Ep.#9 - I am Justice (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  “Fuck!” Josh exclaimed. “I’ve got no lateral control; I can’t control the yaw, Lok.”

  “I’m cross-connecting now,” Loki replied. “Try vectoring the port engine thrust as far outboard as possible, to counteract the yaw.”

  “You mean fly sideways,” Josh realized. “I can do that.”

  “Jesus, the port engine is down to twenty percent thrust, and just about everything in her is redlining.”

  “I’m heading for the gas giant,” Josh declared. “We’ll slingshot around her. Try to find something along the route that we can jump to. Preferably something with a breathable atmosphere.” Josh and Loki looked at each other. “This ship isn’t going to get us home.”

  Loki was quiet for a moment as he tried desperately to stabilize what little was still functioning. “Maybe we should launch a comm-drone, and send a distress signal back to the Aurora.”

  “Not until we reach our final destination,” Josh said. “I want to be sure they know where to find us. Besides, that damned gunship would just shoot it down.”

  “Got it.”

  “Are you sure there’s not something we can do?” Naralena wondered.

  Deliza shot her a look. Naralena could tell by the look on Deliza’s face that Josh and Loki were doing everything they could.

  “Shit!” Loki exclaimed. “Reactor is going critical. I’ve got to eject the core.”

  “Just give me twenty seconds to get on course,” Josh insisted.

  “I don’t know if we have twenty seconds, Josh.”

  “That’s ten right there!” Josh struggled with his flight control stick, trying to force the ship to get on a course that would take them around the gas giant, hopefully intersecting a jump line that would save their butts.

  “That’s it,” Loki announced. “I’m ejecting the core.” Two seconds later, the lights dimmed, and non-essential systems began automatically shutting down as the ship switched to emergency battery power. Loki looked at Josh. “Did you get it?”

  “I hope so,” Josh sighed.

  Corporal Amund climbed down out of his gun turret, tapping his comm-set as he reached the deck. “Hey, why aren’t they shooting at us?”

  “Pity?” Corporal Torlak joked as he climbed down from his gun turret.

  “I’m picking up two new contacts,” Loki reported over comm-sets. “The gunship just launched two small shuttles, and they’re headed our way.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Corporal Amund said as he headed through the forward hatch.

  “They’re going to try to board us,” the corporal said over comm-sets.

  “Why would the Dusahn want to board this little ship?” Naralena wondered.

  “Because this little ship has been involved in just about every major battle against the Dusahn,” Josh explained.

  “Then why not just destroy us?” Deliza wondered.

  “Because they want to capture us and get us to reveal where the fleet is located,” Loki said.

  “Or they just want to torture us to death and send the vids to Nathan to fuck with him,” Josh added.

  “Really, Josh, is that helpful?” Loki complained.

  “Did you find us someplace to jump to?” Josh asked.

  “Maybe,” Loki replied, checking the star charts again. “What about Benson One Five Nine?”

  “Too far away,” Josh said. “We don’t know if we can make one jump successfully, let alone three.”

  “The only planet along our orbital path, that’s within single jump range, is an Earth-like moon called Eralit Seven Delta, but it’s only eight percent oxygen and half normal pressure.”

  “That’s…”

  “Don’t even tell me the millibars, Deliza,” Josh interrupted.

  “Hey, you didn’t call me princess.”

  “Slip of the tongue.”

  “It gets colder than shit at night there,” Loki added.

  “It’ll have to do,” Josh decided. “Can you plot a jump with battery power only?”

  “Yes,” Loki replied. “But the real question is, do we have enough energy left in the cells to make the jump?”

  “I guess we’re going to find out,” Josh decided.

  “Please tell me the cockpit can seal up,” Corporal Amund said as he pulled his combat body armor and helmet out of his kit bag.

  “Yeah, it can seal up,” Josh replied over comm-sets. “Why?”

  “They’ll either come through the cargo bay, which is already wide open, or the port boarding hatch,” the corporal said.

  “I’m betting cargo bay,” Corporal Torlak stated as he donned his torso piece and fastened it in place. “Path of least resistance.”

  “How much time until we reach the jump point?” Corporal Amund asked over comm-sets.

  “Ten minutes,” Loki replied. “The shuttles are three minutes out.”

  “What are you going to do?” Josh asked.

  “We’re going to give them seven minutes of resistance,” Corporal Amund replied as he donned his helmet and reached for his assault rifle.

  “One minute,” Loki reported.

  “How big are the shuttles?” Corporal Amund asked.

  “Not large. Maybe four to six men in each,” Loki guessed. “Deliza, close that hatch,” he instructed, looking back over his shoulder. “Should I depress your section?” Loki asked over comm-sets.

  “Negative,” the corporal replied. “That’ll tip them off that we’re ready for them.”

  “If they blast their way in, decompression may be explosive,” Loki warned.

  “We can handle it,” the corporal assured him.

  “They’re maneuvering aft,” Josh reported, looking out the side windows. “They’re going to enter through the cargo bay.”

  “Copy that.”

