by Kit Tunstall
She shook her head. “I can’t do that. I have to get to the nursery.”
He wanted to argue with her, but he understood she had her duty, just as he had his. Besides, he didn’t like the idea of Lily, Carmen, and Jake being alone any more than he wanted the rest of the babies to feel frightened. There were always attendants on duty, but Mac had a special bond with each of the children, and he couldn’t fault her maternal instinct that led her to be with them during the crisis. “Of course. Stay safe and take care of yourself and the children.”
The sight of her naked body was still enough to distract him, but he couldn’t afford to let his attention waver as she got out of bed and came around to join him. He embraced her tightly for a moment and shared another kiss with her before breaking away.
“You be safe too, Orix.”
He could delay their parting no longer and left her quarters, though it was difficult to tear himself away from her. He was inclined to glue her to his side, but the idea of having her engaged in open battle with him was even more frightening than the idea of her not being beside him. She would be safer in the nursery with the babies, and he would be on the Nembria, in the heat of battle.
He forced himself not to look back as he strode to the command center, where Commander Darvig waited for him.
He looked at the monitors as soon as he entered the room, watching the ships approach as they entered visual range. He frowned as he counted what he saw, confirmed by other equipment. “Ten battleships, plus two Exodus-class transporters? It’s almost an insult.”
Sash nodded his head. “It’s strange, but perhaps it’s just the first wave.”
“Why would he send only a fraction of the armada still at his disposal?” He was musing out loud, because he was certain Sash didn’t know the answer either. It was a strange move, and he couldn’t help feeling like it was a deliberate insult on the Emperor’s part, perhaps a way to indicate he regarded the armada that had broken away as no real threat. That would’ve been a careless and stupid stance to take, but it seemed to fit in with the arrogant Emperor Aryk.
“I’m surprised to see only two Exodus-class ships though,” said Sash.
“What’s an Exodus-class?” asked Jordan.
“It’s like a multigenerational ship that allows exploration. They’re roughly the size of a small city and completely self-contained. Assuming they’re staffed by only the minimum necessary to keep the ship running, an Exodus-class can hold a hundred thousand people.”
The president’s daughter paled slightly. “And he has two of those? You think he brought them to transport Earth women?”
Sash nodded grimly. “Undoubtedly.”
“We’ll do our best to prevent that, Ms. Saunders,” said Orix, feeling confident in the forthcoming battle. If this was all Aryk had sent, he was certain they would be able to repel the force without any Earth women being harvested in the process. There would be heavy casualties on both sides, but they were roughly evenly matched.
As the armada drew closer, Orix spoke to his troops, telling them to prepare to engage. He was about to fold to his own ship to coordinate the battle from the frontlines when all the ships orbiting the station disappeared off the sensors. He turned to a communications officer. “What’s happening?”
The young man frantically pressed buttons before looking up at Orix and the commander. He seemed to be on the verge of vomiting. “Our ships have folded to the edge of the solar system.”
Orix shook his head. “That makes no sense. Who gave that order?”
“No one gave the order, General. The main navigational computer folded them there.”
He scowled, feeling confused. Upon arriving at the consulate, they had all connected with the consulate’s navigational computer. It was the system that kept the ships locked in orbit around the moon and prevented them from crashing into each other. “Was it a malfunction?”
The communications officer continued pressing buttons, his alarm growing. “No, it was a manual order inputted at the navigational computer itself, General.”
“Our traitor,” said Sash.
Orix nodded. “Fold them back here as quickly as possible, Ensign.”
The young man tried to comply, and sweat beaded his upper lip when he looked up. “I can’t, General. There’s now a dampening field in effect. Until we disable that, our ships won’t be able to fold back. Aryk’s armada won’t be able to fold out either, but they’ll have unfettered access to the Earth unless we can get our ships back before they release the dampening field to leave and return to Dazonia Major.”
Chapter Six
The hallways were a bustle of activity as people seemed to move with a general air of chaos. As Mac made her way to the nursery, she could pinpoint the people who were heading somewhere with a clear destination in mind, and likely acting under orders, versus those who were simply fleeing and congesting the hallways with no definitive plans in mind. She wanted to snap at them to return to their quarters or stay out of the way, but she had no authority to do so. Many of them were so panicked she didn’t think they would listen to her anyway. The best she could do was dodge the bodies cramming into the corridors and fight her way through the throng.
The trip to the nursery took twice as long as usual, but even under the circumstances, a sense of peace washed over her as she opened the door to check on the babies. That sense of peace fled when she took in the sight before her. Of the five attendants that should have been working, only four were visible, and they lay sprawled on the mats on the floor.
From her vantage point, it wasn’t possible to tell if they were asleep or dead. Cautiously, she moved to the closest attendant and knelt down in search of a pulse. She was surprised and relieved to find it thumping steadily under her fingers in the rapid pattern of the Dazon’s two hearts.
She stood up, torn on how to proceed. Caution dictated she should leave the nursery and alert security, but the idea of the babies being left alone for even a few more minutes, or at the mercy of someone with ill intentions, was more than she could stand. It was probably a foolish decision, but she tiptoed closer to the nursery, where she could hear a bustle of activity.
