by C H Duryea
“You need to return post haste,” Augie said with as close to urgency as Zeke had ever heard from him.
“What is it?”
“They have arrived.”
“Who?
“The USS Squarenose,” Augie said. “They’re circling the station.”
Nine
They returned to the Friendly Card in a hurry. Although the situation was urgent, Zeke could not help noting the condition of the ship.
“It looks brand new,” he said.
“You should see the interior,” Augie replied.
“What did you have to trade for it?”
“Engineering consultation.”
The outer hull was almost completely resurfaced, with the lichen-eaten remnants scattered in loose piles around the landing bay and inside the hold. Zeke picked up a piece and examined it.
“Interesting chemical reaction,” he said.
“That would be one euphemism for it,” Augie said. “Apparently, the metabolic processes of the organisms changed the molecular structure of the titanium.”
Zeke looked up from the slab. “Are you telling me,” he said, “that this is the product of—”
“It’s space-lichen crap!” Harbinger exclaimed. “We’ll call it—cyanoexcretanium!”
They all looked at him and said nothing.
“Cyex, for short,” he elaborated.
He dropped it and picked up a chunk from a pile of grey-green globs of metal. It was not the dusty green residue that the lichen had left. Now it looked bubbled and porous.
“That’s after the cyex has been refined by the polliwogs,” Harbinger explained.
“Now who’s being euphemistic?”
Zeke took another glance at the ship.
The outer airlock door had been replaced. The thruster cones were new—a design Zeke had never seen before. A number of new sensors and field generators peppered the refinished hull, and the local mechanics were still at work on a few final installations on the ship’s underside.
“You got all this done while we were gone?” Zeke said.
“Our new friends work fast,” Augie said, “once agreeable terms are arrived upon.”
“Good. We may need to leave fast.”
“This is your vessel,” Qaant Yke said. Zeke couldn’t quite tell if it was a question or not.
“In effect, yes,” he answered.
“Its use will compel me to account,” Qaant Yke said.
“Who’s the lobster guy?” Augie asked.
“Long story,” Zeke said, still staring at the new thruster array. “How the hell are we going to power those jets?”
“Like I said,” Augie responded. “You should see the interior.”
“Nice going, my dear,” Narissa said, surveying the restoration.
“You have schooled me well,” Augie said, looking over the sled full of swag, “in the art of negotiation. From the looks of it, you managed to effectively harness your own prowess.”
“There’s a reason I would never play cards with Narissa,” Harbinger said, “let alone run a campaign.”
Vibeke was looking through a viewport by the bay’s main doors.
“Are they still out there?” Zeke asked.
Vibeke nodded. “They’re docking,” she said. “I think you better see this.”
Zeke and the others ran over and looked out. Qaant Yke sauntered over after them and watched over their heads. Outside, at one of the larger, more elaborately equipped docking bays, a huge, black-hulled and squat-snouted ship had lined up a large airlock with a magnetically pressurized gangplank.
“It’s definitely the same class,” Zeke noted.
“Yeah,” Harbinger said. “Squarenose class.”
“It’s hard to tell if it’s the same ship, though.”
“Either way,” Augie said. “The implications are ominous.”
“And that’s not the worst of it,” Vibeke said. “Look!”
The Squarenose’s airlock slid open and a landing party of several figures met a number of others who were waiting on the gangplank.
“Well, I’ll be a strange quark,” Zeke said.
The landing party and the reception consisted entirely of the same hulking, rusty creatures as the one that had attacked them after the test back at XARPA.
They all stared in silence, absorbing the implications.
Harbinger broke the silence. “Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe we have met our adversaries for this campaign.”
“Who the hells are they?” Zeke asked.
“Tozzk,” Qaant Yke said. “Waste of perfectly good free iron.”
Zeke turned to the alien. “You know those guys?”
“They are new to this quadrant. But good for eating once immobilized.”
The two Tozzk groups conferred briefly. One from the reception side pointed with one of its rake-like talons back towards the station interior. The lead Tozzk from the landing party looked up slightly and one of the pipe-like structures on its head glowed for a few moments. Seconds later, a whole herd of additional Tozzk fighters poured out of the airlock. At least Zeke assumed they were fighters by the massive energy weapons each one carried.
“I don’t like the look of that,” Zeke said.
“Do they know we’re here?” Vibeke asked.
The mechanic and his tentacled associate approached. The humanoid had one hand to the mechanism over his ear. His head tilted slightly as he assimilated new data.
“Tozzk tranquility forces have targeted this bay,” he said.
“Impossible,” Narissa said. “How could they have tracked us across the membrane?”
“Does it matter?” Augie asked.
“They will be here momentarily,” the mechanic reported.
“We gotta go,” Zeke told him. “Now!”
“Your upgrades are not yet complete.”
“What more do you have to do?”
The tentacled mechanic rushed off and came back with four or five of its hands holding a device that looked like a mechanical spider with a blender on its head.
“What is that?”
“A cloaking device.”
Zeke looked to Augie. Augie nodded excitedly. He spun back around to the cyborg.
“How long will it take?”
“Urgency fees will apply.”
