by T. J. Jones
The ship rocked repeatedly. Its weapons arrays went down after strikes by the elite forces swarming around it now. They were emboldened by the loss of the Truth’s main cannon and its siege shields.
“Fire all weapons on all targets. Tear them to pieces!”
On command, the Truth’s weapons systems began to target all ships within range and began to strike out systematically lancing any and every vessel it could reach with its powerful weapons arrays. The elite vessels nearby were all struck and showed the effects of the attack. Many were bearing red and white burning patches on the hulls. Hot sores in the cold of space as the Truth continued to dole out divine retribution for the transgressions of the Eaons.
“Arbitrator, the Truth is going full assault. Some of our forces are buckling under the pressure,” an elite ops officer alerted Legan.
“Keep pushing the attack! This is our only shot! Remind them that their sacrifices today will ensure no more need to be made.”
The elite fleet shuffled itself around, positioning stronger vessels in the Truth’s line of fire and shielding the weaker ships from its wrath. The Odyssey was no longer sitting on the sidelines of the fight either, using its control thrusters to ascend vertically over an elite battlecruiser and firing its spinal lance cannon. The superconcentrated beam of phased protons screamed through the black and slammed squarely in the Truth’s standard shield grid. The grid buckled but held. The hull still took severe damage, showing signs of near collapse.
“More! Keep fighting!” Legan knew the Truth’s design. He was keenly aware of how much damage it could sustain and still battle. He meant to end its threat one way or another. No matter the cost. The fate of the remaining Eaons and the humans Alliance depended on their success here.
“Spinal lance cannon recharging,” Tiaahl said as he consulted his station.
“Good work, folks. Keep the elites in this fight. Vail, Tiaahl, you two are free to coordinate maneuvers as you see fit,” Mary Jo said as she watched the elite vessels continue to suffer the Truth’s wrath. She hoped whatever the commander was doing he was doing it quickly so this ordeal would end. The elites had already lost almost a dozen vessels. She was not sure this was going to be a good showing for them. The loss of the siege shields made this fight a winnable fight, but they were still going to have to get destructive. She was not sure they had the punch to make it happen.
“Status of the Truth?”
“Shields are at Sixty percent after the last cannon round. They still have over seventy-five percent weapons operational. The ship is extensively armed and defended.”
“I know. Any word from the commander?”
“None so far. He is still onboard the Truth. It appears he and Acolyte Dekav are pushing toward the vessel’s command center.”
“So he is going after Docent Vay,” Mary Jo mused.
“Ma’am?” Tiaahl asked.
“Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud.”
“Whatever you do, Commander, make it count,” Mary Jo whispered to herself.
Adrian and Dekav were crawling through another maintenance shaft to avoid some patrols they didn’t need to bump into. The air was a little stuffy and warm. Not much of a draft through this part of the ship. He glanced up to Dekav who had been moving along silently for a while now.
“You doing alright up there, big guy?”
“Affirmative.”
“You know if someone had come to me a couple weeks ago and told me that I’d be fighting to save my crew, my ship and the Alliance from an evil empire and that to do so I’d be sneaking around in their ventilation systems, I might have thought they were crazy.”
Dekav paused and glanced back at him. “Might have?”
He shrugged sheepishly with a grin. “Well, I have gotten myself into some odd situations before.”
Dekav nodded with a knowing expression. “So I am beginning to see.”
“Hey now, what’s that supposed to mean?”
Dekav shrugged sporting a grin of his own. “Oh, nothing.” Dekav turned and continued to crawl onward leaving him sitting there.
Adrian blinked in near shock. “Was that a joke? Did you just make a joke?” He glanced around. “Dammit, you would do it here where no one else would see. No one’s going to believe me when I tell them about this.”
“All according to plan,” Dekav said without turning back to him.
His mouth hit the floor plating. “That’s two! What the hell, man. Get you in a cramped dank air vent and all the sudden you are a damn comedian. Who knew?”
Dekav shook his head. “I’ve simply observed that you tend to use to humor to downplay a stressful situation. I’m merely trying to accommodate your tendency.”
Adrian’s expression sagged. “And just like that, the magic is gone.”
As they crawled onward, he almost thought he heard Dekav chuckle a little. The guy was right, though. Adrian was a bit of a light-hearted jokester in tough situations. Not the “I can’t cope” type, but more of the unintentional variety. He did not mean to and it made him come off like an asshole. He knew that. Hell, he had gotten the nth degree for it on multiple occasions. It was something he had even tried to cull from his behavior, but it was just who he was.
Once he had made the mistake of pissing off his CO with a poorly timed remark that just rolled right off his lips before he could catch it. He knew the moment it did he was going to pay for it later. As admonishment for it, his next assignment was to Admiral Howell as her assistant for a while. “Command Training” it was called. Truth told he actually enjoyed the assignment, different as it was.
He figured that was a side effect of his age. There was a time an assignment like that would have felt like the death of his career. When he was a hotshot pilot making a name for himself during the Dominus War, the only thing he could focus on was his next sortie. That is until the fatigue of war set in. He had lost so many wing mates that finally after a while he just felt numb. He resorted to humor to protect himself from the enormity of that loss.
