jump drive could be used over such a short distance. It was, however, just enough to keep them comfortably out of reach of the Yamaro’s long-range missiles.
Doctor Chen and two crewmen entered the bridge and immediately went to Cameron’s side. Nathan kept looking out of the corner of his eye as the doctor struggled to keep his executive officer alive.
“Her right lung is collapsed, and her pressure is way down. She’s gotta be bleeding internally,” she stated as she finished her scan of Cameron’s body with her portable medical scanner. “Finish up that line and get her on oxygen. I’ve got to get her into surgery before she bleeds out.”
“Doctor,” Nathan said as he continued piloting the ship. “Is she gonna survive?”
“She’s in bad shape,” the young doctor admitted grimly. “I’ll do what I can.”
Nathan kept his eyes forward as they loaded her pale, motionless body onto the stretcher. She was a strong-willed, determined young woman, but now she was as limp as a rag doll. It crushed Nathan to see his friend in such a state.
Tug and Jalea entered the bridge in a hurry, obviously having rushed there directly from the hangar deck after they had landed. In their hurry, they nearly ran into the medical team carrying Cameron out on a stretcher. Tug’s expression immediately turned somber when he realized what was happening.
“Kaylah,” Nathan said calmly. “I need you back on your console.”
Kaylah looked at him. “Yes, sir,” she answered as she rose and climbed back into her chair.
“I need to know the position of that warship. I need to know if they’re still pursuing us.”
“Yes, sir. One moment.”
“Captain, I have an escape jump plotted to take us outside the system,” Abby reported.
“Engineering. Report,” Nathan called over his comms.
“No problems,” Vladimir reported over the comms. “All primary systems are functioning.”
“Abby?”
“We’re still good, Captain. Ninety-eight percent charged.”
“Jess?”
“Lost a couple rail guns along the port side, just forward of the primary bulkheads. But other than that, we’re good.”
“How about our point-defense rounds?”
“We can hold a field for maybe a minute before we run out. Still full up on kinetic rounds, and about ten percent of our explosive hull-penetrating rounds.” Jessica looked at Nathan. “Not much left to shoot with, I’m afraid.”
“Not that it matters much,” Nathan admitted. “With her missiles we’d never get close enough to be able to hit anything.”
“Captain,” Kaylah interrupted. “I’ve found the Ta’Akar warship, sir.”
“Is it still after us?”
“Negative sir, they’ve broken off pursuit. They’ve assumed a high orbit over Corinair.”
Oh God, Nathan thought.
“Captain,” Jalea began, “If they’re assuming a high orbit-”
“I know,” Nathan admitted.
“There are billions of innocent people on Corinair,” Jalea said.
“And there are millions of innocent people on my wo
rld as well!”
Josh and Loki peeked their heads in through the hatchway to the bridge, unsure if it was safe to enter due to all the shouting.
“Captain!” Kaylah announced. “The Yamaro is opening fire on Corinair, sir.”
“What?!” Josh cried. “Captain! We gotta do something!”
“Yeah, Captain,” Loki agreed. “They’ll be wiped out!”
“What can we do?” Nathan pleaded. “We’re just one ship. We’re not even heavily armed.”
Nathan looked in the eyes of his guests, and then in the eyes of his crew. Every one of them was scared: scared for the people of Corinair, scared for the people of Earth, and scared for themselves. All except for one. Tug’s eyes were sympathetic, as if he understood the pain than Nathan was going through. It was as if he had been through it himself.
Tug stepped forward, placing his hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “Nathan,” he said softly. “I know that you are young. I know that this responsibility was not yours by choice. And I know that this task seems an impossible one. And you are right; you are but one ship, one small ship. But your ship has a miraculous device, the likes of which has never been seen. I know that you do not know how to use it just yet. But neither do they know how to defend against it. And that is your biggest advantage. Trust in me. Trust in yourself, just as we all do. Together, we can do this. We can save them all-both your people and mine.”
Nathan was more conflicted than he had ever been in his entire life. No matter which way he decided, he had both tactical and ethical justification. But none of that mattered to him at this moment. He knew that no matter what, he could not bring himself to jump away and leave billions of innocent people to die needlessly, even if it meant risking his own world.
Nathan looked at Jessica. “It seems that fate once again has me in its clutches,” he said, a slight smirk forming on the corner of his mouth. He turned toward Josh and Loki. “You two think you’re ready to fly this thing?”
“Hell yes,” Josh exclaimed, nearly falling over himself to get to the helm, Loki stumbling right behind him.
Jessica stepped up next to Nathan. “Don’t get me wrong-I hope Cameron’s gonna be all right and all-but it’s a good thing she’s not here right now, because she’d probably relieve you of command.”