The Wrong Side of Space (TCOTU, Book 3) (This Corner of the Universe)

by Britt Ringel

  A quick look behind Vidic revealed that Charlie-section had taken up defensive positions near the portal to the core room. The section had barely escaped the primary coolant control room lost minutes earlier to the roiling cloud of aliens now massing in front of them. Ahead and to his left, Able-section was holding their assigned zone of the current compartment although he counted only four of the original eight Able marines still in the fight. He saw Kapral Ozbolt unleash another hellish stream of flame into the open portal dividing their compartment from the coolant control room. Sweat poured down Vidic’s face and the temptation to close his helmet’s visor was nearly too great to resist. I cannot lose my peripheral vision, he thought. I must see the whole battlefield. A rising whine from his multi-rifle told him his laser had recharged. Prismatic laser fire swept through the horde of Parasites at his portal. Vidic kept the trigger depressed until the rifle’s three short beeps informed him he was out of charge. The gush of aliens through the portal abated after his last burst. What are they doing now? he wondered.

  A Brevic sailor ran from the core containment room behind them and skidded to a halt next to Gables. Vidic saw he bore the rank equivalent of a kapitan. “Gabes,” he shouted at her, “they’re cutting off the flow of coolant to the core.” The kapitan’s eyes swept over the carnage inside the room before he pointed at the Parasite-controlled compartment ahead of them and yelled, “You’ve got to push your marines into that compartment… we need control over that room!”

  The ensign grimaced. “Are you crazy, Jackamore? Can’t you think of a better way to kill us all? Why not just tell us to rush into Orphan’s coolant room?” The ascending whine on Vidic’s rifle preceded a seven-second torrent of laser fire from it. Afterwards, the waving arms from Szeregowy Rosso garnered his attention. Rosso was crouched next to Able-section’s flame unit and motioning with both hands, compressing them together. Vidic raised his hands upward in question and yelled, “What?” Rosso made the compressing motion again, only faster. Grumbling, Vidic savagely thrust a pointed finger at the young Hollaran private followed by an equally fierce gesture at the deck immediately in front of him.

  Next to Vidic, the Brevic kapitan jabbed at his own chest. “I’m going too, Gabes. You need an engineer to operate those controls. Give me ten seconds at the primary coolant console and I can reinitiate the flow and then blank the controls.”

  The ensign quickly raised her rifle and fired two shotgun bursts. The bursts narrowly missed the Able marines crouched behind an engineering panel to exterminate two infected crewmen sprinting toward them. The pernicious look on her face softened slightly as she looked upward uttering obscenities. The wildcat grabbed viciously at Vidic’s sleeve and yelled, “Sierzant, saddle up! Baker- and Charlie-sections are coming with us to regain control over that compartment.” Vidic’s mouth gaped open as his eyes widened. In there? Has she gone mad? He searched the face of the young warrior before him and saw not a hint of fear, only a vicious, destructive grin. He had seen that look before but only upon some of the highest ranking, most decorated combat veterans in the Hollaran Marines.

  Szeregowy Rosso crashed into the console Vidic was using as cover and blurted, “The incendiary unit is running low. That’s what I was trying to tell—” She tripped in midsentence upon seeing her platoon sergeant’s distressed expression.

  Vidic could read the surprise in Rosso’s face. Am I that high and right? he wondered. Get yourself under control, marine, he commanded himself. People are counting on you! If this ‘Vic hellion is not rattled, you better not come unglued. His eyes returned to the fearsome ensign. She was busy shouting instructions to her Brevic kapitan about how to safely advance with the marines. Deafening reports from her multi-rifle’s underslung shotgun interrupted her commands. Finally, she stood and waved Charlie-section to their position.

  Inspired, Vidic pointed toward Kapral Ozbolt. “Natasha, tell Ozbolt to hold this compartment at all costs. Able-section is going to be all that stands between the aliens and the core. I’m taking Baker and Charlie forward. You guys need to give us covering fire as we approach the portal.” The private’s face was horrorstruck but Vidic pounded the side of her helmet with an open hand and growled, “Relax, Rosso. Me and this ‘Vic maniac are going to un-ass this situation.” Rosso shook her head in disbelief but dashed back toward Able-section.