Zeke ran over to the antigrav sled and grabbed a handful of the currency tiles and held them out to the cyborg. “Will this do?”
The mechanic briefly examined the assortment of tiles. Zeke had no idea how much money he was offering.
“We will hold the balance on your account.”
“Go,” Zeke said. “Make it snappy.”
Augie toggled the hatch to the hold.
“Come on,” he said as the doors hissed open. “Let’s get these supplies stowed!” He directed a ramp robot to the bay doors and started pushing the sled up the slope.
“Hold on,” Vibeke said. She leapt on the pile of swag and liberated several energy and projectile weapons. She tossed one to each of the party, then slung the strap of an ion rifle over her shoulder. Still standing on top of the pile, she slapped a power pack into the stock and threw the switch.
Harbinger slapped Zeke on the arm and pointed at her.
“Now that’s cinematic presence,” he said.
Qaant Yke brought his mysterious flying death-orb back out. Zeke wasn’t quite sure where the alien kept the thing when he wasn’t using it.
“To slay the Tozzk makes my mud vein sing of destruction!”
The others stopped what they were doing, turned, and stared.
“It sounds more elegant in the language of my forehatchers.”
“I’m sure it does,” Narissa said. “But won’t helping us constitute saving us again—and making you further—what was your word? Accountable?”
“If I am to answer for my crimes against fate—then I must survive.”
“Good,” Vibeke said from the top of the supply pile. She pointed to one of the back
corners of the landing bay. “Then cover that door. If they’re coming, it’ll be soon.”
Augie and Harbinger joined the mechanics at an open service port on the Friendly Card’s rear flank, and they got to work installing the cloaking device.
Zeke and Narissa pushed the sled up the slope and into the hold. Zeke had to move a pile of chunks from the old exterior hull, some of it still covered with space lichen. Narissa bounded back outside, drew her weapon, and stood cover for Augie and the others. Vibeke had taken cover behind a stack of battered old cargo modules and was watching the second door into the bay. Zeke ran over and jumped down next to her, a pulse hand cannon drawn. He loaded a cylinder, spun it, and slapped it home.
“Get aboard,” Zeke said. “Get us ready to leave in a hurry. I’ll cover this angle.”
“Is this you trying to be gallant again?”
“Even if they get that cloaker wired up, we’re still going to need the NeuralNav to get away. So, no, this isn’t me being gallant. This is me trying to make sure that at least some of us make it out of here. I’m more expendable than you are.”
“Wow—you really are being gallant. And really stupid. What happened to not being a hero?”
The sound of an explosion ended the debate. Suddenly the sound of heavy rapid-fire plasma rounds pounding the pressure doors echoed throughout the bay. The metal of each door started to glow.
“Get ready!” Narissa yelled.
“I’m sorry I threw that flask at you,” Vibeke said, taking aim.
“I had it coming.”
“Oh, I’m not denying that. I’m just saying I’m sorry I did.”
Suddenly both doors blew in and a thunderous storm of rusty iron and plasma fire crashed into the bay.
Zeke and Vibeke let loose, laying down suppressing fire and trying to keep the Tozzk from getting too far inside.
Qaant Yke moved with a speed and grace that was distinctly uncharacteristic of other crustaceans. He blurred as he dodged the plasma fire and his flying death ball shattered head after rusty head.
Narissa stood directly in front of Augie and the others, her finger clamped on the trigger of her weapon, letting loose with a steady barrage of angry photons.
Weapons fire was flashing in every direction, causing the air in the bay to rapidly heat up. Zeke fired pulse after pulse, then reloaded and fired more.
The Tozzk warriors stood in a tight line just inside the bay, returning fire. It occurred to Zeke, however, that the tranquility forces were not particularly good shots.
But then he realized that they were not the Tozzk’s target.
“They’re shooting at the ship!” he yelled. He ran across the deck to the installation spot and grabbed Harbinger. “They’re after the ship! We gotta go—now!”
“We gotta bigger problem than that,” he said, his face pale. He pointed at the wide row of boxy windows running the length of the bay’s main doors.
Outside the landing bay, the Tozzk warship was swinging around to point its massive guns directly at the landing bay.
“How soon before they’re done with the install?” Zeke asked.
“Not soon enough! We got maybe two minutes before the Squarenose is in firing position.”
Zeke spun on Augie. “Close it up! We’re leaving!”
“But we are not finished,” the mechanic reported.
“Just get out of here,” Zeke told them. “This is going to blow.”
The cyborg considered this information. “We will settle your account at a later time.”
Then he and his assistant were gone, ducked down through an access bay in the floor.
Augie and Harbinger closed up the port and along with Narissa, they dashed up the ramp to the hold. Zeke and Vibeke covered them, then Zeke waved Vibeke in.
“Qaant Yke!” he shouted. The alien was fully engaged in dealing death to his nutritional rivals. But as soon as Qaant Yke saw that they were getting ready to go, he loped across the deck and into the hold with a few long strides. When everyone was aboard, Zeke threw the switch to close the cargo bay door.
“Vibeke, power us up and prep to jet,” Zeke said as he spun the wheel lock.