  “Hatch is sealed,” Deliza reported. “How long until we jump?”

  “Just over seven minutes,” Loki replied.

  “Seven-minute firefight inside a spaceship,” Josh commented. “Glad I’m not a Ghatazhak.”

  Loki looked at Josh.

  “What?”

  “I have an idea,” Deliza said as she tapped her comm-set. “Hey, guys? Would it help if we turned off the gravity?”

  “What are you talking about?” Josh said.

  “Actually, it might,” the corporal replied.

  “We can’t turn off the gravity,” Loki told her. “Only the cargo bay can be turned on and off.”

  “The cargo bay uses active gravity plating,” Deliza argued. “The rest of the ship uses passive. That’s why there’s still gravity, even though we’re running on batteries.”

  “Can we turn off the gravity, or not?” Corporal Amund asked.

  “We can’t,” Loki replied.

  “Yes, we can,” Deliza insisted. “Passive plating gets a single charge, which it holds indefinitely or until something causes it to discharge. I can cause it to discharge.”

  “Then you can turn off the gravity,” the corporal tried to verify.

  “Hell, I don’t know,” Loki replied, throwing his hands up.

  “I can do it,” Deliza assured them.

  A metallic clunk reverberated throughout the ship.

  “Then you’d better get ready,” Loki told her, “because the first shuttle is in position. They’ll be boarding any second.”

  “Wait for my signal,” Corporal Amund ordered.

  “Understood,” Deliza replied as she began frantically preparing. “Just one thing, it’s going to make the gravity go off everywhere, including the cockpit, and we won’t be able to turn it back on.”

  “Better buckle up, ladies,” Josh suggested. “It’s going to be a wild ride.”

  “Scramble alpha,�
�� Corporal Amund ordered as he moved into position at the hatch leading from the port-forward corner of the main cabin, to the port passageway leading past the boarding airlock and galley to the cockpit.

  “Scramble alpha,” Corporal Torlak replied from the opposite corner. “In position.”

  “Cockpit is scramble alpha,” Loki reported.

  “Ready when you are,” Deliza added.

  Corporal Amund lowered his visor, locking it in place. A hiss of compressed air and the flash of a small, green status light in the upper right corner of his tactical visor confirmed that his combat suit was pressurized. He braced himself against the bulkhead on his left, his torso and head poking out around the edge of the hatch just enough to get a clean line of fire into the main cabin. A single thought activated the mag-locks on his boots. He moved his weapon from left to right, checking his range of motion and registering the amount of movement necessary to cover his entire range of fire. He was ready.

  “Six minutes to jump point,” Loki reported.

  As if on cue, the hatch on the aft bulkhead of the main compartment leading to the aft cargo bay blew open, and all the atmosphere in the ship was sucked out the open door, taking everything that weighed less than a few kilograms, and wasn’t secured, with it.

  The corporal held firm, his left shoulder tucked against the hatch cowling, preventing him from being sucked into the main compartment. It took only a few seconds for the compartment to become a vacuum, at which point the boarding began.

  A small drone floated in through the blown-open hatch. Corporal Amund quickly ducked back out of sight, just as a laser beam came out of the drone, scanning the entire compartment. The corporal watched the icons on his visor, which indicated eight intruders still waiting inside the cargo bay.

  As expected, the drone suddenly emitted a momentary stun flash, hoping to disable anyone who might be laying in wait. Either the drone had detected them, or it was just following protocol.

  “Torlak,” Corporal Amund called. “Take the drone; I’ll lob one into the cargo bay.”

  “Copy.”

  “Three……two……one……”

  Both corporals swung out just enough to fire. A single bolt of energy streaked from the starboard forward corner of the main cabin, slamming into the drone, obliterating it. At the same time, a single grenade went sailing from the port forward corner, across the main cabin, and through the open hatchway leading into the cargo bay. There was a flash of light from deep within the cargo bay and an explosion, then nothing.

  Five seconds later, two grenades came sailing through the hatch, bouncing off the forward bulkhead and back into the middle of the cabin before detonating. Again, the cabin was lit up by the flashes, but the Ghatazhak body armor and helmet systems protected them from its debilitating effects.

  Corporal Amund remained in his firing position, despite the flashes. A split second after the flashes, two Dusahn soldiers charged through the door, weapons firing toward the two Ghatazhak who lay in wait. But their lack of familiarity caused their aim to be untrue, costing them both their lives.

  As trained, Corporal Amund fired two shots into the man on the right; one in the neck, and one in the face mask. At the same moment, Corporal Torlak placed his first two shots into the same locations on the man to the left.

  But the Dusahn were not afraid, and the other six men came charging in on the heels of their fallen comrades, weapons blazing and far more accurate.

  A thought crossed Corporal Amund’s mind. The first two must’ve been the new guys.

