by Jason Letts
Silence pervaded for a moment, during which Loris considered the possibilities.
“We still have the option to blow the core,” Aylward said. “Depending on how many of them were close, the number of casualties we inflict could far outweigh the number we sustain.”
Loris felt uncomfortable with the prospect of trading precious human lives for any number of Detonan lives, but if they were all going to die anyway, what other choice did they have?
“Let’s see how it plays out,” he said.
Redhook gave Loris a nod, signaling that it was time to depart and prepare for the assault. Without Lopez, and with only a couple more officers on the ship, the place felt disturbingly desolate. Lopez’s empty chair pulled at his heartstrings and made him clench his fist. It shouldn’t have played out this way at all. The bitter regrets continue to pile up.
“Shoot or steer,” Redhook said, snapping Loris out of his thoughts.
“I’ll navigate,” Loris said, sticking to what he was best at. Redhook had cut his teeth as a gunner anyway.
The Cortes detached and grouped up with the Hudson and the da Gama near the Incubator’s apex, where they could watch the party coming to town. More detailed scans came in about their enemies, but there was nothing they hadn’t seen before. Loris had expected some hint of the secret weapon the boy referred to, but either it wasn’t with them or it was impossible to detect.
Loris took the ship through a few warm-up maneuvers. He still felt exhausted and banged up to the point where he couldn’t get out of his seat if he wanted to. It wasn’t something he would’ve done under other circumstances, but he took a couple of Insyte pills to focus and stay awake. The downside was that after they wore off he’d have a splitting headache for days.
“The leaders are coming into range,” Panic said.
Behind Loris, Redhook was cracking his knuckles.
“Time for a little run and gun,” he said, clearly enjoying himself. Loris liked well-planned fights they could win, but Redhook would take a shootout no matter the odds.
“Get ready. The carriers are releasing their fighters. As expected, they’re holding the heavy artillery.”
From their new position closer to the Magellan, all they could see was the massive Incubator sitting in front of them like a great gray pyramid until Detonan fighters came swarming in over the sides. Loris kept expecting the wave to end, but it didn’t for as long as they could sit there watching. At least the Detonans had learned not to underestimate them.
“Shields up. Move to combat velocity. Keep a tight formation,” Loris said.
The three Unified ships moved in triangular fashion, with the bulky Hudson out front to bear the brunt of the incoming fire. That left the da Gama and Cortes to pick off as many enemy fighters as they could. Plasma cannons and missile launchers streamed their payloads as frequently as they could, exploding enemy ships only for another to immediately appear.
The Cortes rocked as its shields began to take a battering from projectiles and even a few collisions. The shields continued to hold as the three ships looped around away from the Incubator and toward the Magellan, where Panic had a murderer’s row of turrets waiting.
Leading the swarm straight along the broadside of the Magellan and turning their aim to the rear, the combined firepower effectively thwarted the Detonans’ strong one-sided shields and shredded upwards of fifty-in-one pass.
“There’s more where that came from!” Loris laughed, starting to enjoy himself. A fight out in space was something he could sink his teeth into and was much preferable to the nasty encounters inside the Incubator. Things made more sense in space. Angles, velocity, distance, force, mass, it was all a mathematical equation that dictated the outcome. Kill or be killed all came down to physics.
But pulling off their trick a second time didn’t work out nearly as well. The space around them was so thick with fighters that it was difficult to turn without risking a collision. Many fighters were already around the Magellan, requiring the attention of its gunners. The rate of incoming fire increased and signs began to show that they wouldn’t be able to sustain the onslaught forever.
“We’re out of rockets,” said the captain of the da Gama. What she didn’t say was that the shields were also getting worn thin. Even the Hudson was forced to take further precautions about avoiding collisions.
“It’s time for us to step up and put the capabilities of this bad boy to good use,” Loris said. “Get the arms in place and we’ll see if we can run any of them down.”
He leaned over the ship’s navigational controls and pushed the Cortes out of formation and out in front of the others. Enemy fighters sailed by them one after another, but Loris used his expert piloting skills to avoid the worst of the incoming fire and get behind some of their foes. Double feints, subtle decelerations, and sharp turns that would’ve been risky for even a much smaller craft put the Cortes on the heels of a squadron trying desperately to get out of the way.
“Get ready. It’s about to dive,” Loris said as they closed in. He felt he had a sixth sense for what they were about to do. There was some pattern to their movement and decision-making. On cue, the squadron dipped and the Cortes followed fast enough to gain even more ground.
Racing almost on top of them, the Cortes extended its arms and used the claw points to latch on to the fighters’ backs one after another until it had a hold on three of them.
“Perfect. Let’s see if any of Quade’s work with the alien code improved the hijacking program,” Loris said.
Once activated, they were immediately pleased with the program’s results. It successfully adapted to the Detonan’s systems, preventing the attached ships from maneuvering while spurring their photon weapons into action. Soon their hostages were spewing projectiles out into the thick swarm and continually taking out their comrades.
