by Tom Chattle
~You will die, and your entire world will burn for your actions. Your species will become slaves of the mighty Syrax Empire~
Chen crawled backward. Her fingers clawed at the floor around her, trying to find anything that would help. They finally clasped on something, and Chen turned her face up to the alien. She spit a glob of blood on its thick carapace. "Fuck you."
She raised Wilde's antique revolver, shoved the barrel deep inside the alien's injured jaw, and emptied the remaining few rounds into its unprotected throat. A sapphire fountain of blood erupted from its neck, and it whipped back, squealing in pain, its thrashing arms missing Chen by a hair.
Chen staggered to her feet and circled the wailing beast, trying to pull it away from the others, leading it back to the center of the platform. Finally in position, she called out to the matriarch and drew its attention as it wallowed around, blood hemorrhaging from its shattered throat. With a final, echoing screech that sent a spear of pain through Chen's head, the matriarch lunged toward her, arms extended in fury, but Chen rolled out of the way at the last moment.
Unable to arrest its momentum, the creature careened into the hole it had emerged from, its cries fading to silence under the crackle of the energy web. Chen resisted the urge to collapse and limped over to the ungainly pile of crumpled armor that held Bauer. Any hope she had of Bauer surviving faded fast as she saw the sticky puddle of blood pooling around her. Falling to her side, Chen tried to roll Bauer over but struggled to move the unpowered armor.
"Alex?" Chen whispered, fingers scrambling for the latches that held the suit to Bauer.
A weak cough startled Chen, and she redoubled her effort to unhook the exo-suit. Finally, the remains of the chest plate came away, and she was able to roll Bauer on her back. The deathly pale, clammy sheen to the woman's face shocked Chen. Chen wiped the platinum blond hair from the Marine's face, smearing blood across her forehead in the process.
Bauer's eyes flickered open, gray irises dull. "Hey there."
Chen forced a feeble smile, but her gaze fell on the mass of ruined flesh that was Bauer's side. She was no doctor, but it didn't look promising. "Why'd you have to go and be stupid like that?"
"What, like a big damn hero?" Bauer coughed, blood bubbling from her throat. Her eyes hunted around for the alien beast. "Did you get her?"
Nodding, Chen sniffed. "Shot her in the face."
"Nice." Bauer grimaced in pain. "You should get out of here. This thing could blow at any minute."
"Not happening." Chen shook her head. "You're coming with me."
"Don't be stupid," Bauer wheezed. "You need to get Moreau and Wilde out of here."
Chen had forgotten all about the others in her haste to rescue Bauer. Sitting up, she scanned the platform for them. With relief, she saw Moreau picking herself off the floor, holding her head but she otherwise seemed okay.
"Ensign! Check on Wilde!" she called, receiving a stiff nod from the young woman.
Chen turned back to Bauer and smiled. "They're fine. We're going to get you back to the Valiant and all patched up in no time.
"Just leave me here. You'll never get off this rock if you have to drag my sorry ass behind you."
Chen set her jaw stubbornly. "You don't get a say in the matter. I am not leaving you, and anything you try and say to change my mind is only going to slow us down further."
Bauer rolled her eyes, but her chuckle sounded more like a wet gurgle than laughter. "Well, let's get going, then."
- 39 -
2208.02.20 // 08:11
Communications Spire, Arcturus b
With some help from Moreau, Chen finally managed to extricate Bauer from the remainder of her exo-suit, and Moreau bandaged up her side enough to let them move her. Between the two of them, they could barely support her weight.
Wilde lagged behind. It seemed she still had lingering aftereffects from her injuries, her eyes particularly unfocused.
If the journey up the communications spire had been long, the slow descent was a struggle. The continual rain had made the spiraling trail slick and dangerous, and nobody in the party was in any condition to traverse it. Eventually, they made it down to the flat surface of the mountain's peak.
Chen was ready to pass out from the pain of trying to support Bauer with her own battered body. Spitting blood to the ground, she blinked away the tears. "Where was that landing pad at?"
Gasping for air herself, Moreau waved broadly to their left with her free hand. "Somewhere over there. It wasn't far."
