Embers of War (Adventures of the Starship Satori Book 8)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  Then the hall seemed to erupt in fire.

  The blasts threw Beth from her feet and sent her sailing into the inner wall. That saved her. A massive chunk of the outer hull smashed into the floor next to where she’d been standing. One of the security guards was caught by the metal and killed instantly. Another died as fist-sized balls of energy blazed through the outer hull, cutting him down.

  Beth’s felt dizzy and disoriented. She grabbed the wall before she could drift clear and brought her boots back into contact with the deck, then backed around the corner again. She was just in time - another volley of energy balls blew more of the wall apart, sending shrapnel flying into the hallway. Beth and the remaining security guard were just out of range, watching the bits of metal slam into the wall a few feet in front of them.

  It had to be the fighters. The Naga in the shuttle had called them in for fire support. So long as they were near the outer hull, the fighters would be able to shoot through it and cut them to bits.

  “All units, retreat to the central areas of the ship. The enemy has fire support. Retreat and blow the blast doors as you go,” Beth said over the radio. They had to slow the Naga down and buy more time. She and the last man from her team raced to the nearest hatch, ten feet deeper into the ship. They winched the door down, and then Beth blew out the panel on this one just like she had on the airlock. No sense giving the Naga an easy time of it. They’d burn through this one too, but anything that bought her people even a few more minutes might save them all.

  Twenty-Seven

  Dan watched the course projections of the five ships chasing his battlecruiser as the computer updated the plot on his main screen. He drummed his fingers. There wasn’t much he could do about it just this moment. Five ships were too damned many to face in a straight up fight. He had to find a way to split them up, or the Independence wasn’t going to last long.

  But his ship was still pouring on steam, burning toward the most massive gas giant as fast as its sub-light engines could go. All he could do for the moment was wait and see how the Naga responded to this tactic.

  They knew he could just run for home. He wondered how they would respond to that. According to the scan they’d done of the system, there were two dozen large Naga ships here, and twice as many smaller ships of a sort he hadn’t seen before. It looked like they were heavily armed and fast. Two of those smaller ships were with the fleet giving chase right now, but they were accelerating at the same rate as the bigger vessels for the time being. He’d only had a brief glimpse of their actual top speed as they rendezvoused with the others.

  Those ships could be a real problem for him if they had half as much firepower as the scans indicated they might. They didn’t mass as much as the Independence or the larger Naga ships, but based on the information they’d seized from the Naga’s databases the smaller destroyers packed almost as much punch as the battlecruisers. What they lacked in flexibility because they had no fighter wing they more than made up for in speed.

  “Why so few?” Dan muttered aloud.

  “Maybe they think five is more than enough?” Scott replied.

  Dan chuckled. “They might well be right. But our scans show they have a few dozen warships in the system. It must be a sizable chunk of their fleet. Why just send five after us? Why not more?”

  “They must have a reason to believe they need more ships close to their home planet,” De Toro said.

  “Like the Bugs. Maybe they’ve already been hit here. Maybe they’ve been hit everywhere but here, and this is the last of the Naga fleet,” Dan mused. “They might be shooting for a final showdown.”

  “Could explain why they’re so grumpy, sir,” Scott replied. “Coming up on that planet now.”

  Dan watched the enormous gas giant grow on the main screen. He glanced down at his console again, which was displaying tracking information on the ships. If he was right, then just about now they should be…

  “There!” Dan said.

  The three battlecruisers chasing them had broken off from their pursuit course and were angling around the other side of the planet. It was a simple enough plan. They’d swing around the far side of the world and hit the Independence from the front at the same time as the two destroyers continued to accelerate and slammed into his ship from behind. Trapped between the two forces, his ship would be torn to bits if it fought.

  They knew he wouldn’t fight. Dan tapped a finger on his chin in thought. In a pinch, he could accelerate on a full burn and rush the battlecruisers, maybe catch them before the other ships caught up to him. But he wasn’t willing to bet on it. Most likely the Naga had done the math and picked precisely the right moment to split the force so that the chasing destroyers would be able to catch him with ease. Even now they were pouring on the steam and closing the gap.

  No, the Naga had taken his measure and were gambling that he wouldn’t fight with the certainty of a lost cause. They wanted him to give up, so they’d have his ship back, not lose any of their own, and maybe have a bargaining chip in their hands when it came to their next dealings with Earth.

  But the same move had played directly into his hands. He tapped the radio. “Captain Larsen, have all fighters armed with torpedoes.”

  “Aye, sir. We’ll finish re-arm as quickly as possible,” Larsen replied.

  “You’ve got,” Dan looked down at his watch. “Ten minutes.”

  “We’ll…get it done, sir. Out.”

  Dan could hear yelling over the channel as he shut it off. It was a hard timetable, but Larsen would see it complete. The fighters were already set for takeoff, flight checked and warmed up. They could have the entire wing, or what was left of it, out in space fast enough to make this work. Now if everything else went according to plan…

  He punched in a set of coordinates into his computer console and watched the simulation. Grimacing - he must have misplaced an angle by a few degrees, and the ship turned into a fireball instead of turning - he tried again. This time the projection worked. Orbital mechanics were all about the math. He tapped a key to send the flight path to Ensign Scott.

