The Kinship of Stars

by Julie Ishaya

  Shiv fighters sped forward in a jagged line toward Imperial Command, heavy ion fire thumping at the shields of the lower hull until the fighters split from their path. Half of them angled over the galleon, the other half rolled below and started to sweep back up. Raptors from the Hellan fleet streaked in and engaged.

  "Call the drones to the outer defense of Imperial Command," Captain Fahl'gir told the nearest commander. The galleon jolted with the impact of a guided missile. "We have three layers of shielding," she assured Adam, who stood just behind her. "If they should even breach the first layer, the second is deflective. It will intensify the blasts and send them back out three times stronger than when they came in."

  "Just keep us away from that psionic field," Adam remarked. He examined the console with the schematic of the Shiv command ship. So far the field had not reached out to overtake another ship as it had the Shaytan. "Why don't they use it again?" Adam observed aloud.

  "Apparently it created a power drain in their neural engines," Fahl'gir suggested. She concentrated on the mini screens behind her mask. "Our diagnostics have determined a perimeter to that field's reach. We should be safe within three light units, at least until it builds back up again."

  "That's not very far," Adam said.

  "The outer shields will hold up against all ray-type fire, although particle canons will jar us. Missiles on the other hand—" She pointed at the main screen.

  Adam was slow to register this until he glanced up at the screen then made a double take. Six guided missiles seared through space right for the tachyon boosters along the under belly of the galleon. Four of them were taken out by drone fire before they came remotely within Imperial Command's perimeter, but two made it through to flare out against the lower shields.

  Adam cursed as the galleon rocked violently. Screens flickered around the helm and officers were thrown to the floor. Some grabbed on to the nearest console's edge or railing. As the ship steadied, Adam hurried up onto the bridge to contact the tabernacle.

  Asmodéus appeared on screen frowning. "Adam, condition report?"

  "We're back on our feet. What's the worst those missiles can do?"

  "Imperial Command's neural engine is more robust and resistant," the emperor said, "but it could still happen."

  "We can't depend on our own fighters to have time to defend us," Adam concluded. "We've got to do it ourselves. The Shiv are keeping the Hellan fleet too busy."

  "Send all weapons officers to their artillery posts to pick off the excess attack. You may establish neural targeting."

  Adam nodded and relayed the message to Captain Fahl'gir, then he returned to the bridge and finally took the seat at the upper rear of the platform. The back of the seat conformed to his body, and a connector meld issued from the head of the chair. Black filigree bands of neuro-tech developed out of the cushion and adhered to Adam's temples to involve a more direct link. An additional safety meld conformed around him and hardened as a precaution against bodily movement while accessing the link. He closed his eyes and became Imperial Command.

  Behind his vision, a virtual screen opened up to give him an uninhibited view of space and the spread of the fight. Adam had undergone practice simulations in neural targeting, but this was his first necessary engagement with the system. He suddenly saw the real reason his father had sent him. It wasn't just to relay messages; he had been given full power of the ship to use its greatest weapons as he chose, while the other officers operated manual systems on all the other decks.

  He focused on the Shiv fighters swarming beneath the galleon, determined to get a projectile through the shields to the tachyon system. One by one he willed Imperial Command's ion canons to pick off the Shiv fighters. The beams fired as though from his being, as though he himself floated out in space and the rays issued from his eyes and fingertips, even his teeth as his mind gnashed out with the maw of a beast. The fighters buzzed past him like flies in his face, and one by one he slashed them with claws of light. An omnipotent feeling teased him, though he remembered not to allow the galleon to drift within range of the Shiv command ship.

  Imperial Command's stern glided through the sparkling dust of fighters blasted apart, spreading out particles of glass and singed shelling. The hull ignited with ion impact that created a smear of luminous colors like oil on water over the shielding. The energy mirage faded in one place only to flare out in another, then another as the ion fire continued.

