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

by Kevin McLaughlin

  “Majel, can we set the Naga homeworld as the coordinates for our destination?” Beth asked.

  “Of course. It’s well within projected range.”

  “Projected?” Beth asked.

  “The entire idea is untested, Beth. It might destroy both ships. It’s the best bet I can calculate, however,” Majel said.

  “I’ll take it. Naketh, if you want, your people can stay here in this system. You should be safe from the Kkiktchikut for a long time to come. There’s a world which looks like it might be habitable out there. Make for it, settle down, and have lots of baby Naga,” Beth said. “Or… We can all go to your world together and see if together we can stop the Kkiktchikut from blowing your people up.”

  The big Naga took a step toward her. He reached out with both hands, and Beth had to control her flinch reaction. She heard some of her people moving behind her, probably alarmed by the Naga’s actions. Beth made a small ‘back off’ motion with her hand beside her. Naketh placed both his hands on her shoulders and stared down at her face.

  “You would do this? After war between our races, you would fight beside us to save my world? Why?” he asked.

  “Because destruction such as the Kkiktchikut want to wreak is abhorrent to my people, Naketh. Oh, we fight - mostly amongst ourselves. We’ll fight over the stupidest damned things you can imagine. But at the end of the day, my people believe that everyone has a right to life, and liberty. What the Kkiktchikut want to do is wrong,” Beth said. “And you’ll find that most Humans will be standing against that sort of thing, wherever and whenever it appears.”

  “Then we accept…Warlord Beth. We will go into battle beside you. If this is our last day, then we will make it a glorious one,” Naketh replied.

  “Let’s get to it, then. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and less time to do it in,” Beth said.

  Thirty-One

  Dan drummed his fingers on his chair, waiting for a reply back from Earth. He was hoping to hear from someone - anyone - with orders. This was more than he ought to be taking on solo. Declaring war on an interstellar race was above his pay grade. He’d fired up the quantum communicator and tried to reach the Constitution, which ought to be in space orbiting Earth. It was the last line of defense, the only starship Earth had still in the system. Dan tried not to think how pathetic and useless it would be against this Bug fleet if they flitted to Earth next.

  But there was no response from Earth. Either they were being jammed somehow, or the gear wasn’t working on the Constitution, or something else was amiss. Whatever the case was, there was nothing he could do about it from where he was. Without orders, it was up to him to make the best call he could. He opened the quantum link, calling out to the nearby Naga vessels streaking in toward the battle.

  “This is Captain Wynn of the Earth ship Independence. We’d like to assist in the battle,” he said.

  The response was immediate. “I am Warlord Sachek. I command this task force. Your offer of help is useless. None of our vessels can reach the planet in time. The battle will be over before we arrive.”

  “Warlord, I am aware of the space distance. I’m preparing to use our hyperdrive to bridge the gap more quickly,” Dan said. It was one hell of a gamble. To come out of hyperspace close enough to the planet to be able to engage the Bugs, the math would need to be perfect. He had every computer on the ship working overtime to triple-check the math, and Ensign Scott was sweating as he double-checked those figures.

  “It is too dangerous to warp space that close to a planetary body. Your ship will arrive inside the world and be obliterated. It would be humorous to watch, though. Please, feel free,” the Naga replied.

  Dan could feel the hopelessness that had sunk deep into that voice. He couldn’t blame Sachek. This was the Naga homeworld under attack, and he was stuck watching the final destruction of his home fleet just a few light minutes away. Too far to do any good, but close enough to watch the upcoming battle almost in real time.

  He needed to break the Naga out of their funk. They were all about honor and valor? Fine, he could give them that.

  “You call yourself a Warlord? You’ve already given up. Fine. Sit out here where it’s safe, while your fleet dies and your planet burns,” Dan said. “We ‘mammals’ will be in the thick of it showing you how it’s done.”

  There was a long pause, and Dan was left wondering if he’d laid it on too thick. What he wanted was to convince the Naga to all jump in with him. Together, striking as one, they might have a shot at doing something. It might still not be enough to save the Naga, but it was better than nothing.

