Sentinels: Children of Valhalla (Sentinels Saga Book 1)

by Linn Schwab

  The commander solemnly shook his head. “No,” he said, expressing regret. “No, I’m not. All of their combatants do seem to be women. I just don’t understand why they would do that. What advantage could they possibly hope to gain from that tactic? It just doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

  Caroline kept a watchful eye the fuel gauge, hoping to get a feel for how fast it was receding. For the moment, it didn’t seem to be a pressing concern. If she could continue flying the Wallaby at a slow and steady pace, the chances seemed good to her that she could get them home.

  She yawned and blinked her eyes a few times, in an effort to keep her vision fresh. There was an unusual formation of rocks in the distance, and she wanted to be certain she’d be able to avoid them. She gently pulled back on the flight controls, easing the Wallaby’s nose upward a little. After a few seconds, she leveled off again, convinced she could pass overtop of the obstruction. As she scanned the area for signs of danger, her eyes suddenly noticed a troubling pattern. Every one of those rocks looked exactly the same. It was a formation of enemy warships.

  “Robin,” Caroline cried, “we’re in big trouble!”

  Robin leapt to her feet in alarm and scrambled straight to the forward windows. The other girls ran to her side and stared out together at the enemy formation.

  “I’m sorry, Robin,” Caroline whimpered, “I thought they were just rocks.”

  “Back off on the throttle,” Robin ordered her, “and try to drift past them without changing course. Maybe they’ll think we’re just a rock or something.”

  “Look at all of them!” Phoebe exclaimed, nervously covering her mouth with her hands. She noticed sparks coming from several of the hulls — a sign that welders were still actively working on them. “Are they building battleships here?” she asked.

  “No,” Robin answered, shaking her head slowly. “They’re re–‌building battleships here.” Her eyes quickly darted from one ship to the next as she checked the angles on all of their guns. None of them seemed to be moving just yet. Apparently they still hadn’t spotted the Wallaby..

  Peter and Commander Ingman were still conversing on the bridge when alarms began sounding throughout the Melbourne. “What is it?” the commander demanded.

  One of the officers jumped to his feet and pointed out through the forward windows. “Enemy destroyer, one o’clock high!” A wave of activity swept through the bridge as everyone reacted to the enemy ship’s presence.

  Commander Ingman looked up at the vessel and made a quick assessment of its outward appearance. There were no visible signs of activity. The ship appeared to be completely dark. In the hope that it was just a wreck drifting by, he turned to one of his scanner operators.

  “What have you got on the scope?” he asked. “Is there any chance that ship’s just a derelict?”

  The operator dialed through a few settings on his instruments and detected a heat signature on the enemy ship’s engines. “No, sir,” he said, “she’s under power!”

  The commander yelled to his communications officer. “Notify the Alabama!” he ordered. “Tell them to open fire on that ship!” He turned to Peter and pointed toward the enemy destroyer. “Get your squadron out there right away, Peter. We can’t afford to let that ship get away. If they manage to transmit our location…”

  Peter spun toward the door and sprinted out of the room, dodging personnel on his way to the flight deck. The commander was absolutely right, he realized. Any hopes they still had of achieving a quick victory now rested on destroying that enemy vessel.

  The Wallaby’s bridge was deathly silent as the girls remained focused on the enemy ships. They’d already passed over the top of the formation and were gradually beginning to make some distance from it. But just as Robin began to breathe a little easier, her eyes caught a sudden glimpse of movement. One of the battleships was raising its guns and swinging them around in the Wallaby’s direction.

  “Caroline, get us out of here!” she screamed. “They’re gonna start firing at us!”

  Caroline pushed forward on the throttle and the Wallaby quickly began picking up speed.

  Katrina rushed over to her console and panned the surveillance camera toward the rear. She increased the magnification of the image and focused on the ship that was attempting to target them. The battleship had not begun to fire at them yet, but she could see movement from another ship parked right beside it.

