by Tripp Ellis
Zoey was climbing toward Max. She was almost there—just a few feet away when Max lost his grip. The wind scooped him up and whisked him toward the open airlock.
Zoey reached up and caught him, pulling him in close, like a football. She dangled, clinging onto the deck with one hand, cradling Max with the other. Her fingertips were sliding out of the narrow depressions in the deck, and she couldn’t readjust her grip.
Mitch had regained consciousness and began to pull himself back to the ship via the safety cable. He glided through space with ease, but as he got close to the airlock, he had to fight the venting atmosphere.
Zoey’s fingertips slipped. She held on to Max as they were blown down the hall.
Mitch managed to pull himself inside the airlock and mashed the button. The airlock slid shut, and the gale force winds instantly stopped.
Violet crashed to the deck. Zoey and Max slid to a halt a few feet from the airlock. Her hands were cramped and aching from trying to hold on so tight.
Max meowed. It made Zoey smile.
Zoey staggered to her feet.
Violet ran down the hall and picked up Max and hugged him. Max was all she had left of Declan. She smiled at Zoey. “I am forever in your debt.”
Mitch sat on the deck, leaning against the bulkhead. He twisted off his helmet and took a deep breath.
Violet and Zoey rushed to him and helped him stand.
“You okay?” Zoey asked.
“Are you going to take care of me if I’m not?” He had a sly grin.
Zoey rolled her eyes. “Come on, let’s get to the CIC and see if we can get this ship powered up.”
Zoey and Violet marched down the hallway.
Mitch called after them. “So, I risk my life, save the day, get blown out of an airlock, and that’s all the thanks I get?”
The girls ignored him.
“That’s fair,” he said, dryly.
In the CIC, Zoey stood at the command console preparing to shut down all systems except for the reactors. In less than an hour, the Revenant would be making an uncontrolled descent to the planet. If the ship didn’t overheat and rip apart in the atmosphere, it was going to fall like a brick to the ground. Neither option seemed desirable.
“Hang on, I’m going to shut off the artificial gravity,” Zoey said.
Zoey pressed a button on the console’s touch screen. The three of them gently lifted off their feet. Then she shut down the atmosphere generator. The steady hum of the life support system came to a halt. She turned off the emergency lighting throughout the ship, except for the CIC.
“That’s everything,” Zoey said. “Let’s hope this works.”
She initiated startup procedures for one of the fusion reactors. They waited with baited breath, but the results were disappointing. The reactor wasn’t responding. “This doesn’t make any sense. We should have enough power to get the reactor to go critical.”
The lighting flickered in the CIC.
“I’m beginning to think it’s the ship that is cursed,” Zoey said.
“Don’t tell me I just threw overboard 3 trillion credits worth of trilontium for nothing?” Mitch said.
Zoey frowned, sheepishly.
“Son-of-a-bitch!” Mitch floated around the CIC, grumbling in agony at the loss of a fortune. “Do you know what I could have done with that type of cash? I’d be debt free. I’d have fast cars. Faster women.” He glared at Violet. “This is all your fault, you know.” He mocked her playfully. “It’s the treasure… it’s cursed.”
Violet’s eyes burned into him. “It was a reasonable assumption. But, I’m inclined to agree with Zoey. It’s this ship. It’s sentient.”
“You’re not trying to say this ship is alive?”
“Is it such a stretch? There are millions of life forms in the universe. Not all of them have physical bodies. There are pure energy based life forms out there.”
“So, you’re saying this ship is possessed?” Mitch said arching a skeptical eyebrow.
“I don’t know,” Violet said. “What I do know is that something has the ability to cause hallucinations and to alter our cognitive function. It also seems to have the ability to control aspects of the ship’s functioning. That, to me, indicates some form of intelligence.”
Mitch didn’t want to admit it, but he knew she might be right.
A quantum distortion rippled through the ship. The bulkheads warbled. Time and space were momentarily displaced. Zoey felt her stomach turn.
Several more distortions followed after that.
The LRADDS display lit up. Klaxons sounded. A dozen red triangles appeared on the three-dimensional display.
“What is that?” Mitch asked.
“I don’t know,” Zoey said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. They’re not in the database of known enemy combatants. But whatever they are, they’re big.”
Just outside of the nebula, a dozen Decluvian super-carriers emerged from slide-space. This wasn’t their intended destination. But like so many other vessels before them, they had emerged in this sector under mysterious circumstances.
The Decluvian captain was likely trying to figure out where the hell he was, and how the hell he got here. It wasn’t going to take them long to probe the nebula. It was standard operating procedure. Any good captain would want an assessment of the surroundings.
Zoey knew that whoever was commanding this carrier group would send a recon team to make a threat assessment of the nebula. It was just common sense.
If these were hostile forces, the Revenant would be a sitting duck, Zoey thought.
44
ZOEY
Two Decluvian fighters streaked through the nebula. They raced along the length of the Revenant, then returned to their super-carrier.
No shots were fired. This was strictly an information gathering mission. But it wasn’t going to stay that way for long. As soon as they reported back that a UPDF destroyer was in the nebula, the Decluvians would unleash the full brunt of their assault. Zoey didn’t have to worry about burning up in the atmosphere anymore—the Decluvians were about to vaporize them.