Pausing at the doorway, she watched with silent horror as the fifth attendant, whose name she thought was Elak, carefully arranged small bundles into a large pushcart with acrylic walls that were several inches high. She didn’t have the best view, but she could discern Elak appeared to be packing the babies into the oversized cart. Since that action had nothing to do with their established evacuation protocol, she was certain he was up to something nefarious. Even if she hadn’t seen the other attendants passed out in the playroom, she would have assumed he was up to no good just from his posture and the furtive way he moved.
Once again, she hesitated, torn on how to act. There was a security button just a few feet to her left, and she slid carefully toward it to press the alarm. It had been designed to send a silent signal to the security center, but she still held her breath after pushing it, half-expecting a screaming klaxon to alert Elak to her actions.
When she saw him lift Carmen, she could no longer keep herself from acting. A surge of maternal instinct forced her forward, and she took some satisfaction from the way Elak jumped when she barked at him, “What’re you doing?”
He turned carefully toward her, the infant still in his hands. He looked disconcerted for a moment, but then his expression went carefully blank. “Go back to your quarters, Earth woman. This doesn’t concern you.”
She placed her hands on her hips, unable to stem the tide of rising anger as she glared up at him. “What are you doing with the babies? And what have you done to the others in the playroom?”
“It’s a simple sleeping serum, and they’ll recover.”
She looked down at the limp babies lining the oversized trolley before casting a glance back at the few remaining in their cribs. All were eerily silent, and it was clear their sleeps weren’t naturally induced. “What have you done to the litt
le ones? Did you give them the sleeping stuff too?”
Elak hesitated for a moment before lifting his shoulder in a half-shrug, as though he didn’t see any harm in answering her. “Yes, the dosages were carefully calculated by Dr. Ha himself. He wouldn’t risk harming the experiments.”
She flinched at the reference to the babies as experiments, but tried to remain focused on the task at hand. “What are you doing with them though? Why would you put them to sleep?”
“It will be easier to manage sixteen babies during the folding if they’re all unconscious.”
Her eyes widened, and though she had suspected that was Elak’s plan, the confirmation filled her with dread. “You’re planning to take the babies somewhere? Where?” Even as she asked, she already knew the answer before Elak confirmed it.
“Dazonia Major. Dr. Ha wishes to observe the offspring and monitor for any major deviations from a pure Dazon child.”
She shook her head. “You can’t allow that, Elak. You’ve cared for these infants for months. Are you really planning to consign them to a life as Dr. Ha’s experiments?”
Elak paused in the process of lifting Lily, having secured Carmen in the trolley and continuing to work as though she was little more than a nuisance and certainly not a hindrance to his task. “I’m not a foolish Earth woman who gets emotional or attached. It’s simply a job. There’s little difference between this and a rearing facility back home.”
“How long have you been planning to betray us and steal the babies?”
Elak give her a cool look. “I was stranded here when Monash’s armada defected, but my brother is an aide to Dr. Ha. When he contacted me to arrange my part of this, I was happy to comply. All I have to do is hand over the infants and fold to a ship in the armada that will take me home. It means I get to escape this primitive place, and the drudgery of working here.”
“You’re willing to risk the babies’ lives just so you can get back to Dazonia Major? How selfish of you.”
He ignored her words as he continued working, prepping the last two infants for transport. He lifted Jake, and she took a step closer, reaching instinctively for the baby. “You can’t take him. Or Lily or Carmen. Please don’t take any of them, Elak. Think about what you’re doing, and what you’re doing to them.”
His brown eyes were utterly devoid of emotion. “They’re simply a means to an end, and their future means nothing to me on a small scale. What they could do for the Dazon Empire is far more important than what they’ll be giving up under Dr. Ha’s observational experiments.” For just a moment, there was a flicker of emotion in his gaze, one she tentatively identified as humor. “I’ll do you a favor and ensure your three favorites aren’t among the ones he selects for autopsy.”
She wanted to think he was joking, but she couldn’t be certain. “Why would he do that?”
“He’ll need to compare the differences on every scale and at every level. After baseline readings, it’s logical that he’ll choose to destroy a few samples for further study.”
Rage took over, completely smashing common sense, and as Elak lowered Jake into the pushcart, she launched herself at the alien, hitting wildly and doing her best to scratch his face. She had never engaged in hand-to-hand combat, or even anything as simple as a catfight, but her protective instincts gave her an edge she wouldn’t normally possess.
He grunted at the impact and staggered backward, his arms coming up to deflect her blows as he cursed in his own language. She tried to dig her fingers into his eyes, but his hands grasped her wrists and pulled them away, which forced her to tighten her legs around his torso, in an attempt to stay glued to his back. She couldn’t let go, and she certainly couldn’t let him walk out of the room with the babies. If she did, there was no telling what would happen to them. Whether he was being a sadistic jerk, or he was being truthful, she wasn’t prepared to take that risk and allow the babies to fall into Ha’s hands.
