by G J Ogden
“To put it bluntly, sir, a surge like this will kick our collective asses,” Razor said, maintaining her stiff posture. “We learned a lot from the last surge, which means I can mitigate some of the effects. But there’s a reason these apertures aren’t used. It’s like trying to round the horn in extreme conditions, sir.”
“No-one has kicked our assess yet, Lieutenant. We can handle it,” Sterling replied. “The bigger question is, can the Invictus?”
“This is the toughest little ship I’ve ever seen, sir,” Razor replied. “It’ll take more than a surge to put it down.”
For someone who took obvious pride in her work, the engineer was not one to wear her heart on her sleeve. However, Sterling was buoyed to hear that his engineer had the same faith in the Invictus that he did.
“Make the arrangements, Lieutenant,” Sterling said. He then turned back to his helmsman. “Set a course for that aperture, Ensign, and prepare to surge.”
Keller acknowledged the order and set to work. The bridge quickly became a hive of activity and Sterling observed his crew with satisfaction. His Omega officers had performed exceptionally, but there was still more to be done. Unfortunately, one of the tasks Sterling still had left to perform was amongst the darkest he’d ever embarked on. However, he also accepted that it was necessary.
“Lieutenant Shade, lock torpedoes onto the station’s reactor core and prepare to fire,” Sterling said, glancing across to his weapons officer.
“Aye, sir,” Shade replied, with a funereal tone, like an ER doctor calling the time of death for a patient.
No-one on the bridge questioned the order or said a word. Sterling knew that at some level, each of his officers would feel the weight of what he was about to do. Each would feel the shame of it, whether they showed it or not. Yet each would also accept that Sterling’s actions, though abhorrent, were necessary. If he couldn’t rescue the prisoners on the Sa’Nerran science lab, he’d be damned if he’d allow the sadistic aliens to use them as lab rats.
“Torpedoes locked on, sir,” Shade said.
Sterling stood tall and folded his arms behind his back, staring out at the station as it began to slip into the distance.
“The Omega Directive is in effect,” Sterling announced, calmly. He then turned to Lieutenant Shade. “Fire.”
Lieutenant Shade executed the order and two torpedoes snaked out of the Invictus’ aft launchers. With the station’s defensive systems disabled, it was powerless to intercept the weapons. Moments later the torpedoes impacted on their target, causing a catastrophic reactor breach that consumed the station in a sunlike inferno. Sterling did not know how many human prisoners he’d just scarified. Thousands. Maybe even tens of thousands. Whatever the number, they could no longer be a part of the Sa’Nerra’s mind-controlled army. Nor could they be used as test subjects for the aliens’ depraved scientific experiments. Perhaps this made the act no less abhorrent, Sterling realized. Nevertheless, he could live with it.
“Approaching the aperture, Captain,” said Ensign Keller. The burden of the act was already pressing down on the young officer’s shoulders.
“Surge field recalibrated, Captain,” Razor chimed in from the rear of the bridge. “I’ve shut down all non-essential systems and sections in order to give the armor as much power as possible. Even so, it’s going to be a rough ride.”
“Understood, Lieutenant,” replied Sterling, resting forward on his console and sliding his fingers into the familiar grooves. He was about to give the order to surge, when his console began sounding a strident alert.
“Surge warning!” Lieutenant Razor called out; her voice suddenly frantic. “There’s something coming through the aperture.”
“Evasive maneuvers, Ensign!” Sterling called out. He then felt the kick of the thrusters push the Invictus away from the interstellar gateway.
“Ship emerging,” Razor added. “It’s going to be close!”
There was a flash of brilliant white light from the aperture, then collision alarms rang out across the bridge.
“One Sa’Nerran Heavy Destroyer has just entered the system,” Commander Banks called out. “Registry, M4-U1.” Banks slammed the palm of her hand down on her console and cursed. “Damn it, it’s MAUL.”