  “New course and speed coming your way, Ensign,” Dan said.

  “Captain, this will take us…”

  “Very close to the gas giant. Yes. I just ran the projection. We should have enough velocity to get clear,” Dan said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  The ship rumbled a bit as it veered in toward the planet. They were flying at the best acceleration the Independence could manage, and the planet seemed to surge forward in their screen as they continued to add to their velocity. Soon the red mists of the giant planet filled the entire screen. It was all you could see. Dan flicked the view to a projection which showed the tactical plot around the gas giant. The Independence was in the center of the image, cruising close enough to the gas giant to kiss it. The Naga battlecruisers were almost directly on the far side of the planet now. And the destroyers were right behind them. They’d be in shooting range soon.

  But then the Independence shifted course again. Instead of using the gravity assist from the planet to swing around to the far side faster, Dan’s course brought the ship in south of the equator and then curved down toward the pole. It was still a gravity-assisted slingshot, but instead of coming out on the far side, it was going to allow them to double back without losing too much of their velocity.

  The ship groaned under the stress of the high-speed turn. Even as a long, sweeping arc, and with the inertial dampeners the Naga had installed on the ship before it was taken over by humans, the Independence had never been designed to handle this many gravities of stress for so long. Dan could feel the stress sneaking past the dampeners, pushing him down into his seat. His fingers gripped the arms of his chair with white knuckles. There was nothing to do now but hang on and hope the ship could hold together.

  And then they were out of the worst of it! The groaning ceased as the ship stabilized again. They’d come out of the arc facing back toward the destroyers, with the en
tire planet between them and the three battlecruisers.

  “Now, a two on one fight is a little more even. Let’s see what we can do about making it less of a fair fight,” Dan said. He tapped his console, opening the radio. “Launch all fighters!”

  The Independence gave small shudders as the first fighters lit out away from the ship, and then again as more launched. The computer obligingly added them to the tactical track. Faster than the Independence, they soared ahead of the ship. They were a hard target to hit at long range. And each of them was carrying a pair of deadly torpedoes. As soon as they were in range, they’d unleash a hailstorm of missile fire which ought to annihilate the Naga vessels.

  Dan hated to do this. It almost wasn’t fair. The Naga ships would be destroyed before they could even get off a single shot at his ship. But they weren’t giving him a lot of options, and if he didn’t find a way to get their attention - and prove that humans were tough enough to warrant talking with about an alliance - then both their races would be doomed.

  “Massive energy discharge from near the Naga homeworld!” De Toro exclaimed.

  “Weapons?” Dan asked, alarmed.

  “No, sir. Signature looks like wormhole arrival discharge. Not one, sir. Lots of them,” De Toro said.

  “How many?” Dan asked.

  “Collecting scan data now, sir… Looks like at least two dozen wormhole arrivals. I’m seeing twenty-two ships of the same class we battled earlier, and two massive vessels of a type we haven’t seen yet,” De Toro said. “Sir - we’re still about twenty light minutes away from their planet.”

  “Which meant that arrival was twenty minutes ago,” Dan said. The fight for the Naga homeworld might be over already. He’d seen the smaller ships in action, and he couldn’t imagine the big ones were anything but an even bigger threat.

  “The wormholes came out several light minutes from the planet, sir,” De Toro said. “My gut says the Bugs are playing it safe. They came in with massive firepower, but they could have arrived in orbit around the planet if they’d wanted to, right?”

  “Sure. They can open a wormhole pretty much wherever they want,” Dan replied. “So they’re coming in slow instead. It should have given the Naga time to respond. Let’s hope so, anyway.”

  Ensign Scott looked over at Dan. “Which side are we rooting for, sir?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know yet. Ours. And whichever side is willing to work with humanity after this battle is over,” Dan said.

  “Naga destroyers are turning, heading back for their home planet at maximum speed,” De Toro said. “Our fighters can still intercept and take them out, though.”

  “Negative,” Dan said. “Recall our fighters. Let’s see how this plays out.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Beth ducked behind the crate her men had tossed into the hallway as cover. The shot that was coming at her head pinged against a bulkhead somewhere instead. She darted back up, firing again. The shot took one of the Naga in the shoulder, pinwheeling him backward to the ground.

  But it wasn’t enough. Next to her Beth saw two more of her men go down in a burst of concentrated fire from the Naga troops storming down the hall. Her people were giving them hell, fighting for every foot of deck they gave. But they were being forced to retreat, one hall at a time.

  “We’re pinned in the bridge,” Ayala told her over the radio. “I’ve got ten people with me. We can hold out a while, but we’re not going to be able to fight our way out.”

  “Understood,” Beth said. Damn! She’d been hoping Ayala could fight his way in and hit them from the side. It would have stalled their forward advance. She had another team locked in the cargo hold. Basically, all of the non-combat personnel were there, armed and trying to hold the place. But while they were keeping the Naga out for now, like Ayala they weren’t going to be able to come to her rescue anytime soon.

