by G J Ogden
“Lieutenant, what’s your status?” said Sterling, feeling the connection take hold. He opened the link so that Banks could monitor. As with Admiral Griffin, the distance between him and the Invictus meant that the connection was weak.
“Mag locks are still holding, sir, but I’ll have them down in twenty,” replied Razor through the neural link. She sounded vexed, as if Sterling had interrupted her in the middle of something important. “But the Sa’Nerra are running rampant throughout the station, turning more crew than they’re killing.”
“Is the ship secure?” asked Sterling. In all the excitement of their own endeavors, the fate of his own ship and crew had fallen to the back of his mind.
“The aliens have breached the dock, but Shade and the commandoes are holding them back,” Razor replied. “Honestly, Captain, she’s kicking their asses so hard I think they’re having second thoughts.” Sterling smiled and glanced up at Banks, who also appeared to have appreciated the comment.
“Keep working, Lieutenant,” replied Sterling, feeling confident that the Invictus was still in good hands. “Is Ensign Keller with you?”
“Aye sir,” replied Razor. Sterling felt the link widen and another voice appeared in his mind.
“Keller here, Captain,” replied the voice of his gifted young helmsman.
“Ensign, I need you to take the combat shuttle and hard dock to the glass wall outside the west viewing gallery on level two,” Sterling said. He realized there was no point in mincing his words. There was a pause, which Sterling allowed, accepting that Keller might need a moment to process the magnitude of the instruction.
“Aye, sir, understood,” Keller eventually replied. The helmsman’s confusion was evident in the tone of his voice, but Sterling appreciated that Keller had not asked him to repeat the order, or explain it.
“Make it quick, Ensign,” Sterling added. “We’re running out of time.”
Sterling felt the ensign leave his mind and he focused back in on Lieutenant Razor.
“What’s the condition of the Fleet?” Sterling asked, removing the ID chip from the terminal and hanging the chain over his neck again. He and Banks then exited the office and began moving toward the west viewing gallery.
“The Praetor is crippled and we’ve lost six Fleet ships already,” Razor replied. “The enemy have lost seven, including two battlecruisers. More Fleet ships are arriving every minute, but the Sa’Nerra continue to surge into the system too.”
“Any sign of the Hammer?” Sterling asked, sweeping the barrel of the alien plasma rifle along corridors as he moved toward the west side of the station.
“Negative, Captain, though it’s en route,” replied Razor. “And there’s something else, sir,” Razor then added, suddenly sounding tense. “One of the alien ships that just surged through the portal is Heavy Destroyer M4-U1.”
Sterling sighed. “MAUL…” he replied through the link.
“Aye, sir,” replied Razor. The mere mention of the ship’s name was enough to inspire dread, even into the hearts of the toughest officers. And while Sterling was used to his engineer’s unflappable nature, everyone had their limits.
“It’s just another ship, Lieutenant,” replied Sterling, as the west viewing gallery came into view ahead of him. “Work on freeing those mag locks. Then once we take care of Crow and get back on-board, we’ll put MAUL to the test.”
“Understood, sir,” replied Razor. There was then a brief pause before the Lieutenant spoke again. “Keller is in the launch bay,” the engineer added. “G-COP still has all ships on remote security lockdown, so I’ll need to blow the doors to let him out.”
“Do what you have to do, Lieutenant,” said Sterling, stepping through the door of the west viewing gallery. “And keep the Sa’Nerra off my ship.”
“Aye, Captain,” replied Razor.
“And Lieutenant, remember that the Omega Directive is in effect,” Sterling then added, with a more sober tone. “Anyone who is turned is the enemy. Anyone, you understand?”
There was another momentary pause. “I understand, sir,” his engineer replied. Despite the weak neural link, Sterling could feel that has engineer genuinely comprehended the gravity of his order.
“Break those mag locks, Lieutenant,” Sterling continued. “Sterling out.”