  “They’re launching fighters!” she yelled. “They’re gonna come after us!”

  Robin looked over her shoulder at Caroline. “Can’t this ship go any faster?” she pleaded.

  Caroline shook her head in confusion. “I’ve got the throttle all the way forward, but I’m only getting fifteen percent on the readout!”

  Robin winced in anguish and looked up at the rear view monitor again. The enemy fighters were still a good distance away. Perhaps she could change course without them noticing.

  “Katrina, lay a smokescreen, now!” she ordered.

  Katrina reached for the controls; a cloud of smoke soon began to form behind the Wallaby..

  Robin kept her eyes on the monitor, waiting for the cloud to grow and take shape. When she felt comfortable that the fighters’ views were obstructed, she decided it was time to alter her course.

  “Angle down fifteen degrees!” she ordered.

  “Down fifteen!” Caroline responded. The Wallaby went into a dive, then leveled off on its new trajectory.

  “Do you think that’s going to fool them?” Michelle asked.

  “I don’t know,” Robin answered her. “There isn’t much else we can do.”

  Phoebe sat down on the floor beside Sheri and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  “What’s going on?” Sheri calmly asked her.

  Phoebe sighed and said, “You don’t wanna know.”

  Peter grimaced as his squadron came up on the smoke screen, knowing it was going to cause a problem for them. “Dammit!” he cursed, easing off on the throttle. “We’re going to have to split up.”

  “Ten to one, they aren’t in there,” Jay told him.

  “I know,” Peter said, “but we can’t take that chance. You and I are going to go around it, Jay. Thomas and Angelo, the two of you are gonna have to stay here until it dissipates. If that ship is still hiding in there, you’re gonna have to take it out by yourselves. Come on, Jay,” he said, banking to the right. “Let’s go see if we can track them down.”

  Commander Ingman paced back and forth on the bridge while he waited impatiently to hear from Peter’s squadron. If they didn’t find that enemy ship soon, he was going to have to take more drastic measures.

  “Commander,” one of his lieutenants called to him, “the Alabama is getting under way now. They’re going to try to help find that ship.”

  The commander nodded. “Put this whole sector on full alert,” he said. “I want everything we’ve got trying locate that destroyer. And call in reinforcements from the adjacent sectors. We need to cut off every possible escape route.”

  “Commander,” another officer said, “I can’t seem to contact the Baton Rouge. It’s like they just disappeared or something.”

  The commander crossed his arms and sighed in frustration. “That ship probably destroyed it already. That must be how they managed to sneak up on us. We really need to keep our eyes open. There might be more of them out there as well.”

  When Peter and Jay reached the far side of the smoke screen, the enemy destroyer was nowhere in sight.

  “Well, Boss,” Jay said, “what do we do now? They aren’t gonna make it easy for us.”

  “Let’s split up and start a search along the edge of this debris field. They’re going to be trying to get back to friendly territory, so we know they aren’t going to stray far from this area. Try to stay in radio contact with me so we don’t end up searching the same area twice.”

  “Alright,” Jay agreed. He banked his plane away from Peter’s. “Good luck, Boss.”

  “
Yeah,” Peter said, mumbling to himself. “It looks like we’re all going to need it.”

  Dragging her most recent find behind her, the combat tug Mona Lisa was steadily making her way toward the shipyard. Well within the protective shadow of the asteroid field now, her crew was in a somewhat relaxed state of mind. There were twelve crew members on the bridge at the moment, including the young Captain Benjamin Hoile. He was still working on earning his crew’s respect, but he felt he was slowly making progress with them.

  Derrick and J Mac were seated at their assigned stations, passing time with nothing much to do at the moment. As his eyes read a script along the top of his monitor, Derrick suddenly started to snicker, and shook his head as if there was something he didn’t understand.

  “What?” J Mac said, looking at Derrick. “Did I miss something? Did something funny just happen here?”