  After the first dozen shots, Corporal Amund changed his elevation, dropping to one knee while still staying tucked neatly in the corner to maximize his cover. Incoming fire continued to pound the hatch cowl and the corridor behind him a meter and a half above the deck, for several seconds before tracking downward. The corporal quickly shifted his weight to the right, moving across to the other side of the hatchway as the incoming fire now focused on his previous location and elevation. As he did so, his left shoulder suddenly felt as if it had been hit by a flying rock and became incredibly hot. But it did not faze him. He continued to fire, knowing full well that his imprecise attack was not as effective as it could be, but there was little choice.

  Two icons on his tactical display blinked off, indicating that another two Dusahn soldiers had fallen. There were now only four of them left.

  A clink, then another explosion, followed by the zinging of a million ricochets.

  Fuck, a laser ball.

  Tiny laser shots bounced off the bulkheads in all directions, more than a dozen of which found soft spots in his body armor, making their way to his body underneath. Searing pain… Pain that nearly made him drop his weapon.

  “Now!” he ordered over his helmet comms.

  “Gravity plating is discharging!” Deliza replied.

  “Four minutes!” Loki added.

  The sudden cessation of gravity, while not having the planned effect, caused the laser ball’s levitation fields to overcompensate for a couple seconds. It was just enough to send it crashing up into the overhead, interrupting its ability to fire its micro-lasers.

  The corporal stepped out into the open, quickly firing at the device as it bounced off the ceiling. The laser ball broke apart, and the corporal continued firing, sweeping back and forth in an attempt to force the remaining four soldiers back into the cargo bay. To his surprise, his energy bolts, as well as those being fired by Corporal Torlak from the opposite corner, simply bounced off the intruders, ricocheting back toward them.

  “They’ve got some sort of shielding!” the corporal reported.

  “Three minutes!” Loki reported.

  “Keep firing!” Corporal Torlak urged as he discontinued his attack momentarily.

  Corporal Amund continued his barrage, causing the targets to angle their shields toward him, sending all ricochets back at him. Round after round of his own weapon bounced off the enemy shields, slamming into the corporal’s chest, arms, legs, and even glancing off his helmet.

  “Charging!” Corporal Torlak yelled over comms.

  Corporal Amund angled his fire upward, bouncing it off the overhead and into the bulkhead behind the enemy soldiers. Two of the intruders fell as the ricochets struck the back of their calves. The corporal ceased fire, charging forward to join his comrade in the physical assault. Two clunky steps to gain momentum, and then he mentally deactivated the mag-locks on his boots and went sailing through the cabin. He slammed into one of the two Dusahn soldiers still standing, sending them both tumbling wildly into the back bulkhead.

  “Shit!” Loki exclaimed. “Two more shuttles just jumped in. Bigger! They’ll be on us in less than a minute!”

  “How long to the jump point?” Josh asked.

  “Two minutes,” Loki replied.

  “Jump!” Corporal Amund grunted in the throes of hand-to-hand, zero-gravity combat.

  “I’ve got red lights!” Loki announced. “Starboard side, dorsal!”

  “How many?” Deliza demanded.

  “Two…no, three…… It keeps changing!”

  “JUMP!” the corporal repeated, the sounds of weapons fire nearly drowning out his orders.

  “It’s still a minute and a half to the jump point!” Josh reminded the corporal. “Lok, lock those damned emitters down!”

  “I can’t!”

  “We can’t hold that long!” the corporal insisted. “You’ve got to jump before those other ships reach us!”

  “If we jump with more than two emitters…”

  “I know!” Loki said, interrupting Deliza.

  “DO IT NOW!” the corporal ordered.

  “SHIT!” Josh declared, pressing the jump button on his flight control stick.

  “Oh, God,” Loki muttered as six red lights appeared on the emitte
r status display.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Terig came out of the bathroom, a towel over his head as he vigorously dried his hair. “Is that you, hun?” he called, hearing the sound of a door close. When there was no answer, he stopped drying his hair, removing the towel to hear better. “Dori?” He listened intently for a moment, becoming concerned when he still didn’t hear anything. He set the towel down on the counter and headed into the bedroom, but still saw no one. He headed for the next room, sure he would find his wife on a call with one of her friends, like usual, unable to answer him.

  “Oh, my God,” he exclaimed with a start when he entered the living room. Sitting there were Lieutenant Commander Jessica Nash and a steely-eyed man he did not recognize. He swallowed hard, trying to get control of his nerves, as well as his pulse-rate. “What are you doing here?” he finally managed to ask.

  “You are in grave danger, Mister Espan,” General Telles stated.

  “What?” Terig looked confused. “Who are you?”

  “This is General Lucius Telles, leader of the Ghatazhak,” Jessica told him.

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” Jessica replied.

  “Uh, I’m honored, sir…”

  “You must prepare for immediate departure,” the general said.

  “Departure from where, Takara? How am I supposed to get off Takara? How did you get on Takara for that matter?” Terig closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his hands. “This has something to do with the relay site going down, doesn’t it? Oh, my God, I knew it!” he exclaimed, starting to pace about the room in a panic. “I haven’t been able to sleep for nearly a week! I’m always looking over my shoulder! Everyone I see looks like they’re a Dusahn agent! My wife thinks I’m losing it!”

  Jessica looked at General Telles. “She may be right.”