by CH Gideon
“They don’t know any better,” Reynolds said, frustration clear in his voice, “but we need to convince them that we’re not what they think.”
“So far, sitting here getting shot to shit isn’t optimal. You asked for options? We’re going to have to neutralize their fleet,” Tactical replied.
“Well, we certainly can’t keep taking this without response,” XO announced. “Sooner or later, likely sooner, they’ll get through our gravitic shields with all this and start doing real damage.”
“And we’ve got meatbags on board now,” Tactical reminded everyone. “Shots get through the hull, and we’ll have dead meatbags. All that goop isn’t good for the systems.”
“Way to sound almost benevolent,” Jiya chided Tactical.
“He’s right, though,” Comm agreed. “Not necessarily about the goop, although that’s bad too, but we can’t go getting our crew killed after all the work we did to get them in place.”
“I know, I know,” Reynolds mumbled, pacing across the bridge before jabbing a metallic finger at Tactical. “Evasive maneuvers and return fire, but I want to wound, not kill, understood? No railguns, and definitely no ESD.”
Tactical grunted. “I understand the words but not the logic behind it. I’m on it.”
The image on the viewscreen shifted as the SD Reynolds began to evade. Weapons gleamed as they returned fire, selective shots streaking across space to slow and disable the engaging fleet.
“Missiles fired,” Tactical called, and the screen tracked the progress—quick flares of impact before they faded. “Crippled a destroyer. It’s listing.”
“That’s a start. Come on, Asya, get a clue that you’re going to get all your people killed. Dying for your cause won’t further it,” XO offered. “Just a dozen more ships to go.”
“Geroux,” Jiya shouted, “reach out to the lead ship and see if you can open a dialogue. Let them know we don’t want to harm them.”
“Already did that,” Reynolds told her.
“It doesn’t hurt to keep trying,” Jiya answered. “Maybe she can hack their systems and force a message through.”
“Do it!” Reynolds agreed.
“This is going to get messy quickly,” Maddox announced. “There’s no way we can maneuver through all this without causing some real damage, Reynolds. You might want to think about retreating and coming back elsewhere in the system where there isn’t a fleet to engage us.”
“Never retreat! Never surrender!” Tactical shouted.
“Seriously?” Maddox asked.
“He’s quoting some stupid movie,” Comm clarified. “Ignore him.”
Maddox grunted.
“Another ship disabled,” XO announced.
“They’re blocking all incoming signals,” Geroux told them. “I’m trying to hack through, but it’s not looking good.”
“Bring us around so—”
“Shit!” Tactical cursed.
“What?”
“Their lead ship zigged when it should have zagged,” Tactical answered. “We broadsided it with a missile.”
“Damn it!” Reynolds shouted. “On screen.”
The image of Captain Asya’s ship appeared, and they zoomed in. A smoking crater was obvious about halfway down the hull. The ship’s engines sputtered and died, the destroyer dead in space.
“I said wound, not kill, dumbass,” Reynolds shouted.
“They maneuvered into the missile. Likely trying to deflect it from their companion ship, but it hit flush. Nothing I could do.”
“Well, if the Loranian captain didn’t already think we were a bunch of killers, she most certainly does now.”
“It’s losing atmosphere, and life support is failing,” Comm said.
“The ship’s drifting off,” Jiya reported. “Looks like the fleet is letting it flounder, preferring to take us down before they spare any thought for their wounded.”
“And here we are, looking like assholes,” Reynolds complained, growling at the screen. “The complete opposite of what we want.”
“Orders?” XO pushed. “We can’t sit here picking our mechanical asses.”
“Close on that destroyer and tractor it,” Reynolds commanded.
“Are you insane?” Tactical asked. “You’ll make us a sitting duck.”
“Do it!” Reynolds ordered. He spun in his seat and addressed the crew. “Jiya, get a team ready to board the Valter. If their people won’t bail them out, we will. Maybe that will show them we don’t mean any harm.”
“Or maybe it will get us all killed,” Tactical argued. “For the record, this is stupid.”
“I hate to agree with Tactical,” Maddox said, “but I think he’s right. This is a mistake.”
“Probably,” Reynolds agreed, “but I’m out of options. We need to take the opportunity.”
“Ship is tractored, and we’re pulling it in,” Helm called.
“Expand the gravitic shields over both ships,” Reynolds ordered. “I don’t want the Valter taking hits meