by T. R. Harris
He would settle for what he could get. And then a few days after that, Adam Cain would be heading home to Earth, and this time for good.
Nigel McCarthy watched as the Goliath entered the D-1164 and maneuvered to a location midway within the safe passage channel, at its narrowest point—exactly where he figured they would go.
Even in light of his plan coming to fruition, he was in awe of the massive starship Kroekus had built. He had read all the reports, yet in person, the craft was truly overwhelming.
And that was why his orders were specific: Target the focusing ring portals, weapon’s turrets and launch bays first. Cripple the mighty warcraft so it could not run and make it impotent as a fighter. To accomplish this, Nigel laid out over three hundred cannon platforms in the target area, controlled not by aliens but by computers. Aliens were too inept for this kind of precise targeting, all of which must happen simultaneously. If he couldn't deliver a knockout blow to the huge starship within the first salvo, then it would be he who would be pushing up daisies at the end of the day, and not Cain and Kroekus.
Yet even if his first strike did its job, the battle wasn’t over. Nigel wanted the huge spacecraft for himself, even if it required extensive repairs after the battle. To accomplish this goal he would have to board the ship and subdue her crew—all five thousand of them.
This was actually the part of the operation he welcomed most, for during it he may actually come upon Adam Cain and Kroekus. And nothing would give him more pleasure than ending both their lives with his own hands.
Yet he knew it was mostly wishful thinking on his part. With a boarding party numbering in the thousands, he knew the chance of personally delivering the fatal blows to his enemies was very unlikely. Yet being the eternal optimist he was, one could always hope.
And now he watched the giant warcraft wink out on his screen as it went dark—a feat that was both impressive for a vessel its size, as well as fatal. Now when Nigel launched his attack, the ship would be open and vulnerable. In moments it would be active again, yet by then, the battle would already be lost.
Nigel was in a spaceship of his own in dark status, one of three hundred such assault craft—called latchpods—designed to magnetically attached to hull of a ship and cut through to the interior.
Nigel had recruited forty of his Human Hundred to assist in the raid. After all, this battle would consist primarily of aliens fighting aliens, and he was very aware how inefficient that could be. He needed the added punch forty screaming Human killers would give him. Besides, his men had come to the Cloud expecting some real action, not the political infighting they'd been involved with for the past four months. To the man, they were ready, willing and able to go out and kick some alien ass this day.
Nigel smiled. A ship full of five thousand desperate aliens—over ten thousand if you also counted his alien raiders—all fighting for their lives; that would certainly quench his men's thirst for excitement, at least for a while anyway.
Still, out of all the deaths to come, there were only two he was truly looking forward to.
And now, as he activated the computer countdown for the initial salvo against the giant spacecraft, he knew a new chapter in his life was about to begin, as another was ending.
“So long you bloody bastards,” he whispered. “You should have known never to come after me. Now you will pay the ultimate price.”
156
There was strange calmness that came over Adam as the Goliath went dark. With the powering down of the huge spacecraft, the damper on his artificial telepathy device was also lifted. For all time he had been aboard, the damper had cast a dull hum over his senses. It wasn’t debilitating, just annoying.
As Kroekus had explained, the ATD screen had been built into the ship, so there was nothing even he could do to turn it off. It was fail-proof, designed to protect against known and unknown threats from such devices, and so that even if coerced, there was nothing anyone aboard could do to negate the field's effects.
But now it was lifted—yet still it was not silent. His ATD only had a range of half a mile, so for him to be picking up any hint of electronic activity was unusual. Even life support and gravity aboard the Goliath had been cut, knowing that with the sheer size of the craft, it could sustain a livable environment until the time of the attack.
Something was off, but what it was Adam couldn’t bring into focus.
Nurick was on the bridge of the Goliath, along with Kroekus, Dracus and Adam. The Vicorean had asked to come back aboard over a week ago, just as it was preparing to leave on a secret mission of some kind. Up until then, he had been a guest of his brother at one of the larger land bases for the secret Polimor fleet. Yet Qwels had no time to entertain him, and without any skills to contribute to the war effort, Nurick had grown bored.
So he returned to the Goliath, to once again revel in its opulence and size. And the accommodations he had aboard the starship were light-years ahead of those found at the bare-bones military facility.
Nurick spent most of time now hovering around Adam, living vicariously off the celebrity status of the Human. He had very little background on Adam’s past, yet the bulk of the Goliath’s crew all seemed to know who he was. During community meals, Nurick would press the crew for more information, and it appeared for most that Adam’s aura came from that fact that he was a creature called a Human more than anything else. Yet for others with more intimate knowledge of the individual, Nurick came to learn that Adam Cain had accomplished certain feats in the Silean Galaxy that were now considered legendary. Details were still sketchy, but now Nurick was determined more than ever to learn who Adam Cain truly was.
And so he never strayed far from the Human's side, content to be known as his sidekick—whatever that was.
So it was Nurick who first noticed the furrowed brow of Adam Cain, along with the concern in his blue eyes. He moved over next to Adam, the light magnetic boots he wore keeping him from floating away in the zero gravity of the ship's dark status.