Bauer groaned, and her head lolled around when Chen shifted her support. The Marine's rudimentary bandages were already soaked through, the trail of blood behind them an obvious marker of just how much she'd lost.
"Damnit, Alex, just hold on a little longer," Chen whispered into the mess of blond hair pressed into her chin. She pushed forward into the dark. Unsteady feet sloshed through puddles that were now turning into miniature rivers flowing out toward the edge of the mountain. It didn't seem like the alien stronghold had been built to take this volume of rain—no doubt a side effect of their ancient, dilapidated systems coming online after so long.
The curved alien landing structure loomed into view through the murky darkness. They made a direct line for an opening in the base that must have been a door, but an overwhelming pressure rising inside Chen's head made her stagger. The three women fell into a pile in the mud as Chen cried out.
"Lieutenant, what's wrong?" Moreau coughed, spitting rainwater from her mouth.
Chen's skull felt like it was about to explode. "The message. It's about to send." Whatever Moreau said in response, Chen couldn't hear, her ears filled with a piercing hum. Blackness crept into the peripheral of her vision. It shouldn't have been ready so quickly; something had accelerated the transmission.
The entire mountaintop lit up with a pulsing blue-white blaze, pure power shooting straight up into the sky, crackling through the vast shield dome and into the darkness of space beyond. Chen squinted at it in confusion. It wasn't supposed to be sending; it was supposed to blow up. She barely had time to process her objection when the tip of the spire detonated in a colossal spherical release of energy, the shock wave sending Chen sprawling across the ground.
An insistent tug brought Chen round from whatever daze she'd been knocked into. The pressure in her head subsided, and her vision finally swam into focus. Wilde was leaning over her, yelling something as she gestured into the night. Chen pulled herself to her feet and glanced upward at the remnants of the communications spire. The top third was entirely gone, massive chunks of it scattered around them. It was a miracle none had flattened the team.
"...chain reaction?" Wilde was yelling.
Chen's hearing fading back in snapped her attention to the woman in front of her. "What?"
Wilde let out an exasperated sigh. "Didn't you say there would be a chain reaction after that thing blew?"
"Right!" Chen shook her head to clear it, then hurried to lift Bauer gently from the ground. The Marine's breathing was ragged and irregular—she needed medical attention urgently. As they reached the landing structure, the door opened automatically, and Chen limped through.
"Hey, can you control things again!" Moreau exclaimed, huffing from the other side of Bauer.
Chen hadn't noticed anything until the ensign said something. "You're right. Everything's back in my mind, just like it was before we got up here. Why the sudden change?"
"Wasn't it the buildup of power in the comms array that was blocking you? Now that it's gone, that interference won't be there anymore." Wilde speculated.
It made sense, but Chen didn't have time to figure it out now. Nothing about the connections to the Syrax technology made much sense. They entered the building and found themselves in a large open space, the walls lined with supplies and mechanical parts that looked as weirdly organic as the rest of the Syrax tech. Broad, sweeping markings on the floor glowed with a faint luminescence, but there was no visible way up.
&n
bsp; "Where do we go?" Moreau asked, turning to look at each side of the area. There were shadows everywhere and no guarantees that no enemies lurked within them.
Closing her eyes, Chen let her mind connect back to the alien network surrounding them, feeling her way through the data that presented itself. With the death of the matriarch, everything was easy again, although she was still left with pressure pushing through her sinuses and an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She tried to push it aside but wondered if those feelings would stay for the rest of her life. She found what she was looking for.
Moreau yelped in surprise as the gridded floor shifted under them, forcing her and Wilde to steady themselves. The hanger bay dropped away beneath them, and they rose toward the ceiling on a wide, open-sided elevator. They approached the hanger roof and vast doors slid open, rumbling and hissing along hidden tracks. The rain slashed in the moment the doors parted. Lightning now forked across the sky in jagged discharges, impacting the surrounding mountain with immense anger. It seemed to Chen that the weather itself was furious at the destruction that had unfolded. The platform reached its destination with a clank, and an expansive landing pad spread out before them, the wind driving sheets of rain across the rough surface.
