by Natalie Grey
But she refused to allow her hatred to push her into stupidity. She aimed one missile at the destroyer nearest the Avaris, specifically targeting the area of the ship she guessed held the munitions.
The first impact crackled along the shields but showed her that they were not impervious. She fired three more in close succession, each targeting the same place. The first produced an even more impressive display of electronic feedback, the second actually impacted the hull, and the third broke through. The magazine exploded, tearing the ship nearly in half, and sent it spinning out of control.
There was a cheer from the Jotun ships, and several of their destroyers copied the technique in short order. None of them were willing to waste even a second.
The Yennai ships retaliated at once. Fighters swarmed from the Yennai carriers, as well as the Avaris, and dropped in behind the missiles, closing the gap between the fleets quickly.
“Destroyer Group 1, continue your assault on the Yennai destroyers. Destroyer Group 2, focus on Carrier 1.”
Shinigami joined forces with one of the Jotun ships to focus on a Yennai destroyer. With the fighters now engaged, getting missiles through would not be so easy. A scatter of cannon fire kept them at bay, but there were so many of them that they resembled a swarm of gnats.
Gnats with guns.
The second wave of Jotun destroyers assembled carefully. Their target Yennai carrier was cloaked, and they did not want to rouse the ship’s suspicions.
Shinigami’s attention was focused mostly on them, even as she directed her guns at the fighters to help the Jotun missiles reach the destroyer. She watched while Group 2 of the destroyers closed ranks and readied their weapons.
The admiral took control of the destroyers for this maneuver, and the crew of the Shinigami watched with their jaws hung open as the destroyers swung in a perfectly timed formation and fired in unison.
The first round of missiles knocked out the shield, and the second set, directed at specific points along the hull, breached the carrier and vented its atmosphere. The ship spun out of control, uncloaking, and razed another destroyer as it went.
“Well, our hand’s tipped now,” Shinigami murmured. “Let’s see what they do.”
On the bridge of the Avaris, she saw Koel standing white-faced with fury.
He was, however, smart enough not to give specific orders just yet. He allowed his officers to direct the battle as they saw fit.
Dammit. Shinigami would prefer it if he weren’t intelligent about any of this. She wanted him to issue nonsensical orders and scream unintelligibly. She wanted him to see his own helplessness and be crushed by it.
Yennai destroyers surged forward and attacked the Jotun formation. They were desperate not to lose another carrier. If the Jotuns extinguished the capital ships and turned on the Avaris, the Yennai fleet would be in dire straits.
Shinigami tried not to flinch as Jotun ships were hit. She fired pucks and missiles of her own to keep the Shinigami safe. She maneuvered more nimbly than a human pilot could, but she could not save all the Jotun ships.
She hoped Jeqwar was safe, but she could not bring herself to check.
“Take the last two carriers at once,” the admiral ordered. “I will take control of the fleet once you are in position. Move now, regardless of what ships are missing.”
Shinigami held her breath as the Jotun ships battled to get into position. Three were taken down as they maneuvered and the resulting formations had gaps in them.
Even after the losses, Admiral Threton did not change his action plan. Shinigami wondered what it must feel like to have the ships missing, not responding as he sent the signals. When the last two carriers were destroyed, she did not smile.
They were doing what they had to do, but the cost was high. It was far, far too high.
On the bridge of the Avaris, Koel snarled his fury. They’d broken through his ranks and destroyed his ships. Everything he had built over the course of decades was being taken apart piece by piece.
He glowered at Lotar, who instinctively backed away.
This. This was what was left of Koel’s legacy: this coward, a broken fleet, and the cloud of rubble where Koel’s children had met their end.
The void seemed to reach for him, roaring in his ears, and he fixed his eyes on the ships before him.
“Throw everything at them,” he ground out. “Use the new missile. Aim it at the Shinigami.”
“But, sir—” the admiral objected.
“Do it.”