“What seems to be troubling you, Adam? Is the impending battle causing you worry?”
“No, that’s not it.” Dracus heard the comments and moved in closer to the pair.
“Trouble?”
“Nah, just a strange feeling.”
“When you have strange feelings, empires fall,” said Dracus with a smile. “Can you be more specific. Maybe the lack of gravity is making you nauseous?”
“That's not what I'm feeling. It’s just that with us being dark, there shouldn’t so much electronic activity—call it vibrations—still in the area.”
Dracus frowned. “We are dark, Adam, and our sensors detect nothing out of the ordinary. Could it be the nebula itself that is affecting your senses?”
“He can control electronic devices with his mind,” Nurick said with awe in his voice.
Dracus’s smile grew wider. “I know that, Nurick. It is a gift I’m glad only he possesses. But now, Adam, you say you are detecting electronic signals around us—not within the ship—but outside?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t pinpoint anything in this blasted galaxy, but I just sense that something’s not right—”
At that very moment Adam’s eyes grew wide and rolled back in his head and his body went limp in the zero gravity yet held in place by his magnetic boots. With his ATD wide open and searching for any signs of even the faintest electronic signals, it had been too much for his conscious mind to bear when the concentrated blast from three hundred weapons platforms all erupted at once.
The attack was like one brilliant flash of light that enveloped the entire ship in a hot cloud of destruction. No flesh and blood mind could comprehend what had happened in mere nanoseconds as all the computers on the platforms synced for one simultaneous burst.
Yet for the crew of the Goliath, the after effects were devastating.
The entire starship was now vibrating with a strange harmonic tone, and there had been definite jolts to the hull, in fact, all over the hull
it seemed. With all systems dark, there was an eerie silence in the corridors of the starship, which were now illuminated only by battery lights. The crew held their collect breath, feeling the strange vibration as it seemed to sync up with the beating of their hearts. With no monitors active, none knew what had happened or what they should do now. And so they waited.
Unlike other parts of the ship, the bridge was without lights of any kind, relying only on the glow coming from the surrounding nebula through the vast viewports that covered three sides of the expansive room.
“Status report!” Kroekus yelled out. Silence greeted his command.
“Again, someone give me a status report!”
“Everything is down,” someone yelled.
“Then take us out of dark status and get the power back on!”
Dracus ran to the very first command console screen that came alive, and then punching buttons as fast as he could, he began to report. “Power is being rebooted and gravity will be active in a few seconds, Kroekus." Then he paused and looked a little closer at the screen, "Yet these reading cannot be accurate.”
Kroekus moved next to him and looked at the screen. “All the engines are offline? How can that be?”
“Not the engines, it is the portals. They have all been closed—from what appears to have been cannon fire. The engines shut down as a safety precaution.”
“We were attacked?” Kroekus couldn't believe what he was asking. There had been one brilliant flash of light, and now his entire ship was dead.
“Yes,” Dracus confirmed, “from some concentrated array of cannon fire. We’re still intact, since the barrage was aimed only at the ring portals, the weapons and the landing bay doors.”
“Only, you say?” Kroekus was fuming. “That only was enough to place us defenseless and unable to escape. To me, it sounds like the attack served its purpose."
“We can still defend ourselves, if we can get the bay doors open—” someone yelled across the bridge.
“Four of the bays were pressurized at the time of the attack,” another of the bridge crew reported. “They are now open to space and most of the fighter craft inside were sucked out at the time of the breach. The other two bays have doors that have been badly damaged and are unable to be opened.”
All the eyes on the bridge fell upon Kroekus, yet the Silean’s were on the inert body of Adam Cain, now sprawled out on the deck after that gravity had been restored. “What happened to him?”
Nurick knelt at Adam’s side. “I do not know. At the time of the attack, he fell unconscious. I believe he is coming to.”
Adam’s head felt like it was about to explode—or more correctly—like it already had. He didn’t know what happened, yet as he climbed to his feet and Kroekus filled him on the events of the past two minutes, he had pretty good idea.
“We were set up, Kroekus, and thanks to my hubris, we've fallen right into Nigel's trap.”
“You did not cause this, Adam. I did not have to be talked into going after Nigel McCarthy. I came willingly.”
Adam moved with a shaky gait to the console where Dracus stood. “No other cannon fire?” he asked after a moment of reading the data.
“None beyond the initial flash,” Dracus confirmed. “What does that mean?”
Adam pursed his lips and looked out the vast forward viewport at the brilliant colors of Nebula D-1164. “It means Nigel intends to take the Goliath intact.”
He turned to an officer seated at the weapons station, a creature without a job now that all his turrets had been destroyed. “Announce to the crew to arm up and prepare to repel boarders.”
“But we have a crew of five thousand. He can’t honestly expect to take the ship against such a force?” Dracus said.
“Incoming!” a crewmember cried out.
“Details?” Kroekus yelled back.
“Ships approaching, hundreds of them.”
