‘Perhaps we should consider rebuilding lower,’ Elroy growled.
‘There’s plenty of space.’
Elroy sighed. ‘The Marines are a total loss?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
Heaving another sigh, the Senator turned back to his office. ‘I’m going to work out what to say when this is over. I’ll be moping in the office if I’m needed.’
Yorkbridge Mid-town.
It felt as though they had been making love for hours. Maybe they had been; Katelyn had lost all sense of time in this dark place. Everything was concentrated between her legs now, nothing else mattered to her.
She had seen lights earlier, in one of the brief moments when she had opened her eyes. Someone had a torch of some sort and was moving between the people in the station. She had heard someone say that the spaceport had been attacked, and she had closed her eyes and sunk herself into the sensation welling up within her, making her feel warm, and wanted, and loved…
Now she felt his muscles tightening. She felt him swelling as he neared climax. The world began to shake and Dillon exploded within her, driving her over the edge once more. She screamed, but her scream was lost among other sounds: other screams, a deep rumble. Dillon moved suddenly, pushing himself up and over her.
‘I love you,’ he whispered before the roaring sound grew too loud and turned into a crashing noise. He grunted, held for a second, and then he was being pressed into her back as a section of the roof collapsed around them.
FNf Delta Brigantia.
‘Damage report,’ Anderson said, her voice carrying the weariness she felt more than she would have liked.
‘We’ve lost all but one of the forward turrets,’ Scotts’ voice replied, sounding as though he was speaking over an old analogue radio. ‘The main gun is functional, I think. We’ve got a hull breach in the midsection. I’m… not sure of the status of the people in there. I’ve managed to get one of the engines working, but containment on the fuel tanks is… shaky.’
Anderson looked around at the display on her globe. There were fuzzy patches on it where the sensor array had taken damage, but one thing stood out. Ahead of them, a few thousand klicks away, there was a gunship, and it was firing on the city. It looked like their targeting systems were not much better off than the Brigantia’s; they were hitting water as much as land.
‘We need to take that gunship out,’ she said.
‘Targeting is screwed,’ Hughes said. ‘We’ll need to practically ram it to get a solid hit, and I doubt that’ll take it out right now.’
‘All right…’ Anderson tapped the intercom button. ‘All hands, this is the Captain. Everyone to the escape pods. That is an order.’ She cut the intercom. ‘Prentice, reroute helm to me. All of you, get out of here.’
‘Are you planning what I think you’re planning, Captain?’ Hughes asked.
‘I said, get out of here. I was not making a request.’
Prentice’s hands wrapped around the control sticks on her flight chair. ‘Sorry, ma’am, but I’m going to have to ignore that order.’
‘And we’ll stand more chance of taking it out if we hit it with the main beam on the way in,’ Hughes added.
‘And if I stop adjusting the sensors for that long you’ll never hit the thing anyway,’ Baron said.
Scotts’ voice cut in at that moment. ‘We’re losing containment on the antimatter pods. I’m going to stay here and try to adjust them as best I can. Give you all a chance to get clear.’
Anderson swallowed hard. ‘We’re not going. We’ve one last target to take out.’
‘Then you’d better make use of that engine, Captain.’
‘Shari, you heard the man.’
Prentice rammed the throttle forward and the ship shook as though it might fly apart there and then. ‘It’s been a pleasure serving with you, Captain,’ the pilot said.
‘Best crew in the Navy,’ Anderson replied. ‘It’s been an honour to be your captain. Now let’s give those bastards something to think about.’
She watched as the hull of the gunship closed at an ever gathering pace.
Herosian Flagship.
How had things turned so suddenly against them? Sin’Doffis checked the data once again and came to the same conclusion. He had lost almost a third of his fleet in the last hour and while the Jenlay were badly hurt, suddenly the numbers were against him.
He could run. He could order a retreat, leave the system with what was left and come back later to try again. Except that the ship he was on had lost its warp drive. He could try to get to another ship, but his chances were slim. He would not be returning. Another Admiral would be put in charge of gaining victory over the Jenlay and his family name would be tarnished for centuries, if it lasted that long.
No. ‘I want a full force attack,’ he snapped to his assistant. ‘Throw everything we have at them. I want them reduced to ashes. Blast their damn city to rubble!’
LV-101 Argus.
Norden took note of the name of the ship which had taken down the last of the gunships. He would be sure to recommend the crew for whatever awards the Jenlay had for bravery. That sacrifice would not go unnoticed.
He also noted that the Herosian ships had turned to what he considered a ‘desperate, last ditch attempt’ to pull victory out of the situation. They were attacking, but with no overall strategy. He did not allow himself to smile yet; the numbers were too even and a vicious attack with everything they had might just work if he allowed it to.
Calmly, the strategist directed his ships as he would have counters in the game of Go he enjoyed playing when he got the chance. Calm, precise, keeping his eyes on both the detail and the overall flow of the battle. Chaos was the worst thing that could happen in a situation like this. His counterpart in the attacking fleet had succumbed to it, and Norden was not going to allow his own forces to fall victim.
Yorkbridge Mid-town.
