When Stars Fall (The Star Scout Saga Book 4)

by GARY DARBY

  Centering the Zephyr’s nose on the dark archway that marked the warship’s hangar bay opening, Jadar tapped the velocity control, accelerated the ship just a bit and eased the little craft into the cavernous compartment.

  He sideslipped the craft to the side, cut his thrusters, and the ship settled down on its tripods. “Dani,” he called out over the comms, “we’re in, close the doors. I’m on my way up.”

  “Bay doors closing,” Dani replied.

  Jadar pushed back his acceleration bars and said to Staley, “Keep your team here, I’m headed for the bridge. I’ll let you know what’s going on, especially if things go sour.”

  He hustled back to the small sick bay where Stinelli was attending to an injured scout. “Sorry to interrupt, doc, but I need for you to get suited up again. We’re heading for the Mongan site so we may need your unique talents real soon.”

  “Just finishing up here,” Stinneli replied, “she’s the worst. The rest are relatively manner and can wait until we’re in the clear.”

  Jadar slipped out the airlock and jogged back up to the bridge. Jy turned as he entered and grinned wide. “Great work, colonel.”

  “Thanks, but let’s save the accolades until we’re safely out of here. What about our Mongan friends?”

  “Maintaining stations,” Jy answered.

  Jadar glanced over at the Torther Ape SimLife that squatted against a bulkhead. “Doc,” he asked, “are you linked in?”

  The ape raised a hand in response.

  Jadar peered at the vu-screen, and a small smile played across his lips. “Listen up, everyone,” he began, “change in plans.” He motioned toward the viewer, “Dani, see those thunder boomers in the distance?”

  Raising a puzzled face up to him, she nodded. To her nod, he explained, “We’re going to use them for camouflage. Keep going on this heading. In about ten minutes, I want you to turn us into that line of storms. Stay in them until we’re just across from the complex.”

  Over his shoulder, he called out, “Doc, this is where you come in. We’ll use the t-storms to hide our movements, once we’re at our attack point, we three will get in the battle pod. You fly us out of the storm, right at the Mongan facility.

  “We open fire; blow it to kingdom come and then you shoot us out of there, up through our high-flying buzzard friends and hot-jet it to the nebula.”

  Dani and Jy just stared at Jadar until Jy mumbled, “Never mind about my Uncle Jethro, colonel, even he wouldn’t have thought of that.”

  “Dani?” Jadar asked.

  “I like it,” she quickly replied. “They’ll never know what hit’em.”

  For several minutes, the ship moved in a slow and ponderous motion through the night sky. Jadar kept a watchful eye on the massive and violent storms.

  They paralleled the churning wall clouds for a minute and then Jadar nodded to his pilot. “It’s time, Dani, turn us.”

  “Aye, sir, coming around,” Dani answered.

  In a slow arc, the great ship began to turn into the looming storm cells. Lightning strokes flashed through the sky, illuminating the dark, swirling clouds. Within moments, the vessel slipped into the storm’s churning front wall.

  The warship pushed through the thunderous winds, and only a muted, low rumble marked the torrential rain that pounded on its skin. “How’s she handling?” Jadar asked Dani.

  “Not bad, a bit sluggish,” Dani answered. “But I’m glad we’re in this big brute, I’d hate to try and push a Zephyr through this.”

  Jadar glanced at the vu-screen where the water seemed to bounce away from the viewer’s outer skin. “Hydrostatic shield,” he muttered to himself.

  Giving Dani a little pat on the shoulder, he directed, “I think we’re deep enough into the storms, make your turn and bring us around to our back azimuth.”

  With light fingers, she touched several controls and the ship turned in a slow arc. “Reversing course, coming about,” she stated.

  Jadar glanced at his field chronometer. “I made it just over nine minutes at our turn point,” he observed. “What do you have?”

  “The same,” Dani replied.

  “Then, we go nine minutes back,” Jadar instructed. “That should get us pretty close for what we have to do.”

  “As my Uncle Jethro would say,” Jy muttered, “close enough for guv’mint work,” Jy muttered.

