by Tom Chattle
Closing in, Chen could see the shuttle bay doors already open, tiny figures clustered behind the shimmering atmo-barriers. A few delicate alterations slowed their approach, centering them in the opening. Chen eased through the barrier, settled the craft in the middle of the bay, and powered the systems down as the mag-locks built into the deck latched on to them.
Her gaze unfocused, Chen stared out the other side of the shuttle bay into the depths of space. She closed her eyes and settled back into the over-sized chair, numbness washing over her. She barely heard the rear hatch hiss open and the hum of voices sweep into the alien spacecraft. All of this had been because she wanted to have an adventure, wanted to be reckless. If she'd listened to Bauer's cautions, maybe the Marine would still be alive. Maybe the entire fleet would have arrived with the resources to deal properly with the Syrax threat.
A gentle tap at her shoulder shook her out of her daze. McCann's freckled face was leaning over her, his brow knitted with concern. "Come on, let's get you to medical."
She let him coax her out of the seat, and he lent his arm to her for support. They shuffled toward the hatch. Bauer's body had already been carried off, the congealing pool of blood the only sign she'd ever been there. Chen stopped, staring at the spot for a moment before McCann gently guided her on. The harsh lights of the Valiant's shuttle bay made her squint as they emerged from the hatch. A scattered group of support crew and Marines were gathered around, talking among themselves while engineers swarmed over the alien shuttle. Through the crowd, Chen spotted a bruised Marine whose eyes were wide in disbelief.
Kaufman.
Without thinking, Chen burst away from McCann's grip, scattering surprised crew before her. She howled with rage, her vision clouded with a creeping, purple mist. She leaped on the startled Marine, smashing a clenched fist into his face. Momentum carried them backward, and Kaufman hit the hard deck—a whoosh of air bursting from his lungs. Her vision swam, and Chen pummeled the larger man relentlessly, splitting his lip and cracking knuckles on his jaw while he tried to bring his arms up for protection. A fit of insidious anger burned deep within her—wanting to see the man dead, ripped apart by her own hands. A satisfying crunch indicated his nose breaking shortly before McCann's strong grip hauled her off the man.
"Auri, what the hell?" McCann yelled into her ear, holding her arms back as she continued trying to get at Kaufman.
"That fucker killed Strahovski and left us to die!" Chen spat, shaking with anger.
Gunny Haynes appeared next to them, hobbling with a crutch. "Kaufman?"
"Bullshit, I would never do that!" Kaufman protested, spitting blood onto the deck. "The psycho bitch has it out for me. She's crazy!"
"Watch your goddamn tone to a superior officer, Marine!" Haynes bellowed. Turning to Chen, he lowered his voice. "Lieutenant, are you sure?"
Not taking her eyes off Kaufman, she nodded. "He pushed Strahovski off a cliff and abandoned the rest of us on the side of that mountain."
Haynes took a deep breath and gestured to two nearby Marines. "Restrain Staff Sergeant Kaufman."
"You'll regret this!" Kaufman yelled as the Marines grabbed his arms, pushing him toward the exit. "She put all of our lives at risk!"
Chen spied Bauer's body lying on a stretcher and ignored Kaufman's ramblings as he vanished in the direction of the brig. Pulling away from McCann, she limped over and gazed down at Bauer. Despite her grievous injuries, she looked at peace, eyes closed with one arm held against her chest. Even with the gathering crowd surrounding her, Chen wanted to cry, but there were no more tears left. She touched Bauer's shoulder one last time, turned, and allowed McCann to guide her toward the medical bay.
Shuffling through the Valiant's hallways, Chen listened to McCann giving a full report on everything that had happened since the landing team had left the ship, but she barely heard any of it, drifting in and out of focus. It was only when she heard something about the rift drives that she pulled up in the corridor. "Wait, what about the drives?"
