Aegis Nakamura spoke up. “I saw a Tal’ri cruiser once. Most impressive. But nothing like that.” He gestured to the screen.
Captain Desmond ran a hand through her matted hair. “Keep trying, Gargan. Priority is getting Admiral Thatcher on the line. Could be there was something he forgot to tell us.”
“Yes, sir.”
Captain Desmond swung her seat around to address the Aegi. “None of you know what this is?”
“Afraid not, Captain.” Aegis Nakamura sounded more intrigued than alarmed. He examined the readings on his console. “If I had to guess, I’d say we’ve just made contact with a new race. What we really need to know is whether they are friend or foe.”
“Friends normally say hello.” Aegis Inx’s sharp words didn’t instill confidence.
It looked like the Goliath and Bakura could be in trouble, and Grimshaw wondered if he would end up having to appropriate command. Voicing as much would have destroyed what little was left of crew morale. A blind man could have sensed it: the doubtful side-glances, the nervous tapping, the hushed chatter. An experienced crew would have maintained complete control and silence until things got hot. Even then, they would have kept their heads about them.
Gargan cut in on his thoughts. “Getting a signal from the Goliath, sir.”
“Finally,” the Captain said, relieved. “Patch it through.”
A fuzzy image of Admiral Thatcher appeared on the display and looked down on the crew like a god would its subjects. “Captain Desmond, we’ve been trying to get a hold of you. It appears the enemy is jamming our comms.”
“Enemy?” Captain Desmond said, forlorn.
“They’re holding the Goliath in some kind of artificial gravity well. It’s draining our power and disrupting our systems. They’re refusing to answer our hails.”
“I’m not sure what support we can offer, sir.”
“You may offer no support!” The Admiral threw a hand up in objection. “You’ve got three of the galaxy’s most valuable assets on board. Stick to the mission. Get them to 115 at any cost. We’ll distract the enemy as long as we can.”
“But Admiral—”
“That’s a direct order, Captain!” His nostrils flared. “If they’ve come for what’s stored at Xerocorp Labs, you need to secure it before they can get their hands on it. I don’t know how much time we can buy you. Now go!”
Static flickered, and the display switched back to the Goliath and the alien monstrosity. Silence passed while the crew awaited instructions and Grimshaw wondered if he wouldn’t have to speak up on the Captain’s behalf after all. The admiral had issued a direct order.
“Sir, the crew are waiting,” Grimshaw urged the Captain.
She stared at the bridge’s VD, slack-jawed.
“You heard the admiral,” Grimshaw shouted. “Critical alert. All hands to battle stations.”
Lieutenant Commander Gargan shot him a disapproving look, but the Captain remained motionless in her chair, as if in a daze.
The lights dimmed to red, and an alarm whined over the intercom.
“Sir,” Grimshaw tried one last time.
Captain Desmond still didn’t respond.
Grimshaw raised his SIG and addressed the ship. “This is not a drill. Cadets and assigned officers, enact protocol Red Drop. All other personnel to battle positions.” He repeated the announcement, veins throbbing in his temple.
“Parker,” he said addressing the pilot. “Maintain our course to Colony 115. Full speed.”
“Yes, sir.” Stars shifted on the primary VD as Parker realigned the Bakura.
Colony 115 grew slowly as the Bakura passed the two immense ships.
“I want scanners on the Goliath and whatever that thing is. Ready weapons and shields.”
A smaller screen featuring the behemoths appeared in the upper right corner of the primary VD. They shrank to points as the Bakura sped away.
Lights detonated around the two large vessels like expanding stars.
“Bastards opened fire,” Gargan choked.
Cries erupted among the crew, and Captain Desmond continued to stare on in shock.
Grimshaw gave his full focus to the situation. “There’s nothing we can do for them.” His voice held surprisingly firm. “The Admiral ordered us to get the Aegi to 115 and I’ll be the devil’s bitch if we don’t follow through. Gargan, what are the long-range scanners reading on the colony?”
“Nothing yet, sir. Interference on the surface is jamming our signals, only it’s much worse down there.”