“Sir, the carriers are a much more dangerous target than—”
“I said do it!” His voice was raw with fury. He grabbed a sidearm from one of the other officers, whom he then sent sprawling. The barrel of the gun came up, pointed at the admiral. It trembled in Koel’s hands, but at this range, he wouldn’t miss.
The officers on the bridge blanched, and a few ducked under their desks.
Cowards.
“Yes, sir,” the admiral said finally. He gave the orders loudly: “Fire the grappler missile at the Shinigami.”
“Yes, sir.”
Koel knew his crew wondered how they’d survive when they had fired everything they had at the Shinigami and still had the Jotun fleet to contend with.
It was good that they were wondering. If they didn’t guess the truth, the Jotun fleet wouldn’t, either.
And when Koel drove the Avaris straight into the center of the Jotun fleet, he would leave only rubble in his wake. They would be too close to the planet to pull up at that point. They would be going too fast.
But what did it matter if he survived, after all? Everything he had worked for was in ruins.
My children…
Avaris. Uleq and Ilia. He would be with them soon. Koel swayed as he stumbled to the navigational controls. The officers scattered out of his path, mindful of the gun still in his hand.
“We fought well,” Koel told them. “We built something magnificent. This fleet was a thing of beauty. But as you know, strength and power are nothing if they are outmatched. Today, we have found ourselves outmatched.” He entered the sequence to accelerate the Avaris. “All that is left to us is to make our enemy pay for killing us.”
The officers gaped at him. The admiral understood first and ran toward Koel, but Koel leveled the gun at his chest and fired. The admiral’s body skidded and fell into one of the recessed bays, and the crew nearby screamed and scrambled away from it.
Koel pointed the gun around the bridge. He laid in coordinates, his eyes meeting theirs. “There is no escaping death now,” he told them. “We will die a glorious death together.”
The grappler missile soared toward the Shinigami, its cables humming with energy. There was no way it was getting away from him.
And then another ship appeared in the space between the Jotun fleet and the Avaris. Confused by this new target, the grappler missile altered its course.
“Sir!” The officer’s yell was instinctive. “It’s a Yennai ship. It’s reading as a Yennai ship, and the missile is locking on.”
“We’re here,” Tik’ta announced. “Just scanning the area for—”
Her voice trailed off in a squeak.
“Holy shit…” Dretkalor breathed. Dwarfing them on either side were entire fleets. Ships had already been lost, their shattered hulks twisting gently in clouds of debris. They had arrived in the middle of some sort of ceasefire, and the silence only made everything even eerier.
The scanners lit up with a wail, and Chofal screamed, pointing.
“It’s a missile! It’s locked onto us!”
“Go!” Zinqued screamed at Tik’ta. “Go, go, go, go!”
27
The officers on the deck rushed to the targeting systems. The crisis had broken through their shock after Koel’s orders and Koel stood frozen, staring at the screen. He still held the gun, but even he was so surprised by the sudden appearance of the other ship that pointing it at anyone didn’t occur to him.
Lotar took his chanc
e. He tackled Koel to the floor. The gun clattered across the floor, and Koel growled in fury. His hands found Lotar’s throat.
“You can’t stop this!” There was no sanity left in his eyes.
“You’ve lost your mind!” Lotar choked out. He struggled against Koel’s grip, but the older Torcellan was surprisingly strong. Spots danced in front of Lotar’s eyes as his blood flow was cut off. “For the love of all that’s holy, do you really want to die?”
Koel threw back his head and laughed. His hands relaxed finally and he rolled away, his cackles echoing off the metal ceilings and floors. Lotar pulled himself away, heaving for breath. He met the eyes of the rest of the bridge crew, but no one knew what to do, seeing their leader run mad.
“Of course, I want to die!” Koel hissed. His gaze swept them all. “What is there left for me? My children are dead. My wife is dead. I have no legacy.”
Fury swept through Lotar. He launched himself at Koel, pounding his fist into the other Torcellan’s face. He smashed it until Koel’s blood streamed onto the metal floor.