“Thanks for saving our ammunition,” Redhook gloated as they flew past another exploding enemy ship.
The firefight continued, but for all of their successes, they continued to lose ground. Several of the turrets on the Magellan had been destroyed, and the station’s shields were stretched thin and losing effectiveness in some places. The Hudson was nearing critical condition and decided to make a run for it in the hopes of decreasing the number of pursuers.
Loris still held out hope, but a blast from under the ship sent him into a panic.
“What was that?” he asked, shocked at the fire brushing up against the windshield.
“Looks like one of their fighters managed to self-destruct. We’ve lost that arm,” Redhood said.
“Let’s make sure the other two can’t do the same.”
The remaining arms forced the other two Detonan vessels to crash into each other before dropping the carcasses. Their defenses were low, giving Loris pause before making a move to track down more of the black needles to hijack. He looked again around the edges of the Incubator to see if the wave of fighters had ceased. It had, but what he did see provided no relief.
The large cruisers were beginning to surround the Incubator.
“We’ve got to seek cover underneath,” he said over the com. Every word felt like it scraped his throat.
“Already on it, but I don’t know how much more we can take,” Panic said.
Although they shifted in an attempt to get out of position from the weaponry of the Detonans’ most powerful ships, it was only a matter of time until they wouldn’t have anywhere to hide. Loris struggled to steer the Cortes while revisiting their last-resort options. Should the Magellan abandon everyone on the Incubator? Should they try to get in close and blow the core?
He couldn’t bring himself to make the last act of humanity a suicide mission.
Another blast rocked the ship, resulting in a flurry of red lights on the console.
“Sir,” Redhook began, but Loris shot him a sharp look to silence him. He didn’t need to be told that the shields were gone.
Knowing that the next direct hit could destroy the
m, Loris worked the navigations in a silent daze. Numbness set in as he performed the required actions mechanically. It was only a matter of time until a photon or even an enemy ship came crashing in through the windshield.
Voices were yelling over the com for them to retreat, but Loris knew there was no getting away. They’d run out of options and time. In fact, Loris saw a fighter on the scanner anticipating the flight path he was taking to avoid a different squadron. It would have a clear shot as the Cortes passed right in front of its bow.
Checkmate.
Loris watched it as they came into range, his mind going to Brina and thoughts of what would happen to her after he was gone. In an instant he surveyed the entirety of their journey from Earth’s floating fragments and wondered where he had gone wrong. Which decision could he have made differently to save them? If there was one, he was blind to it.
The enemy fighter had lined up its shot. Loris could almost see the photon cannon beginning to glow with the shot that would be his death.
But the photon never left the cannon before the black needle was unexpectedly torn apart.
Loris couldn’t believe what he saw. The marker for it on the scanner vanished. It was like an invisible wave had hit the fighter that broke it into pieces and swept them away.
What was more surprising was that it began happening all over. Here and there fighters were blown away, dropping like flies on a scanner that suddenly seemed much less crowded.
“I can’t believe this!” Redhook said, taking a deep breath like he was breathing for the first time.
Loris could, and he had a hunch he knew what had happened. Leaving the controls to Redhook for a moment, he went back for the probe screen, which he held out and looked through.
It took time for him to see more than the hazy green lines, but then shapes similar to those he’d seen before appeared. The three-pronged vessels were moving fast, and through the screen it looked like they were emitting a cloud of green gas that obliterated their unaware targets.
Zero Cadence had arrived and they were cutting through the enemy fleet with impunity. A broad grin struck Loris as he raced back to his seat in the cockpit. There was a message waiting for him.
“If they have a taste for unfair fights, we will indulge them.”
Loris shared a relieved glance with Redhook, who wiped his brow. They were virtually out of ammunition and could barely assist the dark matter beings with clearing out more of the fighters. Using the screen, Loris watched them make loops, pass incredibly close to the Magellan and the Incubator, and perfectly time every shot to destroy their moving targets as efficiently as possible.
It was impossible not to be jealous of the agile and powerful ships they were flying in.
A sudden blast tearing through space snapped Loris out of his reverie. One of the cruisers had struck the Magellan in the rear-ringed section, sending debris flying out in every direction. Dozens of people were likely killed, if not more. And the Magellan wouldn’t be able to take too many more shots like that before the entire thing was a floating junk heap.
The dark matter fighters immediately began to shift course in response, and by the time Loris was done inspecting the significant damage they were already closing in on their new and much larger target.
Through the screen, Loris watched the green wisps circle the Detonan cruiser’s torpedo shaped hull and command tower. With surgical precision, they focused their attacks on one spot in quick succession to slice through the heavily armored exterior. It was death by a thousand cuts. Zero Cadence swirled around the command tower, dissecting it from the rest of the vessel completely.