Even with the hatch closed, the sounds of the plasma rounds against the hull was nearly deafening.
“Even a brand new hull isn’t going to stand up to that beating much longer,” Augie said.
“They’re not trying to kill us,” Zeke said.
“I beg to differ,” Narissa countered.
“We would have been collateral damage. It’s the ship they’re after. Apparently, whether it’s whole or in pieces doesn’t matter to them.”
“We installed defense shields,” Harbinger offered. “That’ll hold them off.”
“Overkill,” Augie said. “The new defense screens will suffice to protect the skin.”
“Will they protect us against those big guns outside?” Vibeke asked. “If not then I vote for the shields.”
“If I may,” Qaant Yke said.
They all turned.
“Go ahead,” Zeke said.
“The screens will resist the plasma fire,” the alien said. “But at this range, neither screens nor shields will withstand a direct hit from the Tozzk warship. If you activate the shields at the moment before the ship fires—when their weapon bore turns red—an explosive decompression originating from this range will cause their weapon to overload and detonate within the ship.”
“What about the station?” Narissa asked.
“The damage will be substantial. But the modular nature of the structure will minimize it. If you do not do this, the Tozzk’s weapons will do much greater damage. I will have to answer for whatever happens.”
Harbinger activated a monitor and toggled one of the Card’s new scanners.
“The Squarenose is almost in position,” he said.
“Let’s light this candle then,” Zeke said. “Prep for a full burn, people. Come on, Vee.”
Zeke and Vibeke started for the bridge.
“Be careful, Zeke,” Augie said. “The new jets pack a punch.”
Zeke looked at Vibeke. “That’ll mean some fancy flying. I’ll need you on the NeuralNav.”
“Way ahead of you, Travers,” she said, scrambling towards the cockpit. He followed her to the flight deck, and they quickly strapped themselves in.
“Didn’t we just do this?” Zeke asked, firing up his console and checking his gauges.
Vibeke made quick work of getting under the NeuralNav headgear.
“I was about to say we make a pretty decent team,” she said.
“Don’t get all sentimental on me, Doctor Helstrom.”
“No value judgment intended. I was just making a statement of fact.” She finished plugging herself in and threw the switch. Her eyes glazed over. “Holy moly.”
“Throw some cold water on that,” Zeke said as he calibrated the stabilizers. “Are you patched into the navigation matrix?”
“And how!”
“When we initiate the shields, the explosion’s gonna spit us out along with everything else in this bay. We need to make sure that we don’t end up getting crammed up that ship’s weapons maw. The proximity and timing will be critical.”
Vibeke blinked a few times. “Well, what do you know? That’s new.”
“What?”
“Initiating launch protocols,” she said, and the cockpit came to life around her. The control stick at Zeke’s station pulled out of his grip and started moving on its own. He leaned back and raised his hands clear of the console.
“You can drive this boat?”
“I think so,” she said. “More of the ship’s navigational network is tangible to me. Engaging maneuvering thrusters.”
With a roar, the Friendly Card rocked and lifted from the deck. Outside, the Tozzk warriors hadn’t given up. They had the ship surrounded and were pummeling the hull with hot plasma from all sides.
The Card had very little room to maneuver inside the landing bay, but Vibeke mana
ged to pull up the ship’s nose so that a number of the attacking soldiers got sprayed against the wall.
“Nice going,” Zeke said.
“Just be ready to engage those shields,” she said. “Where is the Squarenose?”
Zeke checked a screen. “Almost in position. They’re not the most agile, these Tozzk ships.”
“Probably trading inertial management for power.”
“Sounds like them.”
“Calibrating departure bearing,” she said, and the ship lurched like it was doing a backflip. Suddenly, the landing bay’s ceiling filled the viewport, less than five meters from the Card’s nose cone.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked.
“Watch those weapons bores!”
The ship hovered at station-keeping, pointing straight up relative to the deck.
“Initiating main thrusters,” she said, and a deep rumble throbbed through the ship.
Zeke watched the screen as the Tozzk ship finally aligned its significant prow to the landing bay.
The weapons bores lit up the color of a red giant.
“Weapons hot!” Zeke yelled.
“Shields!” Vibeke cried.
Zeke punched the button. The rest happened in several shavings of a second.
An invisible, undeniable wall of force projected from all sides of the ship and pulverized any remaining Tozzk warriors—along with the walls they had been smashed against.
As the walls crumpled outward, the landing bay doors buckled and lost their integrity.
The bay doors blew.
The explosive decompression threw the ship, belly first, out into space. For a nightmare instant, Zeke saw the top edge of the Squarenose from the very bottom of the viewport—coming extremely fast.
The Friendly Card’s new thrusters kicked in, and they shot straight up their z-axis, out of the Tozzk’s firing cone, and away from the explosive decompression that had thrown them.
“Woo-HOO!” Vibeke yelled.
The Card streaked through the blue-green mist of the surrounding nebula and swung around to face the station.
In the viewport, the Tozzk ship rocked against the force of the explosion. The shrapnel of the landing bay spread out from the hole in the side of the station like ripples on a pond.