by Trevor Wyatt
Kaine laughed. Then, moving fast, he brought one arm up and punched Tira in the face as hard as he could. She went flying to the side, crashing against one of the CNC walls.
Jumping up, he took two steps to his left and quickly pushed three buttons. The dispassionate computer’s voice came over the speakers. “Warning—self-destruct sequence initiated. Self-destruct sequence initiated.”
Kaine’s laughter became louder. “You think I don’t know who you are, Tira Avae? You have a choice to make, sweetheart, stop me or save your dear captain. Go ahead, try to get him off the station, you don’t have enough time.”
You think I don’t know who you are, Tira Avae? His words echoed inside her head like thunder, but Tira didn't have the time to stop and think.
His laughter mocked her as she grabbed Jeryl’s nearly-unconscious body and carried him off the CNC. Clicking on her comm, she told Tua to get off the station as they reached the lift.
She punched the lift’s wall in impatience, swearing that the lift was slower than anything else in the history of mankind. The lift stopped, and as the door opened, Tira looked out with her rifle at the ready. Nothing was there, so she lowered her rifle then picked up Jeryl, helping him to his feet. His legs almost buckled, and she was forced to help him stand for a few moments before he was able to stand on his own.
“We need to go!”
Jeryl’s voice croaked back. “Lead the way.”
Chapter 34
Tira
Tira dragged Jeryl into a large passageway that writhed around the entire space station like a rogue vine around a tree’s trunk.
It was as if they had walked into chaos.
“Down!” Tira bellowed, leaping into the air and crashing into Jeryl just as particle beams sliced through the air. They both crashed into a bulkhead that jutted into the corridor like a mistake.
“There’s too many of them!” Tira yelled, peering around the bulkhead. She could see seven of Kaine’s men, taking up strategic positions all the way down to the point where the hallway cornered out of view.
The hallway was lined with a transparent glass, through which they could see the ongoing space battle. It was total chaos, Hunters flying around, shuttles exploding and starships barreling into other starships.
Shit! Tira thought as she saw a Hunter pilot get shot in the engines. The Hunter lost control and began plunging straight for the space station’s glass.
“Fuck!” Tira blurted, instinctively throwing herself over Jeryl, whatever good that would do.
In her periphery, she saw the Hunter crash into the space station’s shield and get incinerated upon contact. The impact, however, caused the entire corridor to flare with a bright white light and the entire section to tremble like an earthquake.
Tira took advantage of this and bolted into the open. She rolled across the hallway, aimed, and fired. She switched aim and fired again. She leapt back into the safety of the bulkhead, just as two out of the seven men fell to the ground, dead.
“Give me a weapon,” Jeryl suddenly said.
His hoarse voice was like a shock to her. She glanced at him. His skin was ghostly white.
That can’t be good, she thought.
His eyes almost looked like the eyes of the dead. There was still a five finger imprint on his neck, which had metamorphosed into a nasty reddish black bruise.
Tira performed her assessment in the twinkle of an eye and concluded that she couldn’t trust him with a weapon.
At that moment, she sensed a presence. The soldiers across the hallway were still firing in her direction, but there was someone else approaching as well. Tira knew this tactics. Suppression fire tactics.
She sneered softly. Child’s play.
When she was sure that the approaching soldier was within reach, she swiftly bent out of the cover. She saw the soldier—a lanky, wide-eyed man with a Tyreesian shocker rifle and a face full of scars.
Tira quickly aimed.
The soldier paused for a moment, stricken with terror as he saw her.
“Die, motherfucker!” she roared and fired off a series of bullets. She pulled back into the cover less than a second after.
“Tira, we can’t keep doing this,” Jeryl managed to say. His breathing was so labored, Tira feared for him.
“Sorry, Captain, but you don’t look to be in such a good shape,” she said.
Tira looked at him one more time. Jeryl’s eyes were glassy, and he was having difficulty keeping his head straight. His hands were lax at his sides, his fingers spread out like as one with paralysis.
Tira hunched instinctively as a particle beam flash cut through the bulkhead before her. The soldiers were closer.
“You don't have a choice,” Jeryl said with a smile on his face. “This space station will explode any moment from now.”
Tira leaped up to a squat and fired randomly into the hallway. As she was doing this, she swept the path to the bend ahead, taking note of every soldier between her and her prize. Then she bent down just as the soldiers began returning fire.
Tira pulled out a pistol from her holster and handed Jeryl the weapon, butt first. Jeryl gripped the weapon, checking its balance in his hands and smiling.
“Now, let’s kill these guys and get off this damn space station,” Jeryl said.
“I have an idea. A crazy one,” Tira replied.
Jeryl groaned as he pulled himself off the bulkhead and squatted with Tira.
“Four bogeys remaining,” she said. “Three by view glass and one by the wall. I’ll take the three by the view glass, while you take the one by the wall. They are about ten yards out. Got it?”
Jeryl looked at her blankly for a few seconds. It seemed as though he was having problems understanding her assessment. But then he nodded and looked ahead.
“Got it,” he said.
Tira kept her gaze on him for a while. Don’t fuck this up, sir, she didn’t dare to say.