Abruptly, Elak changed tactics when he realized he couldn’t pry her off. Instead, he held tightly to her wrists and turned around, slamming her body against the wall with his full weight pressing into her in the process. The back of her skull collided with the glass window, and stars exploded behind her eyes as pain flared in her head. Weakness swept through her, but she refused to let go of Elak. He pulled back and slammed her against the wall once more, and it was even harder to maintain her hold.
“Get off me.”
She was incapable of speech as she clung to both consciousness and the alien abductor who was trying to take the children from the only home they’d ever known. She just had to hold on until security arrived.
Chapter Seven
“What’s your status?” asked Sash from behind him, addressing the computer officer he had sent to the navigational mainframe in an attempt to undo whatever damage the saboteur had created. When there was no answer for a moment, he asked again. “Officer Bal, what’s your status?”
The communication device hissed before the younger officer’s face appeared on the screen. “We’ve secured the mainframe, Commander. Two of the soldiers you sent have captured a Dazon soldier who was fleeing the scene, and they’re taking him to a holding cell.”
“Who was it?” asked Orix, tense with anticipation.
“He didn’t identify himself, General, and he carried no identification, but one of the security detail said he recognized him from the construction crew that built the consulate and now maintains it.”
He let out a small sigh of relief to know the traitor hadn’t arrived with his armada. There might still be those loyal to Aryk embedded in his group of soldiers, but he hadn’t brought an active traitor into their midst and facilitated this attack.
“Will you be able to fix what he’s done and remove the dampening field to fold our ships back?” asked Sash.
Orix held his breath for a moment in anticipation of the computer officer’s answer, his gaze never deviating from the ships filling the screen as they circled Earth, with the Exodus-class ships getting into position to land. So far, they had ignored the consulate, but he didn’t expect that to last, especially since they had no means of defending themselves beyond some surface-to-air missiles installed by humans as part of one of their programs designed to deflect large meteors and space junk, not engage fully weaponized battleships.
“I believe so. I’m going to have to reboot the whole system and go in through a back door, so it’s going to take a little while, but I think I can get the dampening field down and return our ships.”
Sash asked the question that had been weighing heavily on everyone’s minds. “Do you believe the emperor has a way to override the dampening field when he’s ready to leave Earth?”
“Undoubtedly, Commander. He wouldn’t want his only escape route to be tied to the navigational mainframe here on the consulate.”
“Can you deactivate his device remotely?”
Officer Bal hesitated for a moment. “It depends on what I find in the coding, but probably not, Commander. I’m sure this was carefully planned, and it’s likely he has redundancies and backups, should I manage to somehow deactivate the primary device. He wouldn’t leave anything to chance.”
Sash nodded. “Send status reports every five minutes and work as quickly as you can, Officer Bal.”
“Of course, sir.” A second later, the younger officer broke the link, and the screen went blank.
“What’s happening on the planet, Orix?”
He looked up at his friend as Sash walked over to join him. “They’ve landed a few Dazon ships, and it looks like they’re syncing Exodus-class ships to enter the atmosphere and land as well.”
“How long do you think they’ll ignore us?”
Before Orix could answer, one of the ships broke away from its orbit closer to Earth and streaked toward the Moon. “I think time’s up.”
Commander Darvig turned to an ensign on his left. “Bring up the SAM system and target the ship heading toward us. Use Firing Protocol 18-B.”
Orix arched his brow ridge. “The Dazon ship will withstand any of the Earth missiles you fire at it.”
Sash nodded grimly. “More than likely, but they’re the only weapons at our disposal, and I don’t like the idea of just giving Aryk’s people a free shot at destroying us.”
Orix agreed with his friend’s reasoning, but he didn’t see the point of deploying missiles that had no chance of harming the ship to which they were directed. He reevaluated his opinion a moment later when he saw one of the missiles explode just before reaching the ship. A second later, the ship faltered and began to spin out of control, with no signs of energy showing. He turned to Sash with his mouth hanging open. “What was that?”
“That was an electromagnetic pulse created from the discharge of the nuclear weapon. The EMP from the nuclear warhead short-circuited the electrical system on the ship. I figured Aryk hadn’t bothered to read any of the debriefings we sent his way when we first set up the consulate and incorporated the preexisting human SAM system into the defense system. Our shields would withstand a direct attack from a nuke, but I was betting on the fact Aryk hadn’t bothered to harden our systems against any Earth defenses, assuming he would just dismiss them as inconsequential.”
“You accurately judged Aryk’s hubris.” He paused as he saw another ship breaking formation and coming their direction. “How many of those missiles do you have?”
“Just four, and I don’t know if the trick will work again. If they replayed the recording, they’ll likely realize what happened, and they’ll be less likely to allow the nuclear warhead to get that close to them again before they destroy it.”
Under normal fighting conditions, they would’ve ignored something as ineffectual as a nuclear missile that would implode as soon as it collided with their shields, but now they knew what the missile could do, and it was likely it had lost any advantage over them.
Orix held his breath as Sash ordered the next missile fired, and it deployed with a sure arc straight toward the ship that was rapidly approaching the consulate. He barely smothered a curse when the ship destroyed the missile with ample time to avoid the EMP blast.