Sterling tapped his neural interface then moved over to the floor-to-ceiling glass window that looked down onto the west docking ring. A dozen Fleet ships were still magnetically tethered to the station, but Sterling could also now see Sa’Nerran Wasps buzzing around outside. The trapped vessels were doing their best to shoot the agile, one-man fighters, but the wasps were succeeding in scoring hits onto the engines of the docked vessels. True to their names, the Sa’Nerran fighter craft were like flying insects paralyzing their prey with their painful stings.
“There!” Banks cried suddenly, pointing to the lower sections of the station.
Sterling adjusted his gaze and saw the familiar shape of the Invictus’ combat shuttle. It was weaving through the station and between the docking rings like a stunt plane. Several of the wasps had broken off their attacks to pursue it, but it was clear to Sterling that none of the alien pilots possessed Keller’s skill.
Plasma blasts continued to flash out from the docked ships and several of the pursuing wasps were destroyed. Keller than suddenly disappeared from view. Sterling pressed his nose to the glass, trying to get a better angle, but the combat shuttle was nowhere to be seen.
“Where the hell did he go?” wondered Sterling, his breath misting the armored glass of the viewing gallery.
Suddenly the deck rumbled and the shuttle surged up from below level two, mere inches from the glass. Sterling darted back into the room, heart pounding in his chest. It was like someone had just sprang out at him, shouting ‘boo!’. Moments later there was a hard thud against the glass as the combat shuttle attached its docking ring. Then plasma cutting beams set to work.
Sterling had barely recovered from the shock of the combat shuttle appearing out of nowhere when a plasma blast raced into the room and struck the wall. Turning to the door he saw a squad of warriors running toward them. Sterling cursed then returned fire.
“Start cutting through from the other side!” Sterling called over to Banks, tipping a table in the center of the viewing gallery to use as cover. Banks adjusted the power level on her pistol and set to work as Sterling continued firing. One of the warriors was struck to the knee and went down. The squad then stopped and took up positions outside, using offices and corridors for cover.
What the hell are they doing? Sterling thought, wondering why the aliens had halted, considering they had the advantage of numbers. Then he saw one of the warriors pull a grenade away from the stow on its armor.
“Mercedes, get behind the table!” Sterling shouted, realizing what the warrior intended to do.
Banks spun around, spotted the warrior with the explosive device in hand, and rushed to the table. The warrior threw the grenade, which sailed into the room, but Banks had already ducked behind cover alongside Sterling. An explosion shook the room, but Banks' strength was equal to the force of the blast. The table held, though dozens of sharp splinters of metal perforated its surface. Sterling pushed himself away, feeling blood wet his skin. Some of the fragments had sliced into his arms and legs, but the wounds were superficial. However, had it not been for the protection of the table, they both would have been shredded like pulled pork. There was another hard thump behind them and Sterling turned to see that the shuttle had succeeded in cutting through.
“Captain, come on!” cried the voice of Ensign Keller from inside the shuttle.
“Go!” Sterling called to his first officer.
Banks moved toward the opening as Sterling stood up and fired over the top of the battered table. Clearly surprised to still see them alive, the warriors had broken cover, allowing him to take down two more with easy shots. Plasma blasts then rained into the room again, striking the already perforated table
. Further out into level two, Sterling could see more warriors closing in. Ducking behind what little cover remained, Sterling turned and crouch-ran for the docking hatch, throwing himself into it with a superman dive. Banks dragged him the rest of the way through then the hatch sealed and moments later, Keller detached. The punch from the acceleration of the shuttle winded Sterling far more than the dive through the opening had done.
“Hey, Captain!” said Keller from the cockpit, though the ensign’s eyes were firmly fixed ahead. “Hell of a day, huh?”
Chapter 28
Sting in the wasp’s tail
Commander Banks helped Sterling to his feet and he staggered into the cockpit, falling into the seat alongside Keller. The combat shuttle then jerked right and swooped beneath a docking pylon, nearly sending Sterling flying through the cockpit glass.
“Do you know where you’re going, Ensign?” asked Sterling, hurriedly pulling on the harness. Banks appeared behind him, her hands gripping the headrest of his and Keller’s seats tightly so as to keep her balance.