“What’s your idea?” Jeryl asked, “And stop looking at me like I’m going to do something stupid.”
Tira smirked. “Sorry, sir.” She glanced at the transparent view glass to the left through which they could see the raging battle.
“If we could get one of the enemy’s shuttle to crash on this side of the space station, the flare could give us—”
“A flash bang effect,” Jeryl said. “Good. Do it.”
Tira brought her wrist device to her mouth. “Powers, come in.”
“Go for Powers,” a strained voice replied. “Fuck!” There was an attending explosion that lingered.
“Powers?”
“Still here, Tira,” he said.
“We’re on the south side of the space station, in the hallway where there’s a transparent view glass,” Tira spat. “Can you see it?”
The question hung in the air for a minute before Powers replied.
“Roger that. I see four bogeys advancing to your position,” he replied calmly. “How can I help?”
“Tell him to fire a torpedo on the bogey’s position instead,” Jeryl muttered. “He couldn’t get a shuttle to crash directly into the space station at this angle.”
Tira nodded and relayed the captain’s instruction to Powers.
“Are you sure about that?” he asked. “The station’s shield is already weak.”
“Do it, Powers,” Tira said.
“Roger that,” Powers said. “Hold on to something. Wait—sorry, there’s nothing to hold on to.” Then he laughed and the line went dead.
Fucking retard, Tira thought with a little smile.
In the chaos of the space battle, Tira saw a Hunter pull out of the dogfight, make a high turn, and begin to descend towards their side of the space station.
“Get ready, sir,” Tira said. “You have the one of the right, while I have the three on the left. Shut your eyes, sir. And move out on—”
“Tira, stop worrying about me, will you?” Jeryl snapped. “I’m well able to hold my own.”
“Sorry—”
The torpedo struck the space ship, rocking it to its root. The flare this time was more intense, the sound splitting ears.
Tira and Jeryl shot out of the bulkhead’s protection at the same time. Tira threw herself towards the nearest soldier, smacking his forehead with her weapon and knocking him out cold. Before he collapsed to the ground, she grabbed him, and used him as a body shield. Then she shot the remaining two dead center in their heads.
Tira finished off the soldier on her hand, then she turned to see if Jeryl needed help. She saw Jeryl looking back at her, standing over the dead body of the fourth bogey, who now had a hole through his head.
Jeryl smiled and said, “See, I told…”
And he collapsed.
Tira ran to him and caught him before he hit the ground. “Were you hit?” she asked immediately, checking his body for signs of bleeding.
“No,” Jeryl said, “just still tired.”
“Well, we need to get out of here.”
“The Seeker...”
“The Seeker's safe, Captain,” she told him, looking out as the hulking shape of The Seeker freed itself of the station, another battleship towing it out.
Tira helped Jeryl down the corridor. At the point where the corridor cornered, they paused, bringing their guns to bear. Once they saw that the other part of the hallway was deserted, they hobbled the rest of the way until they got to an escape pod.
It was a small section that looked some kind of outgrowth from outside the space station, but was in fact an escape pod.
Tira operated the controls, opening the doors. Jeryl helped himself in, while Tira followed. The moment she entered, the door opposite the pod opened up, and a contingent of soldiers poured in.
Tira had the advantage of surprise, which she took quite well. She fired off a few rounds, right after she tapped the eject button.
Three soldiers fell dead as the escape pod slid shut and shot off into space. Tira, who wasn’t strapped in, was forced into the back of the vessel, smacking her head against the surface.
Almost immediately, they were struck from the side by debris from the space station. The impact caused the engine to explode, throwing them into an uncontrolled spin.
“Shit!” Tira said, fighting the pain in her head that threatened to send her into unconsciousness. She reached for the seat opposite Jeryl and strapped herself in.
“What happened?” Jeryl said.
“We lost our engine. We’re still within orbit of the space station.”
“If it explodes…” Jeryl started.
“We go with it,” Tira said. She brought her wrist device to her mouth and said, “Mayday. Mayday. This is Tira, I’m with Captain Montgomery. We’ve lost engine power. We need help.”
“I copy you, Tira,” a familiar voice said. “Hunter to your six.”
Tira glanced at Jeryl, whose eyes had widened in shock.
“It’s Commander Gavin, sir,” Tira said, stating the obvious.
Almost immediately, they felt a sharp tug as a Hunter fixed an electromagnetic latch on the escape pod and began moving them to safety.
Just a few seconds later and the station exploded in a glorious flash of yellow and orange. They watched it happen through the tiny port in the escape pod. The hulking station imploded, fire tongues licking at the fuselage, and every ship in the vicinity was either caught in the explosion or the shock wave.
“Rest in pieces, motherfucker,” Tira said, Kaine's image floating in her mind.
Chapter 35
Jeryl
The hall echoed with the dull footsteps of officers.
Jeryl sat with Ashley by his side. They were both dressed smartly in the military white of command officers of the Terran Armada. Waiting on a bench adjacent to the main entrance into the briefing room, they looked at each other and smiled.
The waiting hall was huge with a vaunted ceiling. The ground had been painted with imagery of the beauty of space, making it look as it it were filled with twinkling stars and famous Armada starships.