  As she sprinted away, the Charlie-section marines ran to Vidic’s position. He quickly counted heads and came up two marines short. Fifteen marines plus two ‘Vics against an entire compartment worth of Parasites; it is cold-blooded murder for my troopers.

  Charlie-section crowded around Vidic, looking for guidance, but it was the ‘Vic amazon who commanded them. “We’re going in there!” the ensign insisted, pointing toward the adjoining compartment. “I want flame units leading the charge, followed by me and then Lieutenant Jackamore.” She looked at the Brevic kapitan and asked, “Where’s the panel you need?”

  The engineering officer motioned with his right hand and said, “Right side. It’s on the right side of the room.”

  Gables nodded and issued rapid-fire orders in a single breath. “Sierzant, have Able toss grenades into the left side of the compartment before we go through. Once we’re in, Baker and Charlie will shoot flame everywhere except our panel while Kapral Premar and—” she quickly looked at a nametag on a marine private holding a multi-rifle with a scatterer attachment, “—Hovat clear our panel with their scatter-rifles. Lieutenant Jackamore, how can you be sure the panel will hold up under that type of fire?”

  The engineer cocked his head and grinned. “Because if it doesn’t, we’re screwed.”

  These Brevics are all crazy, Vidic thought, but at least they fight like lions. He saw the disbelieving looks on his fellow marines and realized his grin matched that of Gables. The valkyrie rose from her cover, raised a hand to her visor and said, “Boys, I’d close your visors. It’s gonna get awfully hot in there.” She flashed a devil-may-care look to Vidic and sealed her helmet.

  Once Vidic had lined up his assault squad, he motioned for Able’s grenades. Three egg-shaped gifts of death arced through the doorway and into the left side of the primary coolant control room. Before the grenades had detonated, he had his squad up and dashing toward the portal.

  Ten steps from the doorway, explosions rocked the compartment ahead of them. Five steps from it, twin streams of flame jetted out ahead of the suicide squad. Vidic was fifth in line. Only the two flame marines and the Brevic officers raced ahead of him. He dashed through the blackened accessway and into pure pandemonium.

  To his left, Szeregowy Tevesak was already on the deck, being quickly covered by Parasites. The other marine was spraying flame over the entire left side of the compartment like a fireman from Hell. Vidic ran toward Tevesak but stepped over the doomed marine to pick up the abandoned flamethrower. Uttering a plea for forgiveness, he splashed the stricken private with a spray of fire and then unleashed the weapon’s full fury on a wall of Parasites swarming toward them. The air itself seemed to catch fire as the thick mass of flying aliens became fully enveloped in flame. To his right, he saw two marines charging toward another swarm, emptying their shotguns as they went. Between heartbeats, the twin marines were seemingly absorbed into the malignant, swirling black tide.

  A glance over Vidic’s shoulder revealed that the Brevic ensign was in hand-to-hand combat with an infected crewmember. She was savagely using the butt of her rifle to smash the humanoid-shaped mass away from the engineering officer, who stood over a console that was half-covered with the bugs. Parasites were crawling from the panel, up the Brevic kapitan’s arms. His back was a seething mass of aliens yet still he stood, unwavering, operating the controls.

  Smoke from the inferno descended from the ceiling, obscuring his vision. It seemed as if the entire compartment was burning, yet everywhere Vidic looked, Parasites were crowded around his marines. A figure wreathed in flame nearly collided with him as it ran headlong into a swarm. Vidic’s eyes burne
d fiercely from the smoke and the realization washed over him that the aliens must have breached his shocksuit.

  A second, Parasite-covered marine crashed into him and tore the flamethrower from his grip. He ducked as a gush of fire missed him by centimeters and Vidic bowled into the former marine’s legs, sending them both sprawling. Vidic grabbed the flame unit and a life and death game of tug-of-war began. As they struggled, rolling on the deck, Parasites crawled over his adversary’s arms and hands, across the flame unit and onto Vidic. Tiny jabs of pain foretold a fading control over his hands.