  The Shiv fighters began to dwindle from Adam's view, and there remained mostly raptors shooting after the organism ships. He withheld fire and panned across space until his view settled on the distant enemy command ship. He withdrew from the link and opened his eyes to the sight of the bridge and the rest of the helm. The meld released from around him.

  Captain Fahl'gir ascended the bridge and stood near the chair, crossing her arms. "Quite well for your first time," she remarked.

  "Thank you, Captain." He rubbed at one temple, finding something of a residual headache from the experience. He could still see outer space when he blinked, the view lingering on the mind's retina.

  "It's not over yet," she warned him, "but we have eliminated over half of their forces." Then she smiled proudly, showing the sharp little points on her eyeteeth. "We've also managed to intercept a particle of transmission between the Shiv command ship and another vessel detected two parsecs away right before it hit displacement."

  Adam almost flew out of the chair. "Play it back." He listened as the central audio system crackled for a moment, and he heard underlying voices speaking Shiv, at first too obscure to make out, then the sound boomed to life.

  The first words translated roughly into, ". . . hold your position. . . be reaching the Nexian border in less than a quarter hour. . ."

  "That one is from the arriving craft," Fahl'gir explained. "The next is from the command ship."

  Adam listened while viewing the Shiv command vessel sitting at the rear of the attack.

  ". . .the way is not clear. . ." This voice sounded angry, desperate. ". . . won't make it through in that flight path."

  Static consumed the message, breaking up the words into a rattling code sequence before they came through again.

  ". . . my kai, please stay your position," this voice begged. "The way is not clear enough."

  ". . . diverting from original path. . ."

  ". . . no, my kai. . ."

  "That's Rai Jinn's voice," Adam concluded as the message broke up again and became lost. He laid a hand to his chin and stared, privately considering the possibilities. "Play back that middle part."

  A series of explosions sounded over the com system's link to the interiors of the other ships. The screen view acknowledged the destruction of one drone when a Shiv fighter, already struck and damaged, spun off its course into the stabilized weapon craft. The blazing spray rippled out, and Adam imagined the smell of burning flesh from the organic craft, although space would not actually carry the pungent aroma.

  The message began its replay, and Adam's hearing honed in on only one voice of interest to him.

  ". . .my kai, please stay your position. . ."

  Rai Jinn's voice actually begged the kai to refrain from approach. The only approaching ship was the one now lost in parsec-displacement, so that meant that the kai was not aboard the heavily protected command vessel as would naturally be assumed.

  Adam's heart began to slam harder in his chest. His inner vision reminded him of his losses and why else he was out here monitoring the destruction of a mass number of Shiv. But this piece of information presented to him now opened up his next path with great clarity. "The incoming craft is the one carrying the Shiv kai," he said.

  Fahl'gir nodded. "That is possible, but it wouldn't make sense for the Shiv to have their leader aboard a craft so small and unprotected—" Her argument dropped as Adam spun around for the screen on the bridge.

  He moved close and reached out one hand to the corner of the screen. He propped heavily forward on that a
rm, looked hard past the screen's surface as he summoned his father's attention. "Lord Father, has the tabernacle acknowledged the intercepted Shiv transmission?"

  Instead of Asmodéus, General Kallian appeared, eyes stern. "Transmission acknowledged. It could be a cover for the kai. The arriving ship may be only a decoy, a lure to get Imperial Command within range of the command ship's psionic field."

  "Yes, it's a trick," Adam insisted. "They want us to think the kai is aboard the command ship." He could hear Asmodéus' voice in the background, issuing orders and debating the possibilities.

  Kallian turned away from the screen for a moment to hear other orders, then he turned back to Adam with stern eyes. "My lord, you are ordered to withdraw Imperial Command from the frontier and continue monitoring the melee from a distance."

  "I will not acknowledge that," Adam shot back. "We are already engaged."

  "Negative. Turn about, now, my lord. . ."

  "Adam!" Asmodéus' voice boomed as he approached the screen and glared at his son. "You heard the general. You are ordered to pull back until further notice."