“Shit. They must already be on the planet. Parker, how long until 115?”
“We’ll hit atmosphere in thirty minutes, sir.”
“Make it twenty.”
“But the dampeners—”
“I don’t give a shit! Get engineering on the line. Divert power. Eject cargo. Do whatever it takes to make it happen.
A burst of blue lightning forked across the secondary VD.
“What’s going on back there, Gargan?”
“It’s hard to tell without full scanners, sir.” He worked furiously at his controls. “It looks like that lightning took out the Goliath’s shields. They’re sitting ducks.”
“Sumbitches are putting up a hard fight,” someone piped up.
Grimshaw considered asking a medic to take the Captain to sickbay but thought better of it.
Explosions turned to twinkling stars as the battle was swallowed by distance. Eventually, the secondary VD started to break up.
Grimshaw was about to ask for an update when a flash of light, so bright he had to mask his eyes, cut across the crackling screen. “Someone, turn those damn filters up!”
“They’re already at maximum, sir.”
The light faded, leaving a yellow smear on Grimshaw’s vision. “Gargan?”
The Lieutenant Commander looked at him, speechless. Grimshaw had seen that look in people’s eyes countless times during the Kragak War. “Get a hold of yourself, Gargan!”
The primary Comms Officer shook his head. “The Goliath’s gone, sir.”
“Gone,” Desmond whispered, still in a dream.
Grimshaw regretted not having her removed. “What do you mean gone, Gargan?”
“From what I’m reading, sir, Admiral Thatcher initiated self-destruct.” He wiped sweat from his hands.
“The bastard.” Grimshaw swallowed hard. “He wasn’t kidding about buying us time. What about the enemy vessel?”
“I’m reading some damage, but it looks like the data being returned is corrupted. Wait…” He fought with his controls. “They’ve deployed another ship. It’s moving fast.”
“Keep them behind us, Parker.” Grimshaw raised his voice for all to hear. “Mourning will have to wait. Right now, I need every last one of you to stay sharp. Whatever that thing is, it means to stop us, and I won’t have any of it. Do not let the Goliath’s sacrifice have been for nothing.” His tone made it clear that there was no choice in the matter, and he was relieved when the crew answered in the affirmative.
Captain Desmond whispered something, and he turned to her.
“What was that, sir?”
“They’re going to kill us all,” she whispered.
Grimshaw called for a medic and Officer Jameson appeared. “The Captain’s in shock. See to it that she gets to sickbay safely.”
Jameson nodded and checked on the Captain.
“We’re going to die,” she whispered, louder.
“Everything’s going to be fine, sir,” Jameson assured her, readying a tranquilizer.
Desmond’s hand snapped out, snatching the medinjector from the medic. Before Grimshaw could call out, she jabbed it into the medic’s face and he threw himself to the ground, clawing at his eye.
“See to Jameson!” Grimshaw ordered, releasing his straps and jumping to his feet.
The bridge rocked, flinging him into the Captain’s station. As he recovered, Captain Desmond released her restraints and lashed out with a fist, catching him on t
he side of the head.
Grimshaw fell back but grabbed her cuff in time to steady himself.
Desmond flung herself from the Captain’s chair and they toppled onto the deck in a tangle.
“Sir, what the hell are you doing?” Grimshaw hissed.
“They’ll suck the marrow from our bones!” she screamed hysterically, her sour breath on his face.
Enough. Grimshaw got to his feet, dragging Desmond up by the collar. He twisted her arm and forced her to the bridge doors.
She twisted out of the grapple, kicking and screaming.
He got her in a chokehold and dragged her into the primary atrium.
“Can’t let them get us!” She slipped from his grasp again and landed a punch in the jaw.
Grimshaw made to jump at the Captain again but found her aiming a blaster at him.
“Captain, what’s gotten into you?”
“We need to kill everyone on board, before they can feed!”
A shadow moved in the doorway behind Desmond, and the Captain crumpled to the metal walkway. Aegis Eline appeared behind her, holding a heavy blaster by its barrel.
“Thank you. I don’t know what’s going on with the Captain, but she’s gone nuts.”