“And what about us?” Lotar screamed. “What about us? Didn’t it occur to you that we might want to live? We don’t want to die just because you’ve lost your damned legacy!”
He saw now that Koel had never thought of that. Koel had never once considered his employees as anything more than things, there to help or hinder him. To Koel, no one else in the universe was really a person. His wife, he had killed because she questioned him. His son, he had killed to strengthen his daughter—and only because his daughter was someone who would help his own legacy grow.
Koel had never cared about anything but his own glory.
Lotar hauled the bleeding Torcellan upright and pushed him toward the console. “Undo the commands! Undo them! Now!”
Koel was still laughing. Even as Lotar had smashed his knuckles into Koel’s face, Koel never stopped laughing. He had no sense of reality anymore. He sank to the floor and looked up at Lotar, who shuddered when Koel’s eyes fixed on him.
“No,” Koel said. “It’s under my authorization, and I put it through without overrides. There’s no way to undo it now.”
The missile streaked closer. Tik’ta pushed the Julentai as fast as it would go, but the missile was accelerating. Then the Avaris pushed ahead of the rest of the fleet, gunning for the Jotun ships.
“Go!” Zinqued screamed. Caught between the planet and the dreadnought with the missile closing in the Julentai was impossibly outmatched, but some ridiculous part of him didn’t seem to grasp that.
A transmission broke through the static and the wailing alarms. “Haron’s Shield, this is the Avaris.” The voice was tight with worry. “Continue evasive maneuvers. We are attempting to reroute the missile.”
“Attempting?” Tik’ta shrieked. She hadn’t bothered to press the button for transmission, for which Zinqued was grateful. She swerved and threw everything she had into the systems. She didn’t have any time to be sending messages.
Chofal worked at the secondary desk. The Yofu didn’t bother to run back to the engine room. No changes they could make now would happen in time. She shut down auxiliary systems one by one, and the heat was already climbing.
“Haron’s Shield, we are doing everything we can. Loop around and try making a pass down in front of the fleet. We’ll try to terminate the missile in the crossfire. Maybe we’ll hit some of those Jotun bastards at the same time.”
“It’s working.” Chofal looked dazed. “It’s actually working. They think we’re a Yennai ship.”
“Good,” Dretkalor said. “Because that’s the only thing that has a chance in hell of saving our asses.”
“Holy shit,” Shinigami swore. “Everyone out of the way! Move!”
“What’s going on?” Barnabas asked worriedly. “What’s happening with that ship?”
“It’s some Yennai ship that showed up late, but that’s not the headline here. Koel’s gone stark raving mad. He’s trying to take as many of us with the dreadnought as he can, and he’s not going to pull up before he hits the planet’s surface.”
“You can’t be serious.”
She directed her attention to evasive maneuvers while responding, “I am as serious as a poutine shortage in Chicoutimi during a bonspiel. The guy’s fucking nuts. Peanut brittle. Cocktail mix with the Chex taken out. Big can of honey-roasted crazy.”
Barnabas was laughing. He abruptly stopped, frowned, and leaned closer to the screen. “I’ll be damned! Isn’t that the ship that tried to capture us before? At the Yennai headquarters, I mean.”
“That’s ridicu—” Shinigami scanned it. “Sonofabitch. It’s showing up as a Yennai ship on the scanners, but it is the same ship. I have the technical specifications and the pictures I took last time. “They’re… Well, they must be trying to… You know, I have no idea. What are they doing?”
“Regretting their life choices?” Gar suggested. He watched as the ship wavered wildly and tried to dive under the nose of the Avaris.
“Bingo,” Barnabas said. “That. Right there. That’s what they’re doing. I’d make another speech that would make them wet themselves, but I’m honestly not sure I’m scary enough to outdo a dreadnought.”
“You could always try,” Shinigami pointed out. “You can’t just bail every time you get a little competition. All right, everyone, hold on. We’re getting out of the way of the Avaris, because I’m honestly not betting on anyone being able to override Koel’s commands.”