Then he met her, Admiral Howell. He knew she was not human — she was part Stollan part Lavran. That made her unique and interesting. In part because the Stollans developed a reputation for being emotionally devoid, preferring to remain cool and collected. The Lavran, however, were polar opposites. Being empathic, they were capable of picking up emotional states of others and even light telepathy among their own.
In retrospect, he understood why his CO had posted him in the vacant assistant position. He knew he needed someone to look over him and straighten him out. He was carrying a lot of baggage around for a long time. Jack — no — Admiral Howell had helped him work through some of that. It did not take long either. He remembered meeting her for the first time and throwing up his emotional walls. Damn was she so persistent though. Chisel and hammer in hand, she kept chipping away at him. Until she had exposed his “core.” Jack Howell had pried open the real Adrian Rain.
He bumped his shoulder against a railing while lost in thoughts.
“Are you ok, Commander?” Dekav asked him again.
He glanced up blinking.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah I’m fine. Sorry. Was just thinking.”
“About?”
“A woman.”
“Oh?” Dekav asked. The tone of his voice sounded insistent, so Adrian continued.
“Yeah. It was just after this nasty war with the Dominus. The Alliance hadn’t been in a conflict of that scale ever. We were just so unprepared for their animosity and determination. I lost a lot of friends. Peers. Copilots. To cope, I resorted to humor. Sometimes I would say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Most of the time it would slide, until a hardass CO put me with the greatly feared Admiral ‘Mad Jack’ Howell.”
He grinned with a chuckle. “Everyone used to fear her. She drove the fleet hard. Alpha Fleet. The spear of the Alliance. She expected excellence in everything we did. I remember being reassigned to her and not knowing what to expect. See, she is somewhat different. On
one hand, she is cold, emotionless, and driven. On the other, she is soft, insightful, and tempered. I went in with my emotional guard up.”
“Did the legend live to your approval?” Dekav asked.
He paused in thought for a moment. “Yeah. I think she did in the end. I was in a bad way. Lost faith in myself and in the fleet. Toward the end of my flight career, I wasn’t flying to live anymore. I was just flying till I died.”
“That sounds like a bleaker existence than being a subjugate in the empire.”
“It kind of was.”
“So what saved you?”
“She did.”
“I see. How?”
“She was persistent as hell. That empathy, man. I cannot imagine what being around me must have felt like. She refused to give up on me. Always had faith in me. She believed she would cut through all that loss and hurt to find the real me. Eventually, she did. See, that assignment to her was what put me on the command track. She got me out of the flight line by the end of the war. She recommended me to Captain Garrett for the XO post on the Odyssey. For the life of me, I am still not sure what she saw in me, but she saw it so clearly, so laser focused and precise. She never stopped believing.”
He laughed, which made Dekav look at him confused for a moment.
“Oh, sorry, it’s just I’ve never really had much faith in myself. For all the skill or talent, I have. She said I was too humble. That a lack of ego was as bad as too much. She always felt I could do it. Do this. Command.”
Dekav nodded. “I believe she was right.”
He glanced up. He had known Jack for a while. He’d only met Dekav a few days ago. “You do?”
Dekav nodded. “I do. You have accomplished in days what many have dreamt of for centuries or more. You may lack an ego and have an excess of humility, but you do not lack for drive, courage, or strength, Commander, and those are also fitting traits for a man in your position. Your captain was wise to entrust the Odyssey and her crew to you. You will end this battle and this war, and your people will return home. When they do, you can show me finally all the things you’ve been talking about.”
There it was. Like a big, swift kick in his ass again. Across the damn galaxy and she was still teaching his ass a lesson. He grinned and nodded. “Fair enough. Thanks.”
Dekav bowed his head respectfully and then turned to carry on. Adrian hesitated before pushing forward. “Thanks, Jack,” he muttered to himself beneath his breath. Ahead of him, Dekav smiled softly, returning his gaze ahead of him.
Adrian needed that — to remember the one thing he always struggled to. He could do this. He had to. Because when he got home, he had a woman to ask out. Maybe. Assuming she did not toss him out of her office. Still, even that would be totally worth it.
The remainder of their trek down the maintenance shaft was quick and silent. He was motivated and confident again. They popped the hatch and slipped out silently into a corridor. Dekav scanned back and forth visually before glancing back to him and nodding.
“This way, it’s not much farther now,” Dekav whispered in a hushed tone. He led the duo onward. “When we get there, the docent will have a personal guard of two to four Loerians as well as the normal operations staff. If you wish to engage Docent Vay, they will have to be dealt with.”
“Kill the lackeys. Got it.”
“It won’t be that easy, Commander.”
“Dekav, relax, we got it.”
He did not seem as convinced, but Rain was. He believed. In himself and the both of them. They rounded a corner and Dekav tripped up a sentry, twirling his staff weapon and blasting the Loerian in the chest. The sentry went limp with a large smoking crater in his chest. Adrian nodded respectfully.
“Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
“That was my good side, Commander.”
“Three jokes? Man, you are batting a thousand today.”