Adam looked into the eyes of Dracus. “He planned this attack from the beginning, knowing the capabilities of the Goliath. I’m sure he's aware of our compliment and has come with more than enough fighters to take us. He’ll sacrifice thousands to achieve his goal.”
“What should we do?”
“The Goliath has value to him and he'll do all he can to preserve the vital systems and equipment onboard, so we'll use that against him. He didn't attack the bridge because he knows that would have fatally crippled the ship. Send the crew to the engine rooms, life support, weapons and data rooms. Seal them off and don't let those areas be taken without first destroying all vital equipment. And make it a priority to get those ring portals cleared."
"Wait! You cannot order the crew to destroy the ship from the inside out," Kroekus said. "What good will it do us in victory if we are left with a broken ship that is beyond repair?
"Here's news for you, Kroekus, the battle is already lost. We're dead in the water, and defenseless. If McCarthy wanted to, he could sit off a few thousand miles and cut us to shreds. The only thing stopping him is the prize of the ship itself. So we'll hold it for ransom, and hopefully buy us some time to get some of the portals cleared."
“That will involve work outside the ship,” said one of the bridge crew.
“Then get them out there now before the major invasion begins. And take along enough guards to keep the bad guys away."
"He won't let us work on the portals unmolested," said Dracus.
"No he won't, so get crews also working from the inside. There are five thousand bodies aboard the Goliath; that's a lot of man—alien-power—to go around. Let's use it."
Adam turned and addressed the entire bridge crew. "The bridge has been left intact, so we'll coordinate the ship's defense from here. Order the bulk of the crew to protect the vital functions of the ship, such as engines and life support. But as the battle progresses, have them fall back to defensible positions throughout the ship. Lock down hatches and sections and evacuate the atmosphere in spaces between them and the boarders. More than likely the raiders will come prepared for a loss of atmosphere, yet their environment suits will only slow them down and make it harder to engage in close-quarters-combat. When engaged, have the crew strike and then retreat, strike and retreat. Both our forces are of limited number, even though I’m sure the raiders can call up reinforcements, but not for several days. Our priority should be to get the ring portals cleared. With our exterior weapons damaged beyond repair, our only hope for survival will be to run, so get crews to work on opening those portals now.
"Now everyone move. When those ships lock onto the surface of the Goliath, we have to be ready for them.”
157
Near the massive bridge of the Goliath was located one of the fourteen armories aboard the ship. Adam led a group to the room and began to dispense MK handguns and Xan-fi flash rifles. He made sure everyone had as many power packs as they could carry since the plasma weapons ate through them like candy. Unfortunately for the Human, he found no projectile weapons in the armory. That was probably a good thing, otherwise the panicked crew could go around perforating the hull with hot lead from an M27 or comparable assault weapon.
There were a few concussion grenades available, even though they were not recommended for use inside a pressurized hull. Still, he passed them out, while keeping four for himself. And then he geared up, with an MK-47, a Model-10 Xan-fi and a breathing unit contained in a small knapsack.
Most of the crew of the Goliath had some military training; Kroekus saw to that and carried out drills constantly. The Silean was taking his mighty warship into battle in an unknown galaxy, so the crew had to be ready for what they found in the Cloud. That would be an advantage they would have over Nigel’s invaders. If the raiders were like all the other aliens in this galaxy—including the Security Corps—they would have only rudimentary skills.
Even then, Adam couldn’t count on Nigel not to know this already. McCarthy would overcome his troops’ lack of expertise by sending in a massive number of fighters aboard the Goliath. He wouldn
’t care how many were killed in the process, just as long as his objective was met.
And Adam had no doubt that he was Nigel’s primary objective.
Yet in Nigel’s attack on the Goliath, Adam also saw an opportunity.
He was sure the Englishman would personally take part in the assault, simply so he could find him and Kroekus. Yet this also meant Adam could go looking for Nigel. The Goliath may be lost in the end, yet finally the showdown between him and McCarthy could take place.
So he now ran to the comm center for the ship. It was a series of rooms near the bridge where both external and internal communications were monitored. Adam wouldn’t spend a lot of his time engaged in the general battle aboard the ship. Instead he would monitor the ship’s cameras from this location as long as he could until he found Nigel McCarthy, and then Adam would seek him out.
With any luck, his plan would catch McCarthy off guard. Knowing Adam’s reputation, Nigel would expect him to be manning the barricades and guiding the troops, concentrating on the entire battle theater and not just one man. Instead, Adam would have only one objective—to find and kill Nigel McCarthy.
There were only a few other people in the comm center; all the others who normally would have been there had grabbed weapons and run to their respective battle stations. Adam slipped into the main command seat that looked out over the twenty-eight large screens mounted along the bulkhead. Even though the number of screens was impressive, there were over nine hundred cameras scattered within the Goliath, so the images kept changing every few seconds, with the location of each scene displayed prominently in the upper left hand corner. Fortunately for Adam, the locations were all in numbers, indicating deck, section and orientation, rather than spelled out in some alien language he couldn’t read. In addition, if he needed help finding the location of a particular camera, a press of a button on the armrest of the command chair would provide a large graphic display with the location highlighted on the oversized center screen.