  Lightning scored the sky with dazzling, jagged bolts of white light. Sun-hot spears hit the ship as if it was a giant lightning rod, but it flew unaffected through the torrential tempest.

  “Coming up on nine minutes,” Jadar called out. “Dani, bring her around. Doc, get ready to take the controls.”

  A moment later, Dani spoke up to say, “Turn complete, sir, headed out.”

  Jadar waved at the SimLife. “Doc, it’s time for you to do your thing.”

  Dani jumped out of the pilot’s chair as the ape lumbered over to the controls. “Now doc, listen,” Jadar directed, “take us straight toward the complex, don’t try anything fancy. One pass and then punch us out of there. Got it?”

  The ape gave a sharp nod in response. Jadar turned to the waiting Jy and Dani. “Remember; we want to destroy the mine. Forget about the ships on the ground. Hit their buildings, equipment, power couplings, the mine shaft, anything that seems connected to that mining operation.”

  He drew in a deep breath and let it out. “We get one pass at this, so make it good. Got it?”

  At their nods, he hooked a thumb at the three chairs. “Let’s go.”

  They flung themselves into the battle pod chairs. Jadar slapped at his comms and said, “Staley, we’re beginning our run at the Mongan complex. Power the Zephyr up and put it into standby mode for emergency boost-out.”

  “Roger!” she answered.

  He checked his board, saw that all controls were operational, and called out to his companions, “Weapons up?”

  “I’m up,” Dani answered in a high-pitched, tight voice.

  “Good to go!” Jy shouted over to Jadar.

  Jadar swung his head around and one side of his mouth lifted in a lopsided grin. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was flying inside a thunderstorm without anything around him to ward off the rain, wind, and lightning.

  He nearly laughed at the thought that he was like mighty Zeus on Mount Olympus about to throw jagged bolts of lightning down on the earth far below.

  Clearing his mind of such distracting thoughts, he settled himself into the battle chair, running his hands over the controls, ensuring himself that he knew every part of the battle array and was ready for the next few minutes.

  The clouds parted and they were out of the storm and into the clear air. Jadar took one quick scan and called out, “There it is, off our starboard beam. Doc, come right five degrees and accelerate.”

  In answer, the ship swung slightly to the right and picked up speed.

  Tense seconds went by until Jadar called out softly, “Stand by . . . stand by . . . and . . . fire!”

  A thunderous barrage of laser shots pulsated outward, as fast and as lethal as any lightning bolt. Jadar held his fire control down, letting his laser spew out a whip of white-hot energy. He passed it over the nearest buildings and watched with satisfaction as they exploded in balls of fire.

  He sliced through the power couplings and tubes that ran from the buildings and ships into the pit.

  After that, he poured laser fire into the yawning mine pit, hoping to set off the Kolomite ore that he felt sure lay below in significant quantities.

  A series of booming explosions sent an enormous mass of rock and debris cascading into the pit’s black maw.

  As the ship flashed away from the Mongans, he whipped his laser beam around to get in several final laser bursts at the mining compound.

  Numerous columns of fire blasted skyward; geysers of pure flame. He flinched a little when his laser whip caught Mongans trying to flee the carnage and watched as their bodies literally exploded from the energy burst.
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  The ship began to tilt upward, powering toward the upper atmosphere. “Multiple ships breaking formation,” Jy shouted, “accelerating directly at us.”

  Jadar swung his head to starboard and caught glints of sunlight off metal. The ships were close enough that he could visually see them. “Dani, take the ones to port, Jy, you’ve got starboard, I’ll cover the center. Fire at will!”

  Jadar lined his targets up and pressed down on his fire control. Brilliant bursts of scarlet lasers shot out from the cruiser. Jadar felt the chair rock in a gentle back-and-forth motion from each laser bolt that rocketed outward.

  Their lasers peppered the oncoming warships, sending huge plumes of crimson and orange molten metal and fire streaming into the sky.

  “Keep firing!” Jadar commanded. “There’s more breaking formation and coming in!”

  Without warning, a white-hot burst of light, so intense and bright that it caused Jadar to duck and cover his eyes washed over the accelerating ship.