Sterling fixed the viewscreen onto the battle-scarred alien vessel. To his eyes, the warship looked even more disfigured than the last time he’d seen it, and no less hungry for battle.
“Target that ship, all weapons!” Sterling called out to Shade. He then turned to Keller. “Get us back on course to the aperture, Ensign, and do it fast.”
The cries of, “Aye sir,” were drowned out by the thump of weapons fire hammering into their hull. Every bone in Sterling’s body rattled from the impacts, but incredibly the Invictus was still in one piece. He peered down at his console, studying their scans of MAUL and realized why.
“Surging through that aperture has damaged MAUL too,” Sterling called out. “Keep us away from its main guns and focus on its engines. Hold it together, people, we can get through this!”
Flashes of plasma erupted from the Invictus’ turrets and blasts of energy raked across the pockmarked back of the infamous warship. MAUL returned fire and again the bridge was rocked.
“Point defense cannons just went offline,” Lieutenant Shade announced.
Sterling cursed. That left the Invictus vulnerable to conventional weapons.
“Armor failing,” Banks then called out. “Multiple hull breaches detected. Emergency bulkheads are in place and holding,” His first officer’s fingers flashed across her console before she spun around to address Lieutenant Shade. “Focus your fire on this section,” Banks said.
Sterling glanced at his console and noted the location that Banks had targeted. It was a secondary system and of limited importance. Sterling met his first officer’s eyes, full of questions, as more thuds hammered their ship.
“Trust me, Lucas,” Banks said, fixing his gaze.
Sterling’s questions remained, but his doubt vanished like a starship surging through the Void.
“Do it,” Sterling called out, turning to Shade.
Shade reacted instantly, unleashing their forward plasma rail cannons onto the Sa’Nerra’s most lethal warship. The blasts of plasma slammed into the ship, hitting one of its most densely armored-sections. The mighty vessel initially seemed to shrug off the attack, but then its engines faltered and stuttered, kicking the ship off-course.
“It won’t last long,” Banks said, as Sterling watched MAUL spiral into the distance. “We need to surge, now.”
“You heard the Commander, Ensign Keller,” Sterling called out, gripping the sides of his console so tightly his fingers burned.
“Aye, Captain,” Keller replied, turning the nimble Marauder back toward the aperture and kicking their engines into gear.
Another alarm rang out from Sterling’s console, but his weapons officer had clarified the cause before he’d had a chance to check it.
“Torpedo launch detected,” Lieutenant Shade called out. “Six weapons online and tracking, launched from the pursuing cruisers.”
“Pedal to the metal, Ensign...” Sterling added, trying to urge the helmsman and their beleaguered little ship on even harder.
“Surge field generator online and charged,” Sterling heard his engineer call out from behind him. “Parameters set. We’re ready.”
Sterling’s eyes were now locked ahead. The ping of the torpedoes drawing closer chimed out from his console, the interval between each note decreasing rapidly. With their point defenses offline, there was nothing he could do about them now. It was a race and one they had to win.
“Ten seconds to aperture perimeter!” Keller called out; his voice barely audible over the roar of their engines.
Sterling tapped his neural interface and reached out to the entire crew. “All hands, brace, brace, brace!” he announced.
Then the pings from the approaching torpedoes vanished, along with the space outside, t
he bridge, the ship, Sterling’s own body, and his entire crew. They were rounding the horn and there was no turning back.
Chapter 29
A very important patient
The long surge through the unstable aperture felt like falling into an abyss with no end. It was a curious paradox that Sterling had slipped between dimensions and essentially no longer existed, yet remained fully cognizant of this fact. Usually, a surge was so quick that there wasn’t time for a person’s mind to contemplate its disembodied state. However, this surge was different. This was truly a step into the unknown.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light, but instead of finding himself on the bridge of the Invictus, Sterling was back on the alien space station. A plasma pistol was in his hand and he was aiming it at the head of Commander Mercedes Banks.
“Don’t try to threaten me!” Colicos snarled.