“I do, Captain,” Keller replied, turning hard for a second time then diving through a narrow gap between levels seven and eight. Plasma blasts flashed past, slamming into the station as he did so. “I just have a couple of insects on my tail.”
Sterling glanced behind to the see two wasps in pursuit. Considering the dizzying speed and insane maneuvers of the combat shuttle, he was even a little impressed that the alien pilots had managed to keep pace.
“Make short work of them, Ensign, we’re on the clock,” said Sterling.
“Aye, sir,” replied Keller, skirting across the surface of the station in yet another direction.
The moves and changes of direction were so rapid that Sterling literally didn’t know which part of the station was up or down. The combat shuttle was then punched hard on the side and alarms wailed inside the cockpit.
“Hang on!” yelled Keller, turning past yet another pylon then racing over the top of the Light Cruiser Jemison. Sterling glanced behind, but incredibly the alien wasps were still on their tail.
“That last hit took out the targeting systems,” said Commander Banks, who had hung on to the chairs despite the rollercoaster ride of maneuvers. “Give me manual control. I’ll take care of these pests.”
Banks hauled herself toward the rear of the shuttle and dropped down into one of the tactical combat seats. Working fast, she activated the virtual gunnery systems and was soon staring out into space.
“Start climbing toward level one,” said Sterling. He then pulled the ID chip out from beneath his now cut and scorched armor and shoved it into the ship’s computer. “This had better work, or we just jumped out of the frying pan and into fire…” Sterling added, his fingers fumbling across the keys while attempting to access G-COP’s docking computer. He then tapped his neural interface and reached out to Admiral Griffin. This time, even the effort of connecting to Griffin’s mind across the maelstrom of activity on the station was a struggle. He gripped the sides of the chair and closed his eyes, trying to shut out everything other than the sound of Griffin’s voice.
“Captain, tell me you’re on level one…” he heard Griffin ask, though the voice was barely a whisper in his mind.
“I’m on my way, Admiral,” replied Sterling as another thud punched the ship. He then heard the combat shuttle’s plasma turret unload. “I need one more code from you first.”
“Standby, Captain,” replied Griffin, her voice faint and exhausted. It sounded like she was dying.
The thud of the plasma turret erupted again, followed by a whoop from Banks. “Got one!” she cried out to the front of the cockpit.
Sterling opened his eyes and glanced to the rear as another flash of plasma from the remaining wasp raced overhead. It was so close, Sterling thought he could feel the heat from it on his face.
“We’re running out of time, Mercedes,” Sterling called back. “Do or die, remember?”
Banks continued to wrestle with the virtual gun controls. Despite Keller’s brilliant piloting, the alien was still on their tail. Another plasma blast glanced off the cockpit glass, leaving a distorted smear in its wake.
“Any time now!” Sterling called out.
Banks squeezed the triggers, blasting the wasp cleanly on the cockpit, destroying its canopy and exposing the alien pilot to the vacuum of space. Moments later, the craft collided with the station and was atomized.
“Great shot, Mercedes!” Sterling called out. He turned to Keller and gripped the pilot’s shoulder. “Take us in, Ensign, as fast as you dare.”
“Aye, sir,” Keller replied, smartly. The young helmsman threw the shuttle into a hard series of maneuverers, forcing Sterling to release his hold and grab the arms of the chair for stability. Not for the first time in the last hour, Sterling found himself gritting his teeth as the station came racing toward them, so fast it was a blur. Then Keller spun the shuttle around and thrust hard to arrest their velocity before using their remaining momentum to butt up hard against the docking port of command level one. It was an astonishing maneuver and one that Sterling would have raved over had it been any other occasion. But their window to act was short and closing fast.
“Now, Admiral!” Sterling called out in his mind.
Griffin read the code out, though Sterling had to force his eyes shut in order to concentrate on her voice. More than once, he thought he misheard the Admiral and was compelled to take a guess. There wasn’t time to ask Griffin to repeat herself. He remembered that the Admiral’s authentication codes changed every ninety seconds. However, to Sterling, it sounded like she may not even have that long left to live.