It didn’t take long for klaxons to sound. The LRADDS display lit up. Two inbound nukes were approaching. They streaked across the star field, into the nebula.
The Revenant’s automated defenses weren’t online. The nukes rocketed through the haze, and the Revenant’s gun turrets did nothing. They should have identified and tracked the inbound threats. But running on emergency power, and with all systems shut down, the defenses sat lifeless.
The nebula wreaked havoc with the inbound missiles’ guidance system. One of the nukes narrowly missed the hull. But the other slammed into the starboard side, rocking the ship.
Zoey and the others were tossed about like ping pong balls in the CIC. Zoey crashed into the port bulkhead. She launched herself back across the CIC toward the command console. She flew through the air, and latched on to the control panel. She thumbed through the display screen and activated the gravity drive.
She crashed to the deck.
Mitch and Violet weren’t as prepared for the transition. There were grumbles and groans all around as they hit the deck.
The LRADDS display lit up again—4 more inbound nukes blasted toward the Revenant. The old destroyers were fortresses, but the Revenant wasn’t going to take many more direct hits.
Zoey diverted power to the starboard canons.
The Mark 25 turret guns lined the port and starboard sides of the Revenant. But it had been so long since they had been fired, there was no telling if they were going to work. Or if there was any ammunition left.
Zoey grumbled. “If this ship does have a consciousness, it better get its ass with the program, or we’re all going to die.” Zoey yelled at the Revenant. “You hear me, you big hunk of shit!”
A moment later, the Mark 25s came online and targeted the inbound nukes. Within seconds the staccato report of the cannons rumbled through the ship. The armor piercing rounds evi
scerated the incoming targets.
The command console lit up, indicating the reactors were coming online. Zoey’s eyes went wide.
The ship switched from emergency lighting to standard illumination. The atmosphere processors restarted. Every essential system came back online.
Another alarm sounded—more inbound nukes. The LRADDS was dotted with flashing red triangles. All of them were streaking toward the Revenant.
“You know how to maneuver a star destroyer,” Zoey asked Violet.
“I’m familiar with multiple flight control systems.”
“Take the helm.”
Mitch’s face twisted up, wondering how Violet would know her way around a destroyer. “I thought you just knew how to fly junkers?”
“I may have omitted a few minor details about my background.”
“Minor details?”
“You didn’t know?” Zoey said.
“Know what?”
“She’s a ro— I mean, bio-synthetic humanoid.”
Violet gave Zoey a slight smile.
“No way.”
“Violet, get us out of this nebula. All ahead full.”
“Aye, sir.”
Zoey couldn’t help but smile. She kind of liked being in command of a starship. Even if it was just a misfit crew of three, and a ship that may, or may not, be possessed.
The Mark 25s lit up again, targeting the new round of threats. The ship rumbled with cannon fire. The star field was filled with brilliant explosions as the turret guns destroyed the incoming nukes.
Violet engaged the drives, and the old ship lumbered forward breaking out of its perilous orbit.
“So, how much like a real woman are you?” Mitch asked.
“Identical in every way.”
Mitch had a lascivious glint in his eyes. “Good to know.”
“Not in this lifetime, Mitch.”
“Never say never.”
“Mitch!” Zoey yelled. “I need you at navigation. Plot jump coordinates.”
“Aye, sir.” He dashed to the tactical console. “Where to?”
“Polaris 5. It’s a research outpost in the Axorus sector. There are physicians there.”
“What about Alpha Ceti 7?”
“We get 8-Ball taken care of, then we go after Slade.”
“Aye, sir.”
The Revenant emerged from the nebula. There were even more enemy ships than initially displayed on the sensors. At least two dozen super-carriers.
Thousands of fighters launched into space. They swarmed like wasps. Within moments, they’d be on top of the Revenant.
“Do you recognize those ships?” Zoey asked.
“Decluvians,” Violet said.
“Who the hell are they?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know. We don’t want to stick around, and we sure as hell don’t want to get captured.”
“How are those jump coordinates coming?” Zoey asked.
“Just a few minutes.”
“By the looks of things, we don’t have a few minutes.”
The star field was ablaze with cannon fire. Thousands of tracer rounds streaked toward the Revenant. Zoey had no idea what kind of projectiles were hurtling through space at them. There were too many of them, and they were too small to target with the Mark 25s.
From the command console, Zoey took control of the weapons system. She targeted several enemy ships, and launched a barrage of nukes. Might as well leave them with a parting gift.
The first round of enemy cannon fire impacted the hull. The ship shuddered and groaned. Alarms sounded. Multiple sections of the hull had been punctured. They flashed red on the command console.
Zoey sealed off the damaged compartments.
“Coordinates plotted. It’s going to take a few jumps to get there.”
“Engage the quantum drive!”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? The last time the ship made a quantum jump, it went missing for 25 years.”
“We’re going to go missing forever if we don’t.”
Mitch shrugged. “Here goes nothing.” He activated the slide space-drive.
The ship warbled and distorted, then vanished just before an ocean of cannon fire arrived.