  He wasn’t even entirely sure why he was standing up for them. They’d imprisoned his ship-mates, captured and tortured him, killed one of his oldest and dearest friends, and tried to destroy Earth. But at the same time, the Naga were more like Humans than they were different. The Kkiktchikut also might be more like them than they seemed, but of the two potential foes they seemed the ones most likely to simply blow the Earth to bits because they were having a bad day.

  “Human. Will you share your warp plot with us? We…cannot compute the jump in time to be of use,” the Naga replied.

  “Of course. Our computers have been working on the solution for some time. Stand by,” Dan said.

  He looked over at Ensign Scott, who nodded back.

  “You’re sure?” Dan asked. “We won’t get two shots at this.”

  “Sure as I can be, sir. I’ve never done this before. But the math checks out,” Scott replied.

  “All right,” Dan replied. He pulled the data from the helm into his console and transmitted it across to the Naga ships. “Sending to you now. Be advised: the Kkiktchikut have energy shields which will block your plasma weapons. Kinetic weapons will do more damage - use your missiles.”

  “We’ve watched the battle and concur. We will jump in with you. If it is to our deaths, at least we will meet our ancestors with honor,” Sachek said. “Mammal… You do the Naga a service today. If any of us survive the day, we will not forget.”

  “Be ready to jump at the time designated,” Dan said.

  “We will be with you.”

  The Naga cut the channel, and Dan turned back toward Scott. “We ready?”

  “As we’re going to be, sir!”

  Dan tapped his link to Larsen. “Still have those birds hot with torpedoes ready?”

  “Yes, sir,” Larsen replied.

  “Good. You’re about to squish some Bugs.”

  “We’ll be ready to launch on arrival, sir.”

  It was as good as he could make it. Dan mentally crossed his fingers. He wished that Beth and his other friends were with him. Together they’d done impossible things. Here, he felt more alone than he ever had before. At the same time, he was glad they weren’t present for this fight. He had a sense of the firepower those Kkiktchikut ships possessed now. This was probably a suicide run. But even so…

  “Every ship we take down today is one less that will be coming at Earth tomorrow,” Dan said aloud to the bridge crew. “Our job is to take down as many of them as we can. Nothing else matters. Understood?”

  The chorus of answers wasn’t cheerful, but it was determined. He’d take it. This crew might be green as hell, but they had guts.

  Then the star-field on their view screen blurred as they entered hyperspace. Dan knew that each of the Naga vessels jumping with him was seeing the same thing, at about the same time. Their courses should bring them in almost on top of the Kkiktchikut fleet.

  The hyperspace lasted only a few seconds, and then they were back in real-space again. The ship groaned as it came back from hyper, probably a result of being so close to a gravity well. Dan checked the tactical plot. They were dangerously close to the planet - but all five of the Naga vessels had arrived safely with him. Then he swallowed hard as the tactical plot continued to update. They hadn’t come in just behind the Kkiktchikut. They’d arrived smack dab in the middle of their formation.

  “Evasive ac
tion!” he roared. The ship lurched to one side as Scott took it into a dive relative to the enemy fleet’s course. He picked out the nearest smaller ship and designated it as the primary target. “Engage with all weapons.”

  He felt the steady thrum as their fighters began to launch, blasting off into space with their deadly payloads. Ahead the main Naga fleet was closing in fast, already engaged with the Kkiktchikut enemy. The Independence shook as the first beam weapon managed to score a hit, searing off armor without hitting anything vital. But there would be more hits. They were in this for the win - or to die trying. The Independence fired off a broadside of missiles, which rocketed away from the ship on plumes of fire, bearing death toward the Bugs.

  The Kkiktchikut ships scattered like a school of fish when a predator drew near. They reacted to the sudden appearance of new enemies by engaging their wormhole drives and darting clear of the mess. The attack threw their formation into disarray, and Dan hoped for a minute that might be enough to turn the tide.