  Her team was down to half a dozen security personnel plus herself. They’d been pushed back almost all the way to engineering. She’d lost track of how many Naga they had killed during the fight. But the enemy had too many troops. They were outnumbered, out-gunned, and slowly being herded into little pockets. Soon enough they’d be cornered and wiped out.

  And then the lights came back on.

  They were dim at first, flickering as the energy began running through conduits which had been without power for a bit. But Beth wanted to cheer. Freezing the computer must have worked! Maybe they could get out of this yet. She glanced at her HUD and activated her radio.

  “Ayala, we have power! See if you can get the engines and weapons online, and…”

  “Drop,” came a whisper in Beth’s ear.

  She knew that voice. It was Majel. She was back with them. Beth knew better than to ask questions when the AI was being so short. She knew there was no time.

  “Drop!” Beth hollered over her local tactical net as she followed her own advice and hit the deck.

  She was just in time. A massive explosion hit the cover they’d been using, sending bits of molten plastic and shrapnel-like shards of steel in all directions. Several bits of debris pinged off the back of her helmet. The air was thin in the hall, but enough was present that the shockwave still slammed her into the floor.

  Beth brought the muzzle of her weapon up. Her vision was blurry. Something had hit her in the head hard enough to mess with her vision, and she knew there was no time to let it clear. The Naga had brought in one of their big guns. Their cover was gone, her other people were down, either dead or injured, and the Naga would be pouring down the hall any moment now.

  She snapped off shots, one after another, taking out the first two who came running at her. The rest grew cautious after that, continuing their slow advance. Beth rolled off to one side, hiding behind what was left of one crate. She fired again and then looked around.

  A man and woman were hauling back an injured airman, just rounding the corner behind her. The rest of her team was dead. She was going to be as well if she didn’t move from this place. Damn it! Engineering was right down that hall. If the Naga won past them they’d have the Satori entirely under their control.

  Beth darted back, firing as she rose. Another Naga fell. She was almost to the corner. All of their fire concentrated on her. She dodged as best she could, making for the dubious safety of the corner. Then a Naga energy discharge slammed into her just under her left clavicle. The shock took her breath away and spun her the rest of the way around into the next hallway. As soon as she was through, a blast door slammed down from the ceiling. That had to be Majel’s doing.

  Her shoulder was screaming with pain, and it was all Beth could do not to cry out. She glanced down, but there didn’t seem to be any blood. The armored vest she was wearing must have stopped the shot from going through her, but damn, it still hurt!

  She was tired of being shot.

  Half-dragging her rifle, Beth made her way to the blast door shielding the engine room. The door slid open as she approached, letting her pass into the well-lit room beyond.

  “Are you all right?” Majel asked in her ear.

  “Yeah, or I will be. Ow. Lots of ow,” Beth said, sagging against a wall and letting herself slide to the floor. “Green, good job. Remind me to get you a promotion, if we get out of this.”

  “That seems unlikely at this point,” Green said. “Energy levels are coming back to normal now that the computer is back on, but even if we jump we’re not going to be rid of the Naga already on the ship.”

  “How many are we talking about?” Beth asked.

  “About fifty enemy combatants remain on the vessel,” Majel said. “They will breach the bridge shortly, and are already cutting through the first blast door to get into the engine room.”

  Beth thought fast. They could jump, and then deal with the Naga. But cut off from help, the reptiles would likely just become more desperate. After all, their only chance at returning home had always been to capture the Satori. That wouldn’t change. They had enough firepower aboard t
o do it, too. Beth was about to open her mouth to give the jump order anyway, but then she changed her mind.

  Maybe there was a way to get all of them out of this mess, after all. A way that didn’t involve getting a whole lot more people on both sides killed.

  “Majel, open a channel to the Naga ship,” Beth said.

  There was a moment of silence, then Majel replied, “They are not responding.”

  “Fine,” Beth snapped, pulling herself back up from the floor. “Broadcast in the clear that since I am trapped in the engine room, I intend to blow the engines up should the Naga attempt to breach the final doorway.”

  Once again there was a long pause as Majel tried to reach the Naga. Beth used the time to look around at her people - the few security airmen left with her, and the engineers who were arming themselves with whatever weapons they had at hand, preparing for a last-ditch defense. They all looked grim, but none of them seemed like they wanted to protest her call. She was proud of them.

  The last thing Earth could afford was for tech like the Satori to fall into enemy hands. As bad as the Kkiktchikut were, the Naga were still firmly in the enemy camp too. Either alien race could wipe out humanity. She wasn’t going to give her ship to the Naga, not if there was any possible way to keep it out of their hands.

  “The Naga Warlord in command of the ship is willing to speak with you,” Majel said.

  “Patch me through,” Beth replied.

  “Mammal. You will surrender your vessel,” the Naga growled. Beth stifled a chuckle at the British accent their translation program still used for the Naga language.

  “Or what?” Beth asked.

  “You have lost!” the Naga roared. “We have beaten you. Surrender and we will allow you to live.”

  “I don’t think so,” Beth said. “I’ll blow the engines first. That should take out the entire ship. Hell, I don’t know how big a boom these engines will make. Might even blow up your battlecruiser. Even if your ship survives, it’s gonna be a long walk home for you boys.”