It didn’t take the Detonans long to realize they were under attack. While the other cruisers immediately turned to retreat, their damaged companion vessel had no choice but to shoot blindly in every direction. It was hopeless and comical enough to get Loris snorting. Every shot they fired only signaled a new target for the fighters, which quickly moved to neutralize it.
After a while the cruiser had been shredded. Its guns were destroyed, its engines inoperable, and there were enough holes in the hull for it to resemble Swiss cheese. The ship floated there, lifeless, like a broken cousin to the Incubator.
“The Detonan fleet is taking position well out of range on the opposite side of the Incubator. It looks like they’re not leaving,” Panic said, but Loris wasn’t worried.
“They’re cowards that don’t know how to fight when the chips are down,” he said. “If it’s anything like how it was when I faced them with the drones, they’ll soon turn tail and run away. The question this time is if we’ll let them.”
His imagination immediately ran wild with the possibility that Zero Cadence could do the impossible for them: wipe out their enemies and win them the war. All they had to do was go after the other cruisers and carriers in the same way they did to the first one. Since they had no defenses of any kind, the Detonan species could be mere hours away from complete annihilation.
It was so close Loris could taste it.
But using the screen he could see that their new allies were in a motionless cluster halfway between the Incubator and the Magellan. What was holding them back?
Loris ramped up the engine and moved the Cortes around the Incubator and out in front to see if they would follow, but it was to no avail. It wasn’t long until he too was floating around with the engine cut while trying to figure out what to do next.
“Any ideas?” Loris asked Redhook, who shrugged.
“I don’t know why they stopped,” he said. “Maybe they won’t fight against anything not being aggressive.”
“They’ve still got the Incubator’s systems locked up. I would call that being aggressive,” Quade said.
Loris checked the console for any kind of a message but found none. He decided to attempt to communicate with them.
“Now we can continue the counterattack,” he wrote.
Waiting without any response became nerve-racking. If the Detonans waited long enough, Zero Cadence might leave and put them right back in the same pickle they were in before. What were they waiting for?
More time passed, forcing Loris to acknowledge that the battle had ended. Repairs had already begun on the Magellan, though putting everything back the way it was would be impossible, and flight fatigue was beginning to take its toll on the fleet crews. The Hudson had already limped back and docked, and Loris figured they might as well do the same.
“Come on, might as well head home and get some rest. At least we’ve lived to fight another day,” he said.
On their way back, he took another forlorn look through the screen, feeling rueful about the resounding victory that could’ve been. To his surprise, the squadron now began to follow him to the docking bay. It all made sense when he recalled the promise he’d lured them with.
They wanted to inspect the space station.
CHAPTER 12
Loris felt sore as he ducked through the airlock and emerged into the docking bay. Far from triumphant, everyone had weary faces as they scrambled to assist the returning crews and get everything back in order after the fight. They all knew as well as he did that the Detonans could attempt another assault any minute.
But it did get their attention when one of the airlocks opened to reveal nothing but empty space on the other side. Unlike Loris’s late encounter, this time the lights were all on and enough people were around that no one could dispute what was happening. Grabbing one of the panels, he anxiously awaited the opportunity to see the creatures responsible for saving them.
The crews dropped what they were doing and stopped to look. Many crowded around behind Loris, all watching the airlock through the screen, which showed that one of their fighters had docked. Word got around that something was going on, and a number of people including Riki Lala filed into the room.
“You were right, Loris,” she said. “This is a miraculous discovery.”
He began to wonder if the volume of people was warding them off, but soon th
ere was movement as one of the beings disembarked.
Mouth agape, Loris watched as the being progressed through the airlock and stood plainly on the floor, looking around. Nobody knew what he could see or sense, but for them through the screen they could plainly see that they were in the presence of a living thing that visible light could not touch.
Loris moved closer with the screen, which offered better detail and resolution the closer it got. The green faded out until what they saw standing in front of them was mostly black with hints of orange and red, like lava peeking through molten rock. The being took interest in the screen as well, though even how they sensed that it was there without eyes was a mystery. Perhaps it offered a more familiar perspective on everything for those in the dark matter spectrum.
Others of their kind disembarked as well, including one with the tablet they had taken before, but it looked like it had been modified in some way. It appeared more like the probes, ghostly and ephemeral. Loris went and found another one in order to send a message.
“We would like to officially welcome you to the Unified Space Station Magellan.”
Rather than typing out the letters, the dark matter beings seemed to only need to wave a hand over the screen in order to execute a response.
“The pleasure is ours. We’ve been waiting for this for eons.”
There was some cheering and clapping as those around Loris saw the cordial response.
“Please make yourselves at home,” he added. “The amenities of this station are at your disposal.”
Unsure what would happen next, Loris watched and waited with the assembled group. The Khoriams began to wander together around the docking bay, touching and inspecting everything from the console stations to the cleaning equipment. They took interest in the light fixtures, the doors, and the cranes used to move storage containers around. Questions came through about nearly everything they saw, and Loris decided Riki was best suited to describe in detail how a mop worked.