  But they didn’t bother regrouping. Instead, their ships blinked in, blinked back out, and appeared in twos and threes, each cluster hitting one of the Naga ships the Independence had led on their raid. Three Kkiktchikut vessels appeared directly astern of the Independence as well.

  “Larsen..!” Dan said into the radio.

  “Already on it, sir.”

  The fighter escort was already bearing down on the attacking ships. The Independence shuddered several more times under their combined assault, the armored hull shrugging off the beam weapons for the moment. Then the fighters arrived, delivering their torpedoes at point blank range. Two of the Kkiktchikut ships blinked away, but the third was blown to bits by their fire. The Independence picked out two new targets appearing out of wormholes nearby and hammered them with railgun fire. Dan braced himself as the ship shook again. This fight wasn’t going to be quick or easy.

  Thirty-Two

  The Satori was back to full power and aligned perfectly beneath the Naga battlecruiser. Getting both ships ready for combat had taken everything both crews could give. Now she was going to ask even more of them. Beth hoped that she would be able to see them through this, but there wasn’t much choice. She might not like the Naga much, but the Kkiktchikut were even worse.

  “Green, I’m counting on you to give us power when we arrive,” Beth said into her radio. That was her primary concern, that the Satori would arrive in the middle of a firefight without any power. No power meant no thrust and no weapons. They’d be a sitting duck.

  “I’ve got a backup battery slaved to the computer. It should keep it from powering down completely once the main power grid goes offline. It won’t give us weapons until the main power kicks back in…” Green replied.

  “But it should keep the computer from shutting off and ending up in a failed restart,” Beth said.

  “Precisely.”

  “Where’d you get that idea from?” Beth asked. It was a good one, but she knew the engine as well as anyone, and she wasn’t sure she could have rigged that up in such a short time.

  “Majel,” Green replied.

  Ah, that made sense. No one knew how the engine and computer worked as well as the being that inhabited them. Even the AI didn’t seem to understand all of the inner secrets of the machines at the heart of the Satori, but she had a better understanding than most of them.

  “Well, if she says it will work, it probably will,” Beth said.

  “Probably?” Majel asked in her earbud.

  “But be ready for anything, just in case,” Beth went on. “No offense meant, Majel. I trust your judgment.”

  “None was taken. I predict that there is a ninety-three point zero-seven percent chance of the battery successfully keeping the computer - and me - online,” Majel said.

  “Point zero-seven?” Beth asked, amused.

  “I find humans get bored quickly with more than two decimal places.”

  Beth snorted a laugh and raised the Naga ship.

  “Naketh here.”

  “We’re ready to go. Is your helm connected to ours? This maneuver has to be perfect or it won’t work,” Beth said.

  “All preparations have been made per your computer’s specifications,” Naketh replied. “You place much faith in that machine.”

  “Oh, she’s far more than a machine. After this is over, I’ll let you two have a chat about the nature of intelligence,” Beth said, smiling to herself as she imagined that conversation. The Naga had a thing about artificial intelligence - they didn’t trust it, and didn’t want it. Their computers were fast and strong, even capable of complex programmed patterns of response. But they drew the line at allowing the things to think for themselves.

  “I would enjoy that,” Naketh replied.

  “All right, stand by for jump,” Beth said. The countdown timer was ticking away seconds. Her entire body thrummed with anticipation. It wasn’t that different from the moments before any other fight, really. There was the fear that grabbed your stomach and tied it up in a little knot. And that adrenaline spike that made everything seem a bit more clear, like you were seeing the world for the first time, every time.

  Beth wished they’d had more time to scout out the world they had found. Once they had power back, scans confirmed that the planet was indeed capable of sustaining human life - or Naga, for that matter. If Earth wanted to grab a colony someplace far out of the way, this would be a much better destination than Dust.

  But home called. She’d left friends behind on Dust. The Naga homeworld was about to become dust if they didn’t do something. And Earth itself might well be next on the list for the Kkiktchikut fleet.