Henderson pulled at slabs of Plascrete, her strength enhanced by the motors in her combat suit. She had taken a little extra time to find one with an exoskeleton system because she thought it might be useful, and it was proving to have been a good decision.
The infrared overlay on her visor was telling her that there were bodies under the rubble. They were lucky that there had been only a couple of impacts and only a relatively small section of the tunnel had collapsed, but that still left more than a few potential corpses to find, all the while hoping that someone would be alive.
So far there had been little luck, but as she got closer to the wall she was hoping that she might pull someone out alive. The blocks here were bigger, heavier, but they might well have fallen with less impact.
Grabbing an aggregate boulder, she pulled, muscles and motors screaming at the stress, and then it came free and she found herself looking at two pairs of eyes. They were eyes that still had life in them, but they were pinned under a section of fallen masonry. She examined the block.
‘I can take the weight off,’ she said, her voice sounding tinny through the suit’s speaker. ‘Do you think you can crawl out if I do that?’
Dillon looked back at her. ‘Get her out,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘I’m… I can’t feel my legs.’
BC-101 Hand of God.
There was silence on the bridge of the Hand of God, unless you could hear the internal network. Within the digital space, orders were being given at a rapid pace, gunners were coordinating their strikes, two pilots were working together to direct the ship’s motion and attitude as targets were selected and fired upon.
Tasker knew that it was the same on all the other ships in the fleet. She was busy coordinating their efforts with the others in her squadron, but as she watched space swing around her to bring the main beam to bear on another Herosian ship, she was the first to recognise how the flow of battle had changed.
Her report went out to the Argus in an instant. ‘They’re trying to pull out. They’re routing.’
FNb Admiral Banfry.
&nb
sp; ‘Report through from the Argus, Captain,’ Leeforth said and there was a hint of pleasure in her tone. ‘The Herosians are making efforts to escape.’
‘What’s the order on letting them?’ Ape replied.
‘Norden suggests we mop up anything in the near area. The Old Earth ships will chase them out to three AUs.’
Ape nodded. ‘What’s the status of that Xinti battleship?’
‘Severe damage. Engines are offline. They still have at least some weaponry functional.’
‘Get me an attack vector.’
Herosian Flagship.
Sin’Doffis watched his fleet crumbling around him and saw the first of the ships begin to run for clear enough space to initiate warp. He thought of attempting to rally them, but knew that his fellow Herosians were not the sort to give their lives for a lost cause.
‘We have two battleships on attack vector,’ his assistant stated in a tone which suggested acceptance of fate. ‘One of the Jenlay ships and the Old Earth one.’
The Herosian Admiral nodded. ‘We see our end with honour,’ he said. ‘It’s a shame no one is going to care.’
Norden Forest.
Winter closed down the displays in the ship and sat back in her seat, closing her eyes.
‘It’s over?’ Janna asked, just to be sure.
‘Near total loss for the Herosians,’ Winter said. ‘A couple of their ships made it to warp. They’ll likely get home to report that their fleet was destroyed. Knowing the Herosians, their reception will not be a nice one. Their families will be disowned; they’ll find it next to impossible to find mates. Whoever their leader was, his family will get worse.’
‘But it’s a war. They can’t expect everything to go their way.’ There was a pause and then Janna added, ‘Okay, yes, Herosians. That’s horrible.’
‘The Xinti should never have uplifted them in the first place. If I were to be optimistic, I might suggest that this would be good for them. They might learn that they can’t get everything they want through backstabbing and force. Unfortunately, I’m not that optimistic.’
‘You think they’ll keep trying?’
‘I think that this is all down to Aneka and Ella.’ She realised she had slipped as soon as she said it. One of the downsides to an organic avatar was that they got tired and made mistakes, but she had said it now and there was no going back.
‘Aneka and Ella? You said they were safe. What have you got them doing?!’
Part Seven: Summer Without Sun
Gwy, 25.1.530 FSC.
Ella circled slowly, her eyes on Aneka as they moved across the mats in the second cabin. It was afternoon, and that meant unarmed combat practice. It was unarmed combat practice, and that meant bruises. Ella had come to enjoy the bruises; bruises meant that Aneka would massage in a regenerative cream the AIs had supplied, and Aneka had got very good at turning the massage into something very teasing. Ella knew that her lover did it so that she would not start hating the training, but since she knew she had to keep the training up, no matter what, Ella was happy for anything which kept her from wanting to drop it.
‘The Herosians will have attacked New Earth by now,’ Ella said. It was said in a conversational tone. At first she had fretted over the fact that they would be unable to stop the attack, but all the training had driven that from her mind. It was a fact, and she had dealt with it, and she had other things to worry about. Still… ‘It’s annoying that we won’t know what happened until we get back.’
Aneka darted forward, moving from an upright stance to a grappling one in a fraction of a second. Ella twisted aside and threw out a block to stop the snapped punch Aneka threw when she knew the grapple would not work.
‘They will and it is,’ Aneka said. She was smiling a little, pleased at her student’s nimbleness. ‘You are getting quite good at this.’