  Cutting through the bedlam, an incredible roar sounded, followed by hurricane-force winds rushing over the scene. Parasites were ripped from Vidic’s gloves and he immediately felt a shocksuit constriction band tighten around his left leg, at the knee. Aliens that were in flight were swept away in brutal gusts that carried them out of the compartment and through the gaping chasm that had once been a sealed door separating the coolant control compartment with the passageway beyond.

  Pushing himself through the chasm, the largest Brevic marine Vidic had ever seen rushed into the room. The juggernaut fired repeatedly into infected crewmen, dropping each in rapid succession. As they fell, the few Parasites that had not been torn from their hosts by the gale detached, but could merely crawl toward the next closest potential victim.

  Vidic found his vision clearing, as the fires had been extinguished and even the dense smoke had been cleared away by the decompression event. Additional Brevic marines were pouring into the compartment, their multi-rifle lasers etching into the last of the infected crew.

  Vidic rolled to his knees and stood. He staggered over to a kneeling Gables. Over the marine voice network, the ensign who was an unstoppable war machine moments ago spoke in an innocent voice filled with a pleading tenderness.

  “Stay with me, Brandon!” She looked toward the gigantic Brevic marine and screamed, “Campbell, seal this room. Jackamore’s suit isn’t holding air!” Vidic could see the prone engineering officer’s shocksuit had been shredded under the assault of Parasites.

  The marine named Campbell motioned futilely at the portal his squad had destroyed to gain entrance. “How?”

  Ensign Gables shook her head and desperately began fumbling with the buddy-breathing attachment on her shocksuit. Her hands, rock-solid in combat, now shook uncontrollably. In contrast, a steady hand reached up to grasp hers. Swollen, purple lips parted as the man gasped for breath in his helmet. He managed to feebly croak out, “It’s okay, Denise... Kite is safe… tell Garrett the ship is safe.” His hand began to slide away but she immediately latched firmly onto it as her body began to rock back and forth.

  The marine walked to her and said compassionately, “He’s gone, ma’am.”

  The goddess of war buried her head into the dead man’s chest and wept. All Vidic could do was watch.

  Chapter 15

  “What?” Vernay asked upon seeing Heskan’s grave expression.

  Heskan turned slightly in his command chair toward his first officer. “Brandon Jackamore is dead.”

  Vernay shook her head slowly and her gaze shifted to the deck as she absorbed the news. A trickle of cutters was still flowing into the formation but Kite and Vaettir had closed ranks to protect battered Curator. Phoenix had also taken her share of blows but by sheer size was better able to weather the storm. The fleet was managing a paltry .04c, the cutters jutting out from Curator had seen to that. They were currently 36.4ls from the Junction tunnel point and moving slowly away.

  “Incoming comm request, Captain,” Truesworth announced. “I’m sending it to your console, sir.”

  Heskan accepted Lombardi’s request and found the channel already had Christova in it. He also noted an outstanding request to Curator, as yet unanswered. Christova’s words came at a deliberate pace. “We have just over eleven minutes before their super-carrier dives into this system, Komandor, assuming they maintained course and speed behind their cutters. We need Phoenix and Curator to disable the F-Two enhancer fields on your cutters and open up some distance. As it is, we will barely put an additional eighteen light-seconds between us and the carrier.”

  Lieutenant Arnold joined the channel as Lombardi replied. “Agreed, Komandor. I had hoped we would have more time but it is imperative we begin our retreat from the tunnel point immediately. My marines tell me that Phoenix will have disabled the cutters within the next several minutes.”

  “That’s a problem,” Arnold announced.

  Lombardi’s voice filled with even more stress. “Why do you say that, Lieutenant?”

  Arnold’s sigh was easily audible over the net. “The Parasites focused on Engineering during this attack. We saved the core but they gained control over the primary drive control compartments—”

  Christova’s voice interrupted, “I suggest you get them back, Lieutenant. We are losing precious time.”

  “We have them back!” Arnold exclaimed. “However, before we regained control, the infected engineers wiped out the drive controls.”

  “Reroute control,” Heskan advised. “I don’t understand the problem.”