  The wormhole blossomed into light ahead of the ships. At the same second, the Naga warship executed a hyperspace jump. The two fields reacted with one another. Beth could see it clearly on the view screen this time as the wormhole twisted and then suddenly grew brilliantly more intense. The Naga ship rocketed forward.

  “Ahead full thrust!” Beth said.

  The Satori leaped ahead, disappearing behind the Naga ship into the super-wormhole. There was a burst of brilliant light, and something that felt like sound but wasn’t. Beth had a sense that she was stretching out - and the moment they were supposed to be in transition seemed to stretch equally long, until it felt like the ship would never exit the wormhole. Like they would be trapped in that space between forever.

  Then they were through. The Satori soared out into regular space. Around the bridge, all the lights were out. Only emergency lights remained. The computers were dark. In the porthole Beth could see a green and blue world spinning below them. They’d made it somewhere. But where? She keyed the microphone in her suit - that still had power, at least.

  “Green?” she asked, her voice a growl. “You’d better not have broken my ship.”

  “The battery backup worked, Captain. We won’t need to reboot. Power levels are low but already restoring rapidly,” Green replied.

  “I’m still here, too,” Majel said in her ear.

  Beth heaved a sigh of relief. Slowly, lights began coming back on. The main screen lit back up, and the humming of machinery could be heard all around them.

  “Excellent. Scan the area, see what we’re dealing with,” Beth said. Her comm unit chirped at her. The Naga ship was calling.

  “You have been as good as your word, Captain Wynn,” Naketh said. “The battle for my world continues, and we will be joining the others in the defense. Your ship may withdraw now; this is our fight, but it does not have to be yours.”

  Beth was about to reply, but Hernandez caught her eye first. She nodded at him.

  “Ma’am, there’s a big fight a quarter orbit away. Scans show a whole lot of Naga ships and a couple dozen Kkiktchikut vessels, including two of the big ones we fought earlier. And Captain? There’s another Earth vessel, too,” Hernandez said.

  Beth froze. She knew who it was before he told her, knew there was only one ship that could reasonably be out there.


  “It’s the Independence, ma’am,” Hernandez finished.

  Dan’s ship. He was out there in the middle of that mess.

  “Whose side is the Independence fighting on?” Beth asked.

  “Naga, for sure. Her fighters just took down a Kkiktchikut cruiser.”

  Beth nodded her thanks. That more or less sealed the deal for her. She hadn’t liked the idea of fleeing back to Earth and leaving the Naga to fend for themselves to begin with. But she sure as hell wasn’t leaving Dan behind, too. That wasn’t happening.

  “What’s our power level?” Beth asked.

  “We have full power for everything but the wormhole drive. Just enough for a few short hops there, but it’s coming back fast,” Foster said.

  “Plot me a jump into that mess, and get ready for some fancy flying,” Beth said.

  “Yes, ma’am!” Foster replied.

  “Guns, you ready to hit some bad guys?” Beth said.

  “Locked and loaded on all tubes. Railguns are ready,” Halls replied.

  Beth re-opened the link to Naketh. “We’ve decided to stick around a bit. Care to see if you can match us for ship kills?”

  “I would indeed! It would be an honor to contest with you in this way,” Naketh replied.

  “Better catch up then,” Beth responded. Then she cut the link. “Foster, take us in.”

  Another wormhole opened in front of the ship, and the Satori darted off toward battle.

  Thirty-Three

  Dan saw the burst of light appear off their starboard bow, right near a Kkiktchikut ship. At first he thought it was another enemy. They had five cruisers tearing at them now. His guns were blowing right through the Bug shields, doing far more damage than the Naga plasma weapons, and the Bugs had finally noticed. They were devoting extra attention to the Independence to try to destroy it.

  Half his remaining fighters were gone, and the Independence was running low on missiles. Even so, he kept firing the things as rapidly as the tubes would load. If the ship went down, extra ammunition in the storage racks wouldn’t help. Out there, they might. Another hit scored on the Independence, and another set of sparks exploded from the ceiling as more power conduits blew out. They were still in the fight, but they were taking a beating.