“I thought it was a Terran thing,” Eline quipped.
Grimshaw called sickbay on his SIG. “Officer Jameson’s been injured, and the Captain requires immediate medical attention. Send someone to the bridge right away.”
“Yes, sir,” the operator’s voice crackled across the line.
Grimshaw turned to Eline who was kneeling by Desmond. “Can you keep an eye on her? I need to get back to the bridge.”
“Sure.” Eline nodded as she retrieved the Captain’s blaster.
As Grimshaw reached for the bridge doors, they snapped shut, and the walkway fell away from under his boots. He stumbled back and tripped over the Captain.
A siren rang through the Bakura and the corridor heaved again just as Grimshaw tried to stand.
Eline grabbed his forearm and pulled him upright. “Looks like they’re already in firing range.”
Grimshaw looked at the locked bridge doors as the implication of Eline’s words dawned on him.
“There’ll be no getting back on the bridge.” He made his way to the door control panel, holding a rail for support. The door refused his commands. “The ship has gone into critical alert.”
6
Stork-V3
Grimshaw tried to contact the bridge again but his SIG refused to connect. He reached out to the hangar instead.
“Grimshaw to hangar, report.”
“Well, if the good Lord hasn’t shown us mercy! All four Storks are almost ready to drop.” Lieutenant Dann’s gruff voice crackled across the vox channel. “Good to hear from you, Commander Grimshaw. Thought we’d lost contact with you folks on the bridge.”
“Afraid we aren’t on the bridge, Lieutenant. We got locked out.”
“Damn Satan’s spawn. We’ll keep trying to reconnect comms, sir.”
“Keep two spots free on one of those birds. I’m on my way with one of the Aegi.”
“Sure thing, Commander. Let me check.” The channel went quiet for a minute. “I’ll clear the two command stations in Stork Charlie.”
“Good work Lieutenant. Grimshaw out.”
“God speed, sir.”
Grimshaw’s SIG bleeped as the channel cut.
“Those blasts must have taken out the bridge’s comms,” Grimshaw said to Aegis Eline as they hastened along the Bakura’s empty walkways. Two medics had taken Captain Desmond away on a stretcher, and Grimshaw tried regaining access to the bridge several times, but no amount of overriding system protocols budged the bridge doors. Heading for the drop-ship hangar was their only other option.
“The enemy must be quite powerful to have come within firing range so quickly,” Eline mused.
“The Goliath is…was one of the armada’s most impressive ships, but she didn’t last long against the enemy.” Despite his experience in the field, Grimshaw still felt surreal.
“How will these cadets perform in a fight?” Eline pried.
Grimshaw pondered on it. Even before the ashes of the Kragak War had settled, the Confederation Repopulation Program sent millions of humans out among the stars. The CPP was the reason orbital drop exercises had become mandatory for first year Fleet cadets. “The cadets have been trained by some of our best, but it’s been decades since humans have needed to fight.”
“Pah,” she spat. “Shanti fight in their litters the moment they’re born. No wonder you Terrans are so weak.”
“We held off the Shanti invasion of our colonies over two hundred years ago,” Grimshaw countered.
“Only because the Galactic Council made us go easy on you. If that war had been allowed to continue, we would have taken your planets. You Terrans were so primitive back then, and you haven’t come that far since.” She dismissed him with a wave.
“It’s a good thing we’re allies, then,” he added sarcastically.
Eline snorted. “You better hope this so-called training is enough to see your cadets through whatever comes next.”
“Sometimes, hope is all we’ve got.” Grimshaw had to concede on the lack of experienced fighters. Humans simply hadn’t seen much in the way of serious conflict during the last thirty years. Back then, the Biological Augmentation Order was still in its infancy. Many Kragak War veterans hadn’t been augmented and were now unfit for the battlefield. Grimshaw considered himself fortunate to have been involved with the early BAO programs, but a handful of early test subjects was hardly enough to fight a war. First Fleet, Special Forces, and the Marine Corp were well oiled machines with elites still among their ranks, but even combined they made up a small minority of the Confederation’s resources.