  “No,” Derrick said, smiling to himself. “I was just thinking about the name of this ship, that’s all.”

  “What about it?” J Mac pried.

  “It’s named after a piece of art.”

  “So? Why is that funny?”

  Derrick looked him straight in the eyes. “Have you ever seen an uglier ship than this? Who would think to name it after a piece of art?”

  “Well,” J Mac said, “have you ever seen the Mona Lisa? She ain’t no real thing of beauty herself, you know.”

  Derrick laughed.

  “Besides,” J Mac continued, “I think your interpretation is wrong.”

  “Yeah? How’s that?” Derrick asked.

  “Yeah. You see, they named this ship after a piece of art because there’s an art to collecting garbage.”

  By now, the captain had walked over behind them and was listening in on their conversation. He laughed a little at J Mac’s comment, then said, “Tell me something, Junior Mackenzie. If these wrecks we’re collecting end up winning this war for us, are you still going to think of them as garbage?”

  “Well—” J Mac started to say, before being cut off by the ship’s alarms.

  The captain looked around in a panic. “What’s happening?” he demanded.

  One of his crew pointed through the starboard windows and yelled, “Enemy destroyer, two o’clock high!”

  “Oh, Jesus!” J Mac exclaimed. “We’re dead! We are so dead!”

  “Sound general quarters!” the captain ordered. “Unlock the guns! Target that ship and open fire!”

  “No! Wait, sir!” Derrick yelled. “It looks like they haven’t spotted us yet! If we start firing on them, they’re gonna know we’re here for sure!”

  The captain focused closely on the enemy ship. So far, it seemed to be just ignoring them. He looked around at his crew in indecision, hoping to glean some valuable insight from them. If he declined to engage an enemy vessel, he could find himself in serious trouble.

  “Listen to him, sir,” J Mac cautioned him. “We’re a sitting duck with that battleship in tow!”

  The captain hesitated a few seconds longer, then reluctantly gave in to their suggestions. “Alright, alright,” he finally agreed, “just hold steady on the guns for right now! Make ready to disengage the magnetic grapple!” He looked at his weapons officer. “If they start to come toward us,” he said, “you target that ship with everything we’ve got!”

  The bridge quickly fell into silence as everyone focused on the enemy ship, following its every move with bated breath.

  On the bridge of the Wallaby, Sheri was still reclining on the floor, and Caroline continued to man the flight controls. Robin and the others were all standing near the windows, nervously staring at an enemy ship.

  “What do you want me to do?” Caroline asked, her voice trembling awkwardly with uncertainty.

  “Just hold steady for now,” Robin said. “It looks like they haven’t seen us yet. Don’t do anything to attract their attention.”

  “What if they’re calling in our position?” Michelle said. “Those fighters are gonna find out where we are.”

  Robin tentatively shook her head. “I don’t think they know we’re here. If they saw us, I think their guns would be pointing at us.”

  “What kind of ship is that?” Mindy asked. “It looks like they’re pulling another one behind it.”

  “I don’t know,” Robin said. “It almost looks like some kind of light cruiser.”

  The girls continued to watch the ship as it steadily drifted away behind them. When it finally dropped out of view, they all breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

  “Let’s change course now,” Robin said. “Angle up seven degrees, Caroline.”

  “Up seven degrees,” Caroline responded, pulling back on the flight controls again.

  The Mona Lisa’s crew remained on edge until the enemy destroyer disappeared in the distance. The bridge was awash with nervous tension and faces covered in cold sweat. Captain Hoile reached up to wipe his forehead, and looked around at all of his officers again. He could tell it was more than just relief on their faces. Their expressions suggested gratitude and approval as well. None of them were overly eager to die, and he’d just proved to them that he shared their concerns.

  “Listen,” the captain addressed his crew. “Just so we’re all clear on this matter… We are all complicit in what just happened here. Not one word of this leaves this ship!” he said. “Agreed?”

  They answered with emphatic nods all around, and scattered audible declarations of, “Yes, sir!”