Sitting just across from them was a sleek craft, dark and silent in the night. Easily twice as long as one of the Valiant's landing shuttles, its needle-like nose speared out ahead of small viewports, flaring back into curved, drooping wings that squatted over a flattened, oval fuselage. Engines nestled into the wing roots, their slim, rounded forms unlike any power units Chen had ever seen. Whatever its appearance, it was the best damn thing she'd seen in days.
They staggered toward it, and the building vibrated, a deep, bass rumble echoing through the structure, throwing them all off balance.
"What was that?" Wilde asked, holding her arms out to stabilize herself.
Eyes wide, Moreau stared off the side of the building. "The mountain getting ready to blow?"
"Moreau's right." Chen nodded. She could feel the alarms cascading throughout the mountain's systems. The main power core was destabilizing, spewing huge, violent eruptions of energy into the inside of the fortress. More and more systems were breaking down, either exploding from massive power fluctuations or shutting themselves down for preservation.
Now moving as fast as they could while supporting Bauer, they made it to the alien shuttle and circled around to find an entrance.
"How do we know we can trust this thing?" Moreau asked, eyeing it warily. "There could be more aliens inside."
"I don't think we have much choice right now," Wilde replied. "Auri, do you think it's okay?"
Edging around the craft, Chen barely heard them. She laid a hand against the smooth side of the vessel, and a door snapped open at the rear, the craft lighting up inside and out as all the systems came online.
"Guess that settles that," Wilde said, following them as they hobbled up the boarding ramp, Bauer strung between them. Chen set the Marine down gently and glanced up at Moreau. "Ensign, see if you can figure out any of the flight controls."
Nodding, the woman darted off toward the front of the craft, Wilde following her.
Chen focused on Bauer and wiped blood-matted hair from the woman's pallid face. "Just hold it together a little longer, okay?"
Bauer focused clouded eyes on Chen, chest rising erratically. "I don't think I'm going to make it."
"Don't be stupid." Chen sniffed. "We'll be back on the Valiant in no time, getting Doc Corrigan to fix you up good as new."
A rattling chuckle escaped Bauer's lips. "Sure, if you say so. Just make sure you make it. Humanity needs to be warned."
"You'll warn them yourself." Chen's heart refused to accept otherwise, no matter what her brain was screaming. There were few people throughout her life she could ever say she felt much for, but Bauer had somehow become the most important.
"Auri..." Bauer started, but Chen's forceful kiss stopped the rest of the sentence.
"Alex, I'm not letting you die. I..." Chen's voice hitched in her throat. "I love you."
Bauer closed her eyes, a faint smile crossing her bloody face.
"Lieutenant?" Moreau called from the front of the shuttle.
Clenching her fists, Chen moved to get up, but a weak grasp from Bauer stopped her.
"I love you, too, Auri," Bauer whispered. "Now go get us out of here."
Blinking back tears, Chen nodded, scrambled up, and hurtled to the cockpit.
Moreau was staring at the controls, dismay on her face. "I have no clue how any of this stuff fucking works." The curses seemed strange coming from the ensign's tiny form—but it only hammered home the desperation of their situation.
"Okay, let me take a look." Chen slid herself into the oversized command chair and swept her hands over the controls. Holoscreens sprang to life—power levels, atmospheric controls...everything was at Chen's fingertips.
"Of course, it's that easy..." Moreau grumbled. No doubt she felt her intelligence was being attacked, but the link was purely instinctual to Chen by now.
Her fingers danced through holographic menus, and restraints suddenly slipped around her stomach. Built for something much larger, they were far too big, but they were something at least. "I recommend everyone hold onto something."
Moreau scrambled for a handhold, and Wilde had the presence of mind to make sure Bauer was secure. Reasonably sure they were safe, Chen brought the engines online. Their discordant whine vibrated through the hull as she throttled them up. Anti-grav motors kicked in, and the spacecraft rose off the landing pad with a jolt.
A loud explosion erupted from somewhere nearby, and the edge of the structure ahead of them started to crumble.