“And what about this ship?” Eline waved her arms, pulling Grimshaw from his pondering. “It’s nothing more than a glorified transport frigate.”
“The Bakura’s a fine ship. She’ll see us through.” Grimshaw caught a rail as the walkway shifted underfoot again, and he second guessed that claim.
“The Bakura only has half a crew. Inx still thinks Terrans can’t be trusted. She believes that coming here was a mistake. I’m starting to wonder whether she wasn’t right.”
“As I’ve said, the Bakura’s a training rig, not a fully fitted military vessel. We have to work with what the Confederation Fleet gives the Academy.” Eline wasn’t helping matters, but she made another logical point. The Bakura had served as an interstellar colony taxi before the Confederation retrofitted her for orbital maneuvers. She needed a crew of eighty to run at full capacity, and she had space for four times as many passengers. With a dozen officers and twenty-seven juniors, she was more than understaffed. “The cadets should already be boarding the drop-ships.” Grimshaw said, eager to change the subject. “Red Drop is standard protocol during critical alert.”
“I’m familiar with the Terran Star Confederation’s rules of engagement, Commander.”
He thought she sneered at him but wasn’t sure. It was difficult not to take her tone personally and easy to see why the Shanti were the least favorite species in the Galactic Alliance. Their arrogance and obstinance detracted from their accomplishments. Despite their industrial prowess, they were barely a rung higher than humans on the galactic ladder. Grimshaw wondered if everything he said would be treated as an insult and decided to stick to neutral subjects. “You really haven’t seen anything like that black ship before?”
“If I had, I would have said so on the bridge.”
“Captain Desmond said something about Xerocorp Labs. Whatever’s there must be very important if these aliens are willing to start a war over it.”
Eline raised a long, fluffy eyebrow and glanced around as if to make sure they were alone. She drew a deep breath and her demeanor relaxed somewhat. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, Commander, but the scientists there have been working on a prototype,” she said, barely loud enough fo
r him to hear.
Finally. Some answers.
The Bakura rocked, and a cadet emerged from a doorway, bumping into Grimshaw. “Sorry, Commander.”
The kid fled through another doorway before Grimshaw could get a good look at him.
Grimshaw regained his footing and caught up with Aegis Eline. He looked sideways as they hurried. “What’s so important about this prototype?”
“It was created as part of a cross-racial project between our people. That in itself is a miracle, given our history.”
“I have to admit, I was surprised the Confederation allowed Shanti on board a Fleet vessel. We may be allies now, and that poor excuse for a war you declared when we first discovered G-Gate Alpha may have happened two-hundred years ago, but humans find bloodshed hard to forget.”
“One of the few things our species shares in common. As you noted, Aegi are not bound by blood, but Minister Straiya and Minister Jackson believed it fitting that both sides be represented on this mission.”
“I take it they’re the only ministers on the Galactic Council who know anything about all this?”
Eline nodded. “And that’s how they’d like to keep it.”
They raced through a series of winding corridors in the Bakura’s mid-section. Grimshaw was relieved to find the area empty of personnel. They had almost converged on the hangar. “We’re almost there.” He led Eline through a sliding door and into the ship’s rear corridor. “I appreciate you sharing this information with me, but nothing you’ve said has explained the covert aspect of the operation.”
“Over seven Earth-years ago, a commercial transport found a Terran SIA archagent afloat in an escape pod near a Shanti shipping lane. Even we Aegi don’t have access to the details, but as far as we know, the escape pod was of unknown origin. Its databanks contained schematics for a ship more technologically advanced than anything in the Galactic Alliance. The archagent transmitted the data to Earth Central Command. Then he destroyed the originals.”
“He didn’t send the data to the Sentinel Intelligence Agency?”
Eline looked at him with something approaching incredulity. “The SIA never found out about it. We don’t know why, but it seems the archagent went to a great deal of trouble to hide the pod and the data from the Galactic Council. The pod was transported to a secure Confederation facility for safe keeping. By the time Confederation Intelligence Command had deciphered enough to understand the nature of the data, the archagent had died.”
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