  Satisfied that he had his crew’s cooperation, Captain Hoile tried to put the event behind him and hoped he would never have to hear of it again. But his hopes in that regard were quickly dashed when a UEF fighter streaked into view.

  Peter pulled alongside the Mona Lisa and read the ship’s name on the side of its hull. He switched his intercom on and said, “Mona Lisa, this is Captain Peter Straydel. Put your commanding officer on the line, please.”

  Captain Hoile glanced around at his crew and reluctantly stepped over to the microphone. “This is Captain Hoile,” he said. “What can I do for you, Captain Straydel?”

  “Captain,” Peter’s voice said over the intercom, “there’s an enemy destroyer present in this vicinity. I need you to drop your load and start looking for it. If you find it, put a call out immediately, and do everything you can to slow it down.”

  Captain Hoile tried to think of a response, but the fighter immediately streaked away again. He frowned and looked expectantly at Derrick and J Mac, prompting both of them for their advice.

  “We’d better do what he says, Captain,” Derrick said. “There’s no way we’re getting out of this one.”

  “Let’s just hope we don’t find it again,” J Mac said. “We’re lucky to still be alive as it is.”

  Peter altered his heading now, to exclude the area the Mona Lisa had just passed through. If nothing else came of his encounter with them, at least it had enabled him to narrow his search. There was no way that destroyer could have passed by them undetected, he reasoned. The crew would have definitely been alerted to its presence.

  Robin glanced around at the ship’s monitors in unease, realizing an attack could come from anywhere at any moment. The unexplained lack of power from the engines was a matter of great concern for her. She needed every bit of power her engines could give her if she was going to have any chance of outrunning those fighters. She knelt down on the floor next to Sheri, and tenderly placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “Sheri,” Robin asked, “do you have any idea what might be wrong with the engines? We can’t seem to get full power from them.”

  “How much power are we getting?” she asked.

  “Fifteen percent,” Caroline informed her.

  Sheri thought the problem over for a moment. “It sounds like the star drive might not be functioning,” she said.

  Robin shook her head in confusion. “What’s that?”

  Sheri took a deep breath and explained, “When you exceed fifteen percent on the throttle, the apertures on the engines chang
e to multiply their thrust.”

  “Do you think we might be able to fix it?” Robin asked.

  “Maybe,” she said, but her voice seemed steeped with skepticism. “Try typing ‘star drive’ into my console.”

  Katrina moved over to Sheri’s console and entered the words as an inquiry. “It says, ‘star drive inactive,’” she informed Sheri.

  “Try typing ‘activate star drive.’”

  Katrina followed her instructions and shook her head. “It says, ‘unauthorized.’”

  “What does that mean?” Robin asked.

  Sheri frowned. “It means they didn’t authorize us to use it.”

  Caroline glanced at the throttle. There was light beside it that said, UNAUTHORIZED. She’d been staring at it for some time, but only now did she fully understand what it meant.

  “Is there any way to get around that?” Robin asked.

  Sheri shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  Robin sighed in frustration, then stood up and returned to the captain’s station. She kept a watch out for enemy fighters as her mind continued to search for ways to elude them. A short time later, Phoebe stepped over to her side and asked her to consider something.

  “Robin,” Phoebe said with reluctance, “even if we don’t make it back to Volaris, we have to find a way to tell them about that shipyard.”

  Robin closed her eyes and nodded. “You’re right. That has to be our first priority. As soon as we reach the end of this asteroid field, we should switch on the radio and try to contact them.”

  “What if we don’t make it that far?” Michelle argued. “Isn’t there anything else we can do?”

  Robin looked around at her girls, hoping one of them might have a suggestion for her.

  “Robin,” Sheri asked, “do we still have any rockets left?”

  “Yes,” Robin confirmed. “We still have both rocket batteries on the port side.”

  “We could try using our beacons,” Sheri suggested.

  “What beacons?”