Sterling frowned. He knew that he’d been here before and played out these events already, but for some reason he was compelled to repeat them. It was like he was being controlled.
Have I been turned? Sterling wondered, as Banks stared back at him, her body still paralyzed by the neural weapon Colicos had attached to her implant.
“You came all this way to find me, which means you won’t kill me now,” Colicos snorted, unaware that Sterling was trapped inside his own body – a silent observer of actions he’d already taken. “You can’t outsmart me, Captain, so don’t even try.”
“You’re right, I won’t kill you,” Sterling replied. The words came out of his mouth automatically and he was unable to prevent them. “But I will kill her.”
No, that’s not what I said! Sterling thought as his finger added pressure to the trigger. I didn’t shoot her, I shot you! I blasted your hand off!
Sterling fought against himself, but he was a prisoner in his own mind, unable to intervene.
“Captain, don’t shoot me!” Banks cried, as Sterling continued to squeeze the trigger. “Captain!” she yelled again, but then her cries were silenced by the fizz of the plasma pistol. Moments later, Banks’ headless body slumped to the deck and the smell of her burning flesh flooded his nostrils.
“No!” Sterling yelled, still unable to compel his body to bend to his will.
“Captain!”
Sterling opened his eyes and found himself face down on the deck of the Invictus’ bridge. The voice of Mercedes Banks was ringing in his ears.
“Lucas, are you okay?” said Commander Banks, helping to peel Sterling off the dimpled metal deck plates.
Sterling rocked back onto his knees then pressed his hands to his head, which seemed to be throbbing in synchronization with the pulse of the ship’s reactor.
“What the hell just happened?” Sterling asked, meeting Banks’ eyes. The memory of her headless body and the smell of her singed flesh was still raw in his mind, but he fought the sensations away. However, the sick feeling in his gut remained. “Did we complete the surge?”
Banks lifted Sterling to his feet and helped him back onto the command platform, which was several meters away. At some point, he must have been thrown clear of it, though he had no memory of that, or anything else beyond the point at which they’d surged.
“We made it through, but we’re in rough shape,” Banks said, operating Sterling’s console and bringing up the damage control screen. “Weapons are down and a dozen or more power conduits blew out after we emerged, but Razor is in engineering trying to sort it out.”
Sterling studied the data as best he could, considering that his mind was still cloudy and banging harder than a blacksmith’s hammer. Their engines were online and he could see that they were on-course for an aperture that would lead them to Thrace Colony. He glanced over and saw that Ensign Keller was at his post. However, the young officer was clinging on to the console for dear life, as if it were driftwood that he was using to stay afloat in rough seas.
“How long till we reach the aperture?” Sterling asked.
“A couple of hours at our current speed,” Banks replied. “Less if Razor can get the engines tuned up.”
Sterling nodded and switched the data feed on his console to show a readout of the unstable aperture. There was currently no indication that the Sa’Nerran ships were following them through, but Sterling knew they would. He’d taken their most prized, secret asset and the enemy would want Colicos back. Either that, or they’d simply destroy the Invictus to prevent the scientist from being returned to Fleet custody.
“MAUL and the other ships would have got a good scan of our surge field,” Sterling said, beginning to feel stronger and less queasy. “It will take them some time to re-calibrate their surge generators, but we should assume they’ll come.”
Banks nodded. “How long do you think we have?”
“Twenty, maybe thirty minutes,” Sterling replied, though he was merely guessing. The Sa’Nerra had engineered the apertures and so knew how they operated, but surging through them would still require a modification to their systems. “We know that surging through the unstable aperture kicked MAUL’s ass, so we can safely assume those older cruisers will take a beating too.” Sterling continued, dabbing blood from a cut on the top of his head. “We just have to hope it slows them down enough for us to reach the aperture and surge back into the Fleet side of the Void.”
Sterling’s console chimed, but Lieutenant Shade was quick to provide the update.
“Partial weapons restored, Captain,” said Shade. “The main rail guns are still offline.”