  For just a second, colors danced in front of Jadar’s vision. When it cleared, he saw that one Mongan battleship had disintegrated from a titanic explosion, leaving nothing except a few glowing fragments of metal arcing through space.

  Jadar watched with satisfaction when two of the attacking vessels seemed to slow and turn away from the incoming fire. His feeling of triumph was replaced by shock when their ship lurched to one side and then appeared to swerve at a cross angle.

  “We’re taking heavy incoming!” Jy yelled.

  Another blast from behind caused the ship’s bulkheads to shudder as if someone beat on them with a sledgehammer. Jadar whirled his head around and saw from his battle sensor that they had four ships on their tail. “Dani, Jy, concentrate on the ships at our stern, they’re after our engines.”

  Seconds later, the three’s concerted fire seemed to merge in one continuous stream of scarlet light that tore and ripped apart the outer bulkheads of two of their attackers.

  They brought their fire around to take on another Mongan warship, and the two craft exchanged barrages until, in one enormous detonation, the Mongan vessel exploded, sending huge chunks of metal and debris outward in a colossal, expanding fireball.

  Without warning, their ship careened to one side from the broadside of an unseen attacker. Another blast sent the ship bucking upward, as if a giant fist had punched it from underneath.

  More direct hits rocked the ship back and forth, plunging them into darkness for an instant before the lights sputtered back into life.

  The iridescent alien characters on Jadar’s control board started to flicker and short out. A smell of smoke wafted through the air, and a high-pitched whine filled the air.

  “Jy! Dani!” he called out, “I’m losing my control functions, what about you?”

  “I’ve lost everything,” Dani called back. “Nothing’s responding.”

  “Same here,” Jy yelled.

  “That’s it,” Jadar declared, “they must’ve hit a vital spot. We can’t do any more good here, time to go.”

  He sprang from the chair just as another massive blow to the vessel sent him reeling across the compartment. He grabbed the control panel and pulled himself over to where the ape was manipulating the controls.

  “Doc, we’re headed to the Zephyr, are you still able to maintain control of the ship?” The ape raised a quick paw in affirmation.

  Jadar pushed at Dani and Jy. “Go, go!” he ordered.

  The three sped down the corridor, headed for the hangar bay. Jadar whipped around a tight corner just as another blast seemed to lift the ship straight up, sending all three crashing into a side bulkhead.

  Pulling up off the floor, Jadar reached over to help Dani up. Around them came the shriek of metal tearing and splitting, and from within the craft’s bowels came a grating, groaning sound that wafted upward, as if the ship itself was in deep pain from the repeated lashing of sun-hot lasers.

  “She can’t take much more of this,” Jadar called out. “She’s gonna split apart. Run for it!”

  Sprinting as if a pack of Mongan devil dogs were on their heels, the three sped through the thickening smoke and fire until they burst into the hangar bay.

  They scampered across the metal deck and somehow managed to squeeze all three of them into the Zephyr’s airlock.

  “Tell Stinneli to open the hangar doors, now!” Jadar bellowed at Dani as he all but dove out from the airlock and bolted for the pilot pod, pushing people out of the way left and right.

  Slamming into the pilot’s chair, he ground out, “She’s breaking up. We’ve got to get out of here before she blows.”

  Jadar looked out to where the giant hangar doors should have opened, but the doors remained locked in place. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, open up!” he yelled.

  He turned to Staley, “Is your weapons board up and running? We may have to blast our way out of this.”

  “All green lights,” she declared.

  Pounding footsteps behind him caused Jadar to turn. Breathing hard, Dani burst into the pilot’s pod. “Stinneli’s trying to open the doors,” she said in a rush of words. “But the engineering decks must have taken a direct hit, he’s losing power and control, but we’re almost to the nebula.”

  Staley turned to Jadar with anxious eyes. “Doctor Stinneli is piloting the Mongan ship? But he was just—”

  Jadar held up a quick hand to stop her. “He’s here, in the Zephyr with us, it’s a long story.”

  Like a boxer who’s hit in the face from one vicious blow after another, the ship lurched violently to one side and then the other, throwing Dani to the floor in a heap.

  Huge shards of metal cascaded down upon the little Zephyr making those inside feel as if they were in a tin can during a hailstorm.