45
WALKER
More Decluvian troops were funneling onto the flight deck, towing heavy weaponry.
“What about the slide-space drive?” Walker asked.
Lu glanced over the flight controls. “It looks operational.”
“Jump us out of here.”
Lu’s eyes went wide. “From inside? That’s impossible.”
“No, it’s not. It’s been done.”
“Did anyone live afterwards?” Lu asked, incredulous.
Walker couldn’t answer that with any degree of certainty. He knew the USS Scorpion had jumped from inside a Saarkturian super-carrier. But he had no idea where, or if, they had emerged from slide-space.
“Just do it,” Walker commanded.
An RPG streaked across the flight deck and slammed into the transport. The ship quaked.
“Now,” Walker yelled.
“Where?”
“Anywhere!”
Lu dialed in some quick coordinates. He entered the coordinates from memory. He wasn’t sure if they were accurate. If he was right, it would put them in a remote location and they wouldn’t emerge inside a star, or a planet.
Another RPG impacted the hull, shuddering the ship.
“Hold on to your asses.” Lu activated the slide space drive. In a brilliant flash, the ship vanished from the flight deck.
30 minutes later, they emerged in an empty star field. Walker breathed a sigh of relief.
Bailey wobbled a little, still not totally used to coming in and out of slide-space. But something else was wrong. He lay on the ground, whimpering.
Walker knelt down beside him. “What’s the matter, boy?”
Bailey was excessively drooling, and he looked out of it. His body began to shake with a tremor.
Lu craned his neck to see what the commotion was about. He knew instantly what was wrong. “Did he bite anyone?”
Walker nodded.
“He’s been exposed to the lipophilic alkaloid toxin in our skin.” Lu said.
“What’s the treatment protocol for that?” Walker asked.
“There isn’t one. It’s fatal, depending on the dose.”
Walker’s heart sank. His eyes filled. His mouth went dry and he had a lump in his throat the size of VY Canis Majoris. He couldn’t just stand there and let Bailey go out like this.
Lu adjusted the temperature aboard the ship. “The toxin works faster in higher temperatures.” Soon it was just above freezing.
“It’s a neurotoxin, right?”
Lu nodded.
Walker scanned his memory, trying to remember his toxicology training. “Lipid soluble toxins act on sodium ion channels.”
“They bind to sodium channels, keeping the membrane permeable,” Lu said, following along with Walker.
“What does that mean?” Malik asked.
“The toxin blocks the ability of nerve cells to communicate with muscles. The peripheral nervous system will shut down. His heart and vital organs will fail.”
“Unless we can introduce a sodium channel blocker.” Lu’s big eyes got bigger. He leapt out of the pilot’s seat and dashed to a storage compartment. He pulled out a medical kit and rummaged through the case. He grabbed a pre-loaded injector. “Xetrodomax.”
“What is that?” Walker asked.
“It’s a very effective pain reliever. One of the mechanisms of action is sodium channel blocking. It’s worth a shot.” Lu handed Walker the injector.
Walker dialed in a scaled back dosage and injected Bailey. The only thing he could do now was sit back and wait. He sat on the deck beside Bailey, gently petting him. Bailey lay motionless, whimpering. His breath was slow and heavy.
“Hang in there, Sergeant. I’m not giving you permission to die. You hear me?” Walker
wasn’t the kind of guy to shed a tear very often, but he had to dry his eyes more than once. Bailey meant the world to him.
The transport drifted through space without the use of its general thrusters. They could jump from location to location, but they weren’t going to be able to maneuver.
Lu looked over the navigation display and tried to figure out where they were. “We are a long, long way from anywhere.”
A massive quantum distortion rippled through the ship. The bulkheads bulged and warbled. A proximity alarm sounded.
Walker’s whole body tensed. He wondered if the Decluvians had found a way to track them through slide-space?
A massive ship roared overhead.
Walker watched it’s endless underbelly pass over the view port. He saw the turret cannons swivel and take aim at the transport, which was dwarfed in comparison.
It didn’t take him long to recognize the ship. It was an Avenger class destroyer. He stood with his mouth agape as he read the name and call numbers on the side of the ship. It was the Revenant.
46
ZOEY
“Sir, I’ve got an unknown ship in this sector,”
Mitch yelled from the tactical console in the CIC. “We practically jumped in on top of it. Weapons are locked and ready to fire.”
“Looks like a Decluvian troop transport,” Violet said.
“Introduce them to the Mark 25s,” Zoey commanded.
“Aye, sir,” Mitch said. He was about to unleash the hot fury of the cannons on the transport.
Walker’s voice crackled over the comm link. “ “This is Lieutenant Commander Kurt Walker to the USS Revenant, do you copy?”
Zoey’s eyes widened. “Stand down! Do not fire!”
Mitch’s Finger hovered precariously over the button controlling the Mark 25s.
“Commander Walker, I must say this is a pleasant surprise.”
“Bryant, is that you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What the hell are you doing aboard the Revenant?”
“It’s a long story,” Zoey said. “I’ll tell you all about it. You are cleared for landing on flight deck 1.”
“That’s going to be a bit of a problem. We have no thruster control.”