Sterling finished entering the code then waited for the docking computer to authenticate his request. Banks was already standing by the docking hatch, weapons ready, anxiously watching Sterling. Then the lock around the level one docking hatch thudded open and there was a hiss of air though the seals.
“Get ready to haul our assess out of here when we’re done,” Sterling said to Keller, unfastening his harness and jumping out of the seat.
Keller then unfastened his harness and drew a plasma pistol. “Let me come with you, Captain,” he asked. All traces of the green and hesitant young ensign were gone. “You’ll need the extra gun.”
Sterling nodded then together he and Keller moved up to side of the hatch.
“Ready?” said Banks.
“Do-or-die time,” replied Sterling. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 29
Emissary of the Sa’Nerra
Commander Mercedes Banks hit the button to release the hatch and the metal slab hissed open, thudding into its housing. Banks immediately opened fire through the opening, but plasma blasts raced toward them with equal speed. Banks jumped through the hatch and Sterling followed, spotting four Sa’Nerran warriors. Straight away he took a blast to the chest and fell, but managed to scramble into cover behind one of the workstations in the command operations center.
“Captain, are you okay?” Banks called out, as Keller moved through, firing at the warrior and making it safely into cover.
“I’m a little singed, but okay,” Sterling called back. He tore open the straps of his body armor then pulled it off. The material was still smoldering and threatening to set his tunic on fire.
“You’re already too late, Captain,” a voice called out from further into the room. Sterling immediately recognized it as belonging to Clinton Crow. “Though I must admit I’m impressed you got this far.”
“I don’t give a damn what you think, Crow,” Sterling hit back, reloading the energy cell in the alien plasma rifle. “Or should I call you ‘emissary’? Or how about ‘traitor’? That would seem to fit better.”
Through gaps in the workstations, Sterling could see Crow moving between the four warriors in the middle of the room. His former engineer then stopped directly in front of the command computer.
“History will remember me as the savior of the human race, Captain,” Crow hit
back. “If Fleet or your precious Admiral Griffin had their way, humanity would be simply eradicated. The Sa’Nerra will never document this war. They will not belittle their history with mention of the human race. All that will be recorded is that we discovered a nest of vermin and eradicated it. Humanity will be forgotten. It will be as if you never existed at all. Unless, that is, you surrender.”
Sterling laughed. “Surrender and become mindless servants, like you and McQueen?”
Crow’s expression suddenly hardened. “My mind is perfectly intact, Captain,” he hit back. “I remember well the scorn I received on a regular basis from you and Commander Banks.” He reached up and tapped the metal cranial plate that covered half of his head. “And I remember this too, Captain,” he spat. “I begged you for help, and not only did you abandon me like a coward, you tried to kill me first.”
“It would have been better for you if you’d died on that shipyard, Crow,” Sterling replied, feeling no remorse over his actions. “I was trying to spare you from becoming the thing you are now.”
Crow advanced, though he was still cautious of where Keller and Banks remained concealed behind cover. The Sa’Nerran warriors, likewise, had their weapons aimed in the directions of his two other officers, ready to blast them should they poke their heads into view.
“I should thank you, really, Captain,” Crow continued, sounding more like his former engineer. “You helped me to evolve and move beyond the bumbling man you so clearly looked down upon. Now, I am superior to you and to the rest of the human race.”
“Well why don’t you call off your pets and we can test that theory?” Sterling replied. “How about it, Crow? You and me, man to man. Or man to whatever the hell you are now.”
Crow smiled, though it was a cruel look that did not suit the man’s still curiously studious appearance, even despite the armor and metal plate in his head.
“I would dearly love to entertain that notion, Captain, but I’m afraid our time together is short,” the emissary replied. “In a few minutes, this station’s reactor will overload. Then our armada will crush what’s left of your Fleet, bringing us one step – or should I say one sector – closer to your eventual, inevitable defeat.”