‘Thank you.’ Ella darted forward, throwing a feint to the left before shifting direction and moving in for a body slam and leg sweep combination. Aneka ignored the feint, let Ella get in close, set her weight on the leg Ella was trying to sweep, and pushed.
‘Oof!’ Ella grunted as she landed on her back with enough force to knock the air out of her lungs.
‘You’re not that good,’ Aneka added, holding out a hand to help the redhead up.
Ella groaned as she was pulled upright. She did not have the padding to land on her ass that hard. Still, at least there would be bruises.
Shadataga.
With a sigh, Gillian got to her feet and walked away from the terminal she had been using, out through the lounge of the apartment, and found her way to the garden which occupied a space between two accommodation blocks.
Abby was there, lying in the sun, though Gillian knew she was not simply relaxing. The girl’s eyes were shut, but up close you could see the shifting which indicated she was likely reading something behind her eyelids. In spare moments, Gillian had considered getting the AIs to put a computer implant in for her; it certainly seemed useful and she knew that it was just her upbringing that was keeping her from that utility.
With Aneka and Ella on their way, the team had fallen into old habits. They were learning or keeping useful in some other way. Abraham had gone off with Reality, the physical sciences AI to continue his studies into the higher-level physics the AIs had discovered. Cassandra was studying the AIs themselves. Gillian was going over historical records she had not had time to examine before.
The facilitators, Bash, David, and Delta, had taken a transport and gone off to explore areas of the planet the AIs had paid little attention to. Gillian spoke to her son and her partner every evening, receiving reports on the geology and biology they were uncovering. The geological aspect was interesting the AIs who were a little concerned about the stability of the planet they had selected and wanted to know more. Reality was supervising a number of subordinate AIs who dealt heavily with planetary physics, tectonics, and geology as they analysed the data being collected and considered plans to stabilise the crust or reduce the impact of its movement.
Drake and Shannon were out with Aggy surveying the other planets in the system. They had sent back some glorious pictures of the beautiful ring system the largest of the four gas giants boasted. It was right on the edge of the system, and you had to get lucky to catch the light just right, but when you did the result was most impressive.
‘Everything okay, Doctor?’ Abby’s voice interrupted Gillian’s thoughts and she turned to look at the young Earth woman, smiling slightly.
‘Fine. I just needed a break from the screens.’
‘It does get to you after a while. Even doing it this way your brain goes mushy eventually. I’ve been reading over the reports from New Earth.’
Reports had been coming in for about a day on the outcome of the battle. At first there had been relief; the Herosians had failed, the system was safe. Then the extent of the damage had become clear, the loss of life, the injuries. As far as they knew, pretty much everyone they knew was safe, though their homes were not. Mid-town had taken extensive damage. Gillian had sent a message suggesting that anyone who wanted to could use her house out on the western edge of the city which had been left untouched.
‘Anything new?’ Gillian asked.
Abby’s face straightened. ‘One piece of bad news. Dillon Zacks? Ella’s neighbour? He was injured, spinal damage. His partner is okay, but he’s been transferred up to the Argus to see what we can do for him.’
Gillian swallowed. Spinal injuries were difficult to fix. Nerve regeneration rarely worked on them and if there was skeletal trauma too… Dillon was an active sort of man. He would not take well to being restricted by injury.
LV-101 Argus.
Katelyn looked up at her lover as he hung in a suspension field, his body encased in what amounted to a full-body splint of bioplastic. He was unconscious; it meant they did not need to keep pumping him full of drugs for the pain.
‘We have two possible courses of action,’ the man beside her was saying. H
e was a doctor, one of the ones from New Earth, and Katelyn was acutely aware that they were lucky to have the man working on Dillon’s injuries. There were a lot of hurt people on the planet, but for whatever reason it seemed that Dillon’s case had been given more priority than it perhaps deserved. Katelyn suspected that it was because they were friends of Aneka’s. She had certainly not mentioned it, but a team from the Argus had seen them at one of the triage centres, recognised them, and taken them in hand immediately.
Shaking her head to clear it, Katelyn gave the man a weak smile. ‘Two?’
He nodded. ‘Regeneration could give him back full function, but the spinal column is notoriously difficult to regenerate properly. There will be a requirement for considerable physical therapy, and his back may always have some loss of stability.’
Katelyn swallowed. ‘In case his physique didn’t give it away, he likes to keep himself in shape. He would hate being unable to lift his weights.’
The doctor gave her a smile. ‘We had noticed that he seemed fond of exercise. All that muscle likely saved you, and probably resulted in less severe injuries to him. His back is very well supported.’
‘You said there was another way?’
‘I hesitate to mention it since I understand that Jenlay are… resistant to cybernetic implants. We can replace his spine, probably the rib cage as well. Splice in nanofibre nerve replacements. It would be quite extensive surgery and there would be some requirement for therapy afterward, but he would have full function and once the muscles have properly knitted to the new framework he probably wouldn’t notice a difference, but… Well, he would be a cyborg, if a limited one.’
Katelyn looked back at the man hanging in the air beyond a Polyglass screen. ‘He’s from the Rim. He’s never been bothered about robots or cyborgs. He’d be more worried about what I’d think. I’m the one with the irrational prejudice.’
Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour Page 24