“That wasn’t a joke.”
“I know, but it could have been. Let me have my fantasy,” Adrian pleaded with a grin.
Dekav sighed, indicating they should carry on. They reached another junction that seemed better defended. Adrian hugged a corner, feeling confused. “Why did they go from letting us have our way with the ship to beefing up security again?”
“Well, you did destroy their siege shields. It would seem at least someone on the Truth’s command team is viewing you as the threat you pose.”
“Finally, some respect and all it took was four demo charges and a fuck load of explosions.”
“Be glad the cost was that small.”
“Yeah. That is the truth. So now what?”
“We push through,” Dekav said. “Distract them. I will neutralize them.”
Adrian nodded. “Got it.” He turned and spun around the corner with his hands up. His pistol tucked into his waistband. “Hey, boys! So, I was on my way back from the siege shield control room and I was looking for the little boy’s room. I’ve gotta piss so bad. Don’t suppose you could help a guy out, could ya?”
One of them stepped forward with a weapon at the high ready. “Stop right there!”
“Whoa, ok. You are the boss, chief. I’m just looking for directions to the head.”
“Silence!”
Adrian whistled. “Man, he is testy. Is he this bitchy with you guys too?” he asked the others. They all softened up a moment exchanging glances and then nodding at him. Adrian shook his head whistling.
“Let me guess. Women issues?”
The lead guard’s friends started to chuckle. This caused the lead to lift his weapon and prime it. “I said silence, slave!”
“It’s ok, I get it. You are in a slump. We’ve all been there.”
The guard advanced and butt stroked him in the temple knocking him down with a nasty gash to his eyebrow.
“Now see, that was uncalled for.”
“Oh? And why is that, slave?” The guard emphasized the term slave with contempt.
“Because you’re all about to die.”
They all laughed and exchanged nervous looks. Dekav emerged from behind them, a white and silver blur of movement. One guard was hurled into the air from is feet as his partner was struck in the chest with the heavy end of Dekav’s staff, crushed toward the deck in a crumbling heap.
This distracted the lead guard. He turned to focus on Dekav, giving Adrian the time he needed to draw his pistol and fire two rounds into his torso, leaving him upright and smoking as he touched his wounds with a pained and confused look before falling over.
Dekav fired his staff into both the downed guards in one sweep of his weapon. The smoke began to settle and Dekav looked him over. “You’re injured?”
He shrugged. “Eh, I’ve been in my share of bar fights. Nothing to fret about. Let’s go find our party guest.”
“The Command center is just around the bend,” Dekav said and pointed down the corridor.
“Good, let’s go do this,” Adrian said with a hard edge in his voice.
Chatper 25
“Be Polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” – General James “Mad Dog” Mattis
Dekav paused in the corridor, glancing back to Adrian with a halting expression. “The command center is just ahead. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Adrian nodded. He needed to know they had stopped this asshole right here so that none of his little minions could worm their way back home once this settled. “Yeah, this ends here. Today. Now.”
Dekav bowed his head. “Very well.” He twisted the shaft of his staff blaster thing. It reminded Adrian to ask him just what he called the damn thing later. The barrel at the end snapped open. It almost seemed like a toy in a way, a dangerous, bolt-blasting toy of badassery. “We will end this, saving your Alliance another war, and my people from the prophets.”
Adrian tapped his pistol barrel against Dekav’s weapon. “I’ll drink to that.” The two turned back toward the corridor. The end to this ordeal lay just ahead. His body ached.
He felt exhausted. How long had it been since he had gotten a decent night’s sleep? Since before the captain died probably if he had to guess. In many ways, he felt like he could just sit down to rest. It was the fatigue thinking for him, though. He was aware of that.
He and the crew had come too far, gone through too much to stop short now. He was not his younger self anymore though. There was no more courting death for a fast end to pain. He knew now, the trick to command was not about having all the answers so much as it was being able to bear the decisions. To take the responsibility and own his role as captain. He thought he had understood it before, but now, with the end in sight, it was clear to him. All the painful choices and sacrifices he had to watch through his career. Everything culminated in this moment.
He stretched out, shaking his arms a little. After a few deep breaths, he stepped off following Dekav. He was not sure what he was walking into, but he knew whatever was going to happen would probably be the hardest thing he had faced. He had to do this, though. No one else could. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.
“Dekav. When we get in there. After we deal with the staff and I am keeping Vay focused on me, I need you to get into their computer and delete the navigational charts from the Odyssey. Purge the whole system if you can. Make sure they can’t find their way back to us or send the data to anyone else.”
Dekav stopped to look back, giving him a knowing nod. “I understand, Commander. It will be done.”
“How long will you need, exactly?” Adrian asked rubbing his neck. This was starting to sound like a bad idea, but someone had to fall on this grenade. Dekav was the only one who knew how to operate their terminals. Besides, he had been in his share of bar fights as a young buck flight officer. He could take a few punches.
Dekav pursed his lips thoughtfully, “It is likely they have removed my command code access from most systems, but I believe I can open a back door to the navigational systems. That will be less guarded than primary tactical systems. I should only need five to ten of your minutes.”