Sterling turned toward his weapons officer, who was the only person on the bridge who didn’t look like they’d been dragged through a carwash backwards.
“What about torpedoes?” Sterling asked.
“I can arm them, but the guidance systems are fried, sir,” Shade replied.
Sterling then had an idea. “Arm them and eject them in our wake, Lieutenant,” Sterling said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and any ships that come after us will run into them like mines.”
Shade acknowledged the command and soon after Sterling felt a dull thud through the deck as one of the torpedoes was expelled into space.
“Smart call,” said Banks. “The sensors on those old phase ones aren’t so sharp. It’s possible they’ll run into one or two of them on the way.”
Sterling then had another idea, though he suspected his first officer would like it less. “I’m going to launch a beacon through the Thrace Colony aperture, calling for help,” Sterling said, configuring the probe on his console.
“Who the hell would come to the aid of a Fleet warship in the Void?” said Banks. Then Sterling could practically hear the penny drop. Banks glowered at him and thrust her hands onto her hips. “Fletcher? You really think a mutineer will risk his neck for us?”
Sterling shrugged. “He was Fleet once. And I think he still has something to prove, to himself more than to anyone else.”
Banks sighed and shrugged. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I hope you’re right,” she admitted.
The probe raced out ahead and quickly vanished into the darkness. Sterling tracked the signal on his console. It was strong and clear.
“I think it’s time we spoke to our guest,” Sterling said, returning his attention to his first officer. “I want to make sure that asshole is worthy of all this trouble.”
“And if he’s not?” Banks asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
“Then we shove him in an escape pod and jettison him,” Sterling replied, flatly. “Maybe that will be enough to stop the Sa’Nerra coming after us.”
“And if he is worth it and we need to keep him?” Banks wondered.
Sterling huffed a laugh. “Then we’d better pray to whatever god or gods exist out here in alien space that we can outrun MAUL and those cruisers.”
This didn’t appear to be the answer Banks was hoping for, but it was the only one Sterling could give. He was used to being on the back foot, outnumbered and outgunned, but this time the odds weighed heavily against
them.
Sterling glanced back to Lieutenant Shade. “You have the bridge, Lieutenant,” he said, stepping down from the command platform. “If anything comes through that aperture, let me know at once.”
“Aye, Captain,” replied Shade, hustling over to the Captain’s console as Sterling and Banks departed.
Neither of them spoke as the two Omega officers hurried along the short corridor outside the bridge and into the waiting elevator. The sudden absence of other thoughts caused Sterling’s mind to wander back to his nightmare before Banks had roused him on the bridge. More than anything, these episodes were starting to piss him off.
“Thanks for not shooting me, by the way,” Banks said, as the elevator descended.
“What?” Sterling replied, jerking back from Banks. He knew she wasn’t in his thoughts at that moment, though she certainly seemed to be reading his mind.
Banks frowned. “Apologies, Captain. Just a bit of dark humor,” she replied. Sterling’s snappy response appeared to have confused her.
“No, don’t apologize, Mercedes,” Sterling said. He was used to Banks’ dark and often ill-timed quips. However, he wasn’t used to reacting in a knee-jerk fashion, as he had just done, and felt embarrassed because of it.
“Are you okay, Lucas?” Banks asked. “Maybe we should have Graves take a look at your head. You fell pretty hard.”
“Later,” Sterling replied, quick to dismiss the idea.
The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Banks stepped out first then froze, as if she’d seen a ghost.
“Shit!” Banks cursed, darting off ahead into the corridor.
Sterling followed, though he was less sure-footed than his first officer was, and found Banks a few meters ahead. She was crouched down and Sterling could see that her body was shaking.
“What it is?” said Sterling, moving alongside Banks.
Then he saw the reason for his first officer’s cry. Jinx the Beagle hound was lying on her side panting heavily. Sterling could see a trail of blood smeared along the deck, ending underneath the animal’s patchwork coat. The dog’s front-left leg appeared to be badly broken and the cause of its blood loss.