  Adam gritted his teeth. Sweat had begun to seep out on his forehead, and he turned away from the screen. "Captain, what is the location of the arriving Shiv craft now?" he asked.

  Fahl'gir's mouth was drawn tight in a glare, and Adam knew he was placing her in an awkward position. She served the emperor, but she was under the crown prince's immediate command, so she replied tightly, "The craft has changed course, my lord. It has come out of displacement and veered below the outer frontier border. It's headed for the lower nexus."

  Adam faced the screen trying to keep his temper though his eyes reddened. "Lord father, please," he whispered, but with the destruction of the Shaytan and the report on the new Shiv ship, he had made up his mind. "That ship carries the Shiv kai. I will take Imperial Command in pursuit, but I ask for your support first."

  "Adam," Asmodéus said more calmly, "are you so certain the kai is on that ship?"

  "I know it," Adam said through his teeth, almost spitting. Knuckles tightened into white hills across the backs of his fists.

  Asmodéus bowed his head slightly, eyes closed in quiet but heated contemplation. "Go then," he said at last and added more lowly, "avenge Kieriell. The Dyssian fleet will support you."

  Adam nodded and turned to look at Fahl'gir whose exterior remained cold, undaunted. He returned to the chair.

  "Awaiting further orders, my lord," she said finally.

  He turned his own face to stone rather than don his official's mask. "Bring us about, Captain, and plot an apprehensive course with that ship."

  33

  Imperial Command had only to drop through the melee while still fighting off those Shiv craft which persisted in honing at the shields. The impact of missiles on the outer barrier shook the galleon with rumbles, and Adam stayed in his chair. Many officers followed suit at their stations, and Captain Fahl'gir also took her chair at the base of the front bridge on a lower dais.

  Adam engaged the neural targeting system once more and, again one with the vessel, spat ion fire toward any fighter that came within his view. As the virtual angle shifted to the galleon's underside, he gaped momentarily at the swarm of small fighters. They were in close proximity to the first shield layer, and therefore they risked destruction against the barrier.

  With this in mind, Adam delved for new options. The second layer of shielding was deflective of other energy beams, which gave him a risky idea. He issued a command to be sent from the engine to Captain Fahl'gir. (Be prepared to switch to manual control and warn all Nexian craft to drop away from the vicinity of Imperial Command.)

  The engine relayed a positive response from Fahl'gir. Soon all manual weapons were firing to knock out any incoming missile fire as it came fractionally close to the outer shield. Some still got through, and with their eruptions, shock waves reached the galleon. All aboard braced themselves against the trembling that followed.

  The engine acknowledged the closing arrival of the Dyssian fleet.

  "Not yet." Adam took a breath while his eyes remained closed, his mind still linked with the engine. (On the next close missile impact,) he commanded the engine, (drop the outer shield.)

  The engine automatically comprehended his intentions. Moments later, an expanding and then imploding cloud of orange light bloomed dangerously close to the shield with the ruin of one more missile. The shield flickered and dropped.

  The Shiv fighters reveled in their apparent success with bringing down the first barrier. They sped in closer to the second shield. On the edge of his connection with Imperial Command, Adam could feel the tension in his body in his tight shoulders and the sweat breaking out on his forehead. He had to make this work. His hands were inadvertently gripping the ends of the armrests, short points extending on his nails though they didn't become full talons. Tapping the last of his mental energies, he sent out the next command to reestablish the outer shield.

  The engine complied, and the barrier went up again in an encompassing burst of light, which trapped the close fighters within. They reacted like mad animals and routed the surface of the shield. As Adam had intended them to do, they panicked and opened fire.

  The laser and plasma blasts seemed at first to absorb into the shield. Glowing swells of iridescent light—colors of violet and blue, magenta and yellow—rippled across the surface creating a nebulous effect against space, then the blasts emerged, fully deflected and intensified in power. The lapse between issued fire and its return caused the beams to miss the vessels from which they originated, but they still struck other craft. Some pierced the outer shield and needled their way into the surrounding melee. The Dyssian fleet broke up and engaged those Shiv fighters who had not allowed themselves to fall into Adam's trap.