"They're toast," McCann repeated, scratching the back of his neck. "Chief Cartwright has had his people swarming all over them, but that last hit we took from the ground defenses on the mountain knocked them out. Says it would take weeks in space dock to even get them halfway right again."
"Have you called back to Fleet?" Chen asked. Without rift drives, they'd need a rescue ship called in.
McCann frowned. "Auri, the long-range array was destroyed in the first ambush, remember?"
"Shit..." Chen met McCann's gaze. "But that means..."
"Yep." McCann sighed, rubbing his hand across his face. "It's months of sub-light travel to even get within short-range comms distance of outpost thirty-eight."
The pair were silent as Chen absorbed the bad news. She ran a hand through her filthy hair and winced as it pulled at the wounds on her scalp. "We should get going then. Set in a course."
"Already done," McCann replied. "We broke orbit right after you landed. Now stop worrying and let's get you taken care of. Doc Corrigan is going to be mad at me if I don't get you there soon."
"Okay, Wally, you win," Chen coughed. Some pain meds and a hot shower sounded perfect.
***
It had only been a week since they left the Arcturus system, but already Chen was starting to lose it. After patching her up and giving her a thorough examination, the doc had given her a clean bill of health—physically, at least. On hearing Chen's descriptions of what the Syrax matriarch did to her brain and the apparent abilities she gained regarding the alien technology, Doctor Corrigan had recommended against her return to duty, believing she needed more examination than he was able to provide with their limited facilities.
While not technically confined to her quarters, Chen spent most of her time there anyway. Being around the crew was tiring, and her senses were all over the place. Even though the alien shuttle was far below in the bowels of the ship, she could feel the data pouring from it as Chief Cartwright and his engineers examined it. A few times when they had tried to remove panels, she'd even felt twinges of pain and anger at the intrusion.
On top of that, there was a growing background noise on the ship, one she couldn't seem to get away from, no matter how much she covered her ears or how loud she played music in her quarters. Errant thoughts and feelings kept swimming through her mind—and they weren't hers. McCann visited her regularly to see how she was doing, but even her best friend gave off waves of discomfort whenever he was around her. Chen stared into the mirror in her small bathroom. A few streaks of white dotted her dark hair—no doubt brought on by the stress of recent events.
Back in her bedroom, she busied herself tidying. Chen hadn't seen Moreau or Wilde since returning. She could only imagine how badly the young ensign might resent her for dragging her into the ill-fated mission in the first place. Chen threw her pillow across the room in frustration and fell back on her small bed, gazing out the window at the stars.
Some part of the communication from the mountaintop had gotten out before it blew up. Who knows if any of it reached its destination and, if so, what it said? The Valiant had copied the transmission, but nobody had managed to decrypt it so far. Whatever had locked it against Chen's mind had also rendered it unintelligible to the ship's computers.
A blue-gray shape lying underneath the window drew her attention, and she leaned over to grab it. A camouflaged cap. Tears welled up as she held it. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to think of something less burdensome than the Syrax threat. The last time she was in here with Alex played behind her eyelids, but that brought its own set of painful feelings, enough to trigger a surge of anxiety.
Chen sat back onto the bed and ran a finger gingerly down the scar the matriarch had left on her face. An all too familiar twinge of pain surged through her mind. If anything was left of the so-called Syrax Empire, hopefully Chen could warn Fleet Command before they were able to come and investigate the destruction of their outpost. Wilde's suggestion that someone, somewhere
in Fleet Command knew what was on this world ate at Chen—determination to find out why it had been kept hidden lodged in her mind.
Chen watched the stars creep past them at a painstakingly slow rate. One matriarch and her half-dormant bastion had utterly wrecked the Valiant and its crew. An entire empire of them? Earth, Mars, and all the allied planets in the Union didn't stand a chance.
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Syrax Wars
Volume I - Shadows of Arcturus
Volume II - Ruins of Talamar (Coming soon!)
Crystalline Earth
Volume 1 - The Parnassus Initiative
Volume 1.5 - Raider's Hollow