  “No, none of you understand.” Arnold’s voice was filled with agony. “The controls are fine. It’s the software that’s gone. They deleted it completely. We’re looking at empty screens, Commander.” Arnold took a deep breath before continuing. “We’re reinstalling the software but it’s going to take close to half an hour… and that’s just for basic functionality!”

  Heskan’s head dropped. We’re going to have to leave Curator. “Alan, start preparations to abandon ship. Every shuttle we have needs to be involved in the crew transfer.”

  “No,” Lombardi said. “Transferring the crew will take at least as long as reinstalling the software.”

  “We can’t just leave them!” Heskan protested.

  “We are not, Commander,” Lombardi stated. “I will not sacrifice even one more of my people so I can escape.”

  Arnold responded, his voice filled with determination. “Komandor, Curator is willing to sacrifice herself for the rest. You guys make best speed away from the tunnel point. Curator still has thruster control, so we can rotate and be a diversion to help the fleet escape.”

  “No, Lieutenant,” Lombardi answered unwaveringly. “Not. One. More.”

  “Then what do we do?” Arnold asked.

  “We fight where we are. All of us.”

  “Isabella,” Heskan said, “even fighting together, we don’t have enough to win.” He hated himself for stating the fact.

  “Then we die protecting those we care about,” she said. Her voice took on a rough edge. “I was already prepared to do that once before.”

  Silence pervaded the channel. Finally, Heskan spoke up. “I recommend a triangle formation around Phoenix. Put the escorts as the two bottom points, Vaettir on top. We’ll have to form up around Curator since she can’t maneuver and we’ll need to be close.”

  To his left, he saw Vernay shaking her head. “It’s not enough; you know that.”

  He muted his comm controls. “I know that.”

  “Then this is it,” Lombardi proclaimed. “Hollarans believe that how we face death and who we face it with is at least as important as how we lived and who we lived with. Garrett, as a Hollaran komandor, I am honored to face death with you by my side.”

  I wish there was more time, Heskan thought. There’s so much to say. “The honor is mine.”

  * * *

  The Terran fleet arranged itself into its final combat formation. Vernay and Spencer worked together to ensure that all of the functional bearing weapons were manned as Kite drifted another 17ls away from the tunnel point. The dribble of cutters had finally run out, leaving the fleet briefly unmolested. Four minutes and seventeen seconds after the formation was set, the call came from Truesworth. “Tunnel disturbance, Captain. It’s them.”

  Kite’s Hawkeye optical platform was already oriented toward the tunnel point. The bridge’s wall screen split, the left
side set to the tactical plot, the right half showing the rapidly solidifying image of a Parasite super-carrier.

  We’re fifty-four light-seconds from the tunnel point, Heskan calculated. They’ve been in-system for about a minute now. The optical showed externally docked cutters immediately beginning to break free from the massive ship. Although each tiny ship maneuvered, they remained near their mother ship, forming into a single, massive formation.

  “I estimate about two-hundred cutters so far, Captain… its hangar doors are opening,” Truesworth said. After a beat, he asked, dumbfounded, “What is Vaettir doing?”

  Heskan’s eyes snapped to the tactical plot. Vaettir’s bearing was changing, rotating toward the aliens. He reached for his comm controls but Lombardi had beaten him. “Komandor,” her voice rang over the command channel, “why is Vaettir maneuvering?”

  The only form of reply came thirty seconds later when Vaettir, upon reaching her new heading, began accelerating toward the Junction tunnel point. This time, Lombardi’s message was sent over the general squadron frequency. Her image appeared on a side screen on Kite’s bridge. Dark brows furrowed over her eyes and deep lines grooved her normally smooth skin. “Stephan, I sure would like to know what you are doing.”

  Kite’s tactical plot began to draw multiple lifeboat symbols expelling from the light cruiser. Finally, the image of Komandor Christova appeared. He bore the most natural and comfortable smile Heskan had ever seen on the man. “How did you put it, Komandor? Oh yes, I am simply demonstrating my best characteristic. Please recover my crew, Komandor. I am sending who I can off the ship.”