Closer to the center of the great hall—which was really a large hallway—were paintings of The Ghost and The Seeker side by side. Two champions of the Earth-Sonali War. Even the Phantom or Firestorm didn’t come close to what they did to ensure humanity’s survival and eventual victory.
Jeryl didn’t know how solemn he had become until Ashley put her hand on his.
“I know how you feel,” she whispered, briefly looking up at the officers passing by.
Jeryl shook his head. How could you possibly know?
“Kaine was the most dedicated captain I knew,” Jeryl said. “He taught me a lot. I’m a decent enough captain because...because of him.”
Jeryl paused and examined The Ghost’s image on the ground. Even in the stream of sunlight from the high windows that washed the entire ground in a golden flood, The Ghost’s outline still had that ghostly feel. The artist had been able to capture its needle-like appearance, its darkly innards and the general stealthy feel.
In contrast, The Seeker was a hulking vessel. Bulky, huge, almost graceless and ready to battle. Near the twin vessels was another set of two vessels: Phantom and FireStorm, both of which were large and sleek. It was as though the engineers took the best of The Seeker and The Ghost and mashed them up to make superior vessels.
Jeryl only hoped that these vessels had superior captains.
“I know what it’s like to have your whole world turned upside down,” Ashley said. “I mean, look at me. I felt the same way when I discovered I was pregnant.”
Jeryl looked at his wife, her statement catching his attention. She was as beautiful as the day he had first met her—the real her, not the stereotyped executive officer that washes out of the Academy.
Weary stripes lined her forehead. Her eyes were a bit sunken in their sockets. Her cheeks were puffy. However, the paleness of her skin betrayed the stress she’d had to endure these past few days and weeks.
His eyes dropped to her abdomen. Her uniform had blotted any sign of a pregnancy. He could tell she was still getting used to the idea. Heck, he was still getting used to the idea.
Jeryl smiled at his wife and said, “How are you holding up?”
Ashley shrugged. She can be defensive when it came to the pregnancy and how it affected her work.
“I’m doing just fine,” she replied.
Jeryl nodded, closing his eyes for a moment and kneading his temple. “It’s been crazy these past few days, hasn’t it?”
Ashley gave a short laughter.
“More than crazy,” she replied. “You gave us more reason to worry during this mission than during the Earth-Sonali War.”
“That is so not true,” Jeryl replied amidst a wave of laughter.
“Honestly, Jeryl,” she replied, her face straight. She tried say something, but when Jeryl looked into her eyes, she held her tongue.
“I want what’s best for you and our child,” Jeryl said. “I just don’t know how to do that and be a captain.”
“I know,” Ashley replied.
There was a short, sweet silence between the two. Jeryl wished it would stretch for another few minutes, because for the first time since The Ghost fleet debacle, he was enjoying the warmth of his wife’s presence.
Ashley leaned into Jeryl and planted a kiss on his right cheek.
“I love you, Captain Montgomery,” she whispered into his ears. “Never forget that.”
Jeryl was about to reply, when an ensign marched out of the briefing room. He snapped into a salute and Jeryl saluted back.
“Captain Jeryl Montgomery,” he said officiously.
“Yes?” Jeryl replied.
“The Admirals are ready to see you.”
Jeryl squeezed his wife’s hands. They both shared a smile before he followed the ensign through a door. The door led into a hallway that ended in a small antechamber where two other ensigns operated workstations.
“Through that door, sir,” the ensign who’d come to fetch him sa
id.
Without a word, Jeryl walked into the briefing room.
Among the Admirals in the session were the commander of the Terran Armada, the commander of the Terran Armada Intelligence, the Director of the TAIOC and Admiral Flynn.
All parties concerned had already received a full briefing packet before now, so Jeryl simply summarized what he had sent to them. There weren’t many questions to be asked, except some clarifications on how deeply Kaine was in league with the Tyreesians. After these clarifications, they discussed how they would react to the Tyreesians’ machinations.
About an hour and a half after Jeryl walked into the briefing room, he walked back out into the great hall. Ashley was still waiting for him when he emerged.
“How did it go?” she said, standing up to meet him.
Jeryl shrugged. “As bland as it could’ve gone.”
“That’s odd,” she commented, the hint of a smile appearing on her lips. “There’s usually someone to blame for something even when missions go according to plan.”
Jeryl smiled. “It wouldn’t be the Armada if no one blamed anyone.”
They walked out of the complex laughing at their own joke. Their shuttle from The Seeker waited on the ground level air park.
“Take us to the Armada memorial,” Jeryl commanded the moment they were both seated and strapped in.
“Aye, sir,” replied the ensign at the control.
The shuttle lifted off into the air and dove south into the heart of the city.
When they landed at the memorial, there was a staff waiting to escort them to Kaine’s resting place. The pleasant middle-aged woman told them what they could and couldn’t do before she left them to it.
Jeryl stood over Kaine’s headstone in a paralyzing wonder. Ashley stood by his side quietly. It was one of the things he loved about her. She knew when silence was preferred. She knew when to talk. She knew him so well that he could trust her to do the right thing. This was why he knew she would do the right thing for their baby and family.