"Lieutenant..." Moreau cried as she clung to a support, knuckles turning white.
With no time to learn the controls further, Chen rammed the throttles to full and pulled the ship skyward. It rocketed into the night, and she had to swerve to the side when a vast spire crumbled toward them, disintegrating as it fell. Hurtling skyward, the shield dome loomed ahead. Chen had no idea if the craft could pass through it or not—the information didn't seem to be anywhere in the craft's systems.
Chen brought up a rear view on the screen and could see the mountain collapsing into itself, the angry sun that was the main reactor core burning through the debris that fell on it. With no choice but to hope, Chen screwed her eyes almost shut and guided the ship toward the shield. Moments from the barrier, the entire thing started to crumble. Vast energy panes crawled back on themselves from the loss of power to the mountain's defenses.
The alien shuttle punched through the lingering remnants and shot into space, the bumpy ride evening out the moment they escaped the stormy atmosphere. Chen flicked through the communications controls. "Chen to Valiant, do you read?"
"It is so good to hear your voice, Lieutenant," McCann's relieved tone echoed around the craft. "What's going on?"
Ignoring the question, Chen asked her own. "Did you hear from the rest of the team?"
"Aye, we picked them up outside the shield dome a few hours ago."
"Then, McCann?" Chen replied, "Fire every damn thing you have at that mountain."
"Copy that," the first officer replied.
Chen peered out of the small viewport ahead, trying to find the Valiant in the darkness of space. She didn't have to wait long. Swinging out from behind an asteroid, railguns painted the sky with glittering streams of fire, pummeling the planet with destructive kinetic rounds. Hatches along the spine of the ship slammed open, and the rocket plumes of spatial torpedoes shot out, angling down sharply as they homed in on their target. Moments later, they hit, the nuclear warheads they contained immolating the remainder of the unprotected mountain, flattening the terrain for miles around in a blinding explosion of atomic fury.
- 40 -
2208.02.20 // 08:59
Orbit, Arcturus b
Wilde cheered, and Chen let out a long, ragged breath. Before she co
uld relax, a warning tone rasped through the cockpit an instant before a shock wave hit them, sending the craft tumbling end over end. Chen struggled with the controls and managed to get them stabilized. She pointed the nose away from the planet and slumped down in her seat.
Moreau was laughing uncontrollably, eyes closed in relief as the tension melted away. Chen even allowed herself a moment of satisfaction at their unlikely escape. Removing the restraints, she hurried back to tell Bauer they'd made it, only to draw up short.
Bauer lay against the bulkhead of the vessel, eyes open, staring at the ceiling while the blood pooled slowly around her. Her face was white; her chest still.
Falling to her knees beside her, Chen felt for a pulse with shaky hands. "No, no, no..." She snapped her head around and looked from Wilde to Moreau. "Medkits? Anything?"
Hands clamped to her mouth, Moreau shook her head. Wilde hurried over, crouched down beside the Marine, and used the back of her hand to feel for breath.
Frantic, Chen laced her fingers together and started chest compressions, rhythmically pressing against Bauer's wounded sternum.
After what felt like an hour, Wilde placed a hand on her arm. "Lieutenant..."
Chen kept pushing. She couldn't lose Bauer, not after everything.
"Chen..." Wilde shoved her shoulder. "Auri!"
Finally, Chen met Wilde's gaze. The woman shook her head, gathering Chen's bloody hands in her own. "I'm sorry."
Her mind a jumble, Chen nodded, pulled away, and leaned against the wall. Blinking back tears, she slipped her hand around Bauer's—the cold already creeping through it.
"Alex..." she whispered, closing her eyes. Moments later, a soft palm rested on her knee. Peering through bleary eyes, Chen stared at Wilde, crouching in front of her.
"I'm sorry, Auri, but we can't fly the ship."
Of course. Chen gathered herself and pulled herself up, Bauer's hand slipping from her own. In a daze, she staggered back to the command seat, slipped into it, and brought the controls back up. She got her bearings and pulled the sharp nose of the craft around to point toward the Valiant, boosting the engines to send them on an arcing trajectory toward the ship.