  His mind relaxing back on the link, Adam left the rest of the entrapped Shiv to slowly destroy themselves. One craft after another foolishly fired at the shield only to cause the ill fate of one of its fellow fighters. The explosions within the shield enclosure caused some rattling of Imperial Command's structure, but the galleon held firm. Harder tremors came from the outer shield as some Shiv, blinded by desperation, flew into the barrier, the shells of the vessels and the organic tissue splattering in all directions, streaking flames. Adam cringed at the reddish flash of the shock to the barrier, and when he felt the quaking reach within to Imperial Command's core, briefly obscuring his vision through the link with the neural engine, he knew the ship could not take much more before it would have to be converted to full manual drive.

  One more fighter remained, and Adam watched it wander over the surface of the shield, looking for a weak area. It fired a few times, useless laser fire that only blared back out of the shield and lanced off in another direction. Adam admitted there was some pity to be felt for the little vessel. Like a trapped insect, it rolled about, then in an attempt at suicide, it began to speed toward the outer barrier. With that Adam willed out one more ionic blast to end its suffering and to prevent it from striking the wall.

  He turned the view about, observing a Dyssian squadron of raptors sweeping in over the remaining Shiv bulk fighters. The way was clear for Imperial Command to begin its complete descent on a negative coordinate path to pursue the vessel which carried the Shiv kai.

  Adam withdrew his mind from the link and sank somewhat in the chair. He was exhausted, as was the galleon's neural engine, and with a grating in his voice he called down to Fahl'gir. "Captain, you may establish full manual operation of Imperial Command."

  Sonixa Fahl'gir stood from her chair and gave a quick bow. "Yes, my lord." Below the division of her mask, a smirk twitched in the corner of her lips, while her lens eyes still appeared cold and black. She sent this out to the rest of the crew, then she turned back to look up at the bridge.

  Adam wiped a hand across his brow and tried not to think about how easily his plan could have failed. One more solid impact to the outer barrier likely would have led to the destructive con
fusion of the neural engine. Imperial Command might then have drifted within range of the Shiv command ship.

  The lights on one of the lower consoles near Fahl'gir blinked out a pattern to indicate an incoming signal from Dyss. Adam leaned forward, massaging at the bridge of his nose, then he hoisted himself out of the chair and went to stand before the side screen. "Acknowledging," he stated.

  When his father's face first appeared, Adam expected to be chastised for placing Imperial Command at such risk. There was no feeling in the eyes, no movement along the brow line or around the corners of the mouth. Asmodéus might as well have been wearing his official's mask.

  "Lord Father," Adam stated and bowed.

  "I saw what you did, Adam," the emperor replied. "I won't call it a brilliant plan, but it worked."

  Adam tried not to smile. "Thank you for sending the Dyssian fleet."

  Asmodéus gave a complying nod. "The Shiv fleet has been reduced by three fourths. If you will note the information from the sensors, you will see that the command ship is dropping back."

  Adam called for a view of the craft to appear on the primary screen. Pleased with the Nexian progress, he returned his attention to the other matter. "Captain Fahl'gir, are we falling into route with the stray Shiv vessel?"

  "Yes, my lord."

  Looking back at the side screen, Adam blinked away the pull of fatigue on his eyes. "I never realized it took so much energy to establish the targeting link," he commented softly. He took a deep breath and held his chin more erect. "But I am still going after that vessel. Will you help me further by seeing that the Shiv command ship is driven back?"

  "Yes," Asmodéus nodded. "The Dyssian command vessel Tritus will arrive soon to take the place of Imperial Command and drive back the Shiv command ship. Engage pursuit when you are ready."

  Again Adam nodded his thanks, amazed that he and his father should be working so well in this situation. With the screen still on transmission with the tabernacle, he dismissed himself from the bridge and went down to the main floor to join Fahl'gir's position before the console, which currently monitored the kai's route.