“We could ask Koel to,” Barnabas suggested.
“Don’t have to, actually.” Shinigami switched over the screens. “We’re being hailed. Looks like Koel wants to make a speech.”
“Haron’s Shield, you are clear of the missile. I repeat, you are clear of the missile. Crossfire detected, follow heading 4481 to evade,” the communications officer shouted hurriedly into the mic. “We’re closing on the planet fast,” she whispered to her commanding officer.
At the navigation desk, Lotar had retrieved Koel’s gun and pointed it at him while the rest of the crew watched with bated breath.
No one was going to intervene. Koel had gone insane and shot the admiral. Lotar was only doing what needed to be done.
But it didn’t seem to be making any difference. Koel picked up the communications unit, and Lotar screamed with fury. He ordered Koel to undo the commands, and when Koel did not move, Lotar shot him.
Koel did not fall. He stumbled back and looked down at his stomach, where the bloodstain was spreading across his clothes. He looked up at Lotar and smiled.
“Shoot him again,” someone whispered. “We have to—”
Koel brought the comm up to his mouth.
“Assembled fleets.” He smiled at the bridge crew beatifically despite the blood streaming down his face and staining the front of his robes. Lotar stared at him in horror. They all did. “Today you have witnessed the fall of the Yennai Corporation. Those of you on the Jotun and human ships believe this is your victory, but this is no victory, not for anyone. The Yennai Corporation was a marvel, something beyond what others had ever dreamed.
“Others were scared of our vision, the Jotuns and the humans among them. They banded together to destroy us, as lesser creatures will always band together to defeat those who aspire to more. No doubt they now think to put us on trial and hold us to their laws.”
Outside the windows, the fiery glimmer of the atmosphere burned. The surface of the planet approached much too fast.
“I will not be used and shamed,” Koel told them. “I will not be made into propaganda, reduced to a mere civilian in one of their jails. And I will save my crews as well. I will keep them free of such petty moralizing. We will die with honor!”
Before any of them could stop him, he suddenly lunged at Lotar. Lotar struggled, but Koel snatched the gun and shot the control panel, splintering it, then put the gun to his head, pulling the trigger as the officers backed away.
The Avaris sped through the black, hitting the atm
osphere with a visible flare of heat. Jotun ships, scattering before it, accelerated full-bore to get out of the way of its massive sides. Shinigami wove between them so as not to hit anyone, and her crew looked at one another, jaws open.
“He’s crazy as balls,” Gar said finally.
“He— Where did you learn that phrase?” Barnabas blinked.
“Tabitha.” Gar watched the dizzying view on the screen as Shinigami swerved and banked. “She tried to explain it, but it didn’t make much sense. He really didn’t care about any of them in the end, did he? He would rather kill all of them himself than let us ‘win’ by any stretch of the imagination.”
“Yes,” Barnabas agreed softly.
“I didn’t expect that.” Tafa came forward to watch as the Avaris smashed into the surface of the barren planet at last, shattering and causing a monumental shockwave. “I thought he would fight to the end. I used to dream of taking away everything Mustafee cared about and making him live as I had lived, but now I’m glad I didn’t. What would he have done to the people around him if he’d faced death? He might have killed them like Koel did.”
They nodded quietly.
“Radio back to High Tortuga,” Barnabas told Shinigami. “The real one this time, mind you.” There was the shadow of a smile at his lips. “Tell them the Yennai Corporation is gone. We’ll clean up the dregs of it at our leisure.”
Shinigami looked at him. “A full report will show my data breach and my internal protocols in that case—”
“I know them,” Barnabas said, untroubled. “And I think I speak for everyone when I say, ‘don’t you dare.’”
“I would have if I could have done so at the time.”
“I know that. So I’m glad you couldn’t.” Barnabas smiled at her. “Also, I have a present for you on High Tortuga.”