  “We can’t just sit here!” Jadar exclaimed and cut in his belly thrusters to lift the Zephyr off the hangar deck. He sideslipped the craft to one side to avoid the stream of bulkhead fragments plummeting downward from the ceiling.

  Another gigantic explosion sent an eruption of sparks and hot metal fragments spewing into the air to rain down upon the Zephyr. Staley reached out to grip Jadar’s arm and yell, “Look!”

  A whirlwind of smoke and haze whooshed through a large hole in the cruiser and into space. “Too small,” Jadar ground out. “We can’t fit through there, you’re gonna have to make it bigger.”

  “We’re too close,” she answered. “We could get caught in the back blast.”

  “No choice,” Jadar replied, his expression taut and hard. “Do it or we’re going down with this ship!”

  Jadar whipped the Zephyr around to aim it straight at the hole. Staley leaned over and pressed the “Fire” button for the cannon.

  Instantly, an ion impulse shot out from the Zephyr. Shredded metal spewed outward, leaving a gaping hole in the warship’s side.

  Jadar fought to keep the Zephyr from crashing against a side bulkhead from the powerful shock pulse that coursed through the compartment.

  As the smoke cleared, Jadar took one look and applied full power to his main thrusters. Like a bullet coming out of an old-style rifle, the little craft shot through the puncture and into the starlit sky.

  “Whoa!” Staley yelled and none too soon.

  Their escape route had them careening straight into a Mongan cruiser. Jadar started to bring the Zephyr around to evade the Mongan warship, but at the last second, dipped the ship’s nose down and headed straight at the battle craft.

  “Sir, with all due respect, just what are you doing?” Staley gasped out. “We can’t attack that thing.”

  “We’re not,” Jadar answered crisply. “But we are going to get so close that those other bruisers won’t try to fire at us for fear of hitting their dear comrades.”

  He yelled over his shoulder, “Dani! Get Stinneli up here, pronto!”

  In rushed words, Jadar asked Staley, “Take a look back, is our former home still together?”

  Jadar pushed the Zephyr hard through a qu
ick series of evasive S-turns. Staley scanned their back trail before she snapped her head around to Jadar. “Yes, but for how long I don’t know. It’s more of a hunk of Swiss cheese than a ship.”

  A sudden blast from a powerful cannon laser shot past the Zephyr, leaving Jadar blinking from the colored lights that danced across his vision. He heeled the craft hard over, diving under the Mongan cruiser.

  “I think they finally noticed us,” Jadar commented dryly.

  Stinneli stuck his head into the pilot’s pod. “I’m here,” he stated.

  “Do you have any control left with the ship?”

  “Some,” Stinneli admitted, “but it’s not much.”

  Jadar wrenched the little ship to the side just as another bolt flashed overhead. He turned and rapidly said, “Doc, back in the days of the Roman Empire, their sea galleys had these extended beams from their prows that they used as ramming weapons during sea battles.”

  He corkscrewed the ship to make it harder for the Mongans to get their sights on the jitterbugging ship before he turned back to Stinneli. “Pretty effective except that you had to get close enough to the enemy ship, which, of course, would be doing its best not to get rammed.”

  With a grunt, he threw the Zephyr over on its side just as a scarlet bolt passed within meters. “I think it’s time we tried that old Roman tactic.”

  He squinted up at Stinneli. “Think you can do it?”

  A little smile played across Stinneli’s face. “I don’t know, but wouldn’t that be great?”

  “You get one shot at it, doc,” Jadar remarked briskly. “If it doesn’t work, I’m running and gunning for the nebula.”

  “Understood. Let’s do it,” Stinneli answered and flipped his linkage hood back down over his head.

  Jadar glanced at his scope. “Okay, we got three ships in proximity, keep an eye on those two that are close together.”

  He leaned toward Staley. “If they come after us, the party’s over. In the meantime, let’s see if we can get this bruiser’s attention.”

  She nodded as Jadar swung the Zephyr around and shot back toward the nearest Mongan cruiser. The warship opened up with a full series of cannon shots, but Jadar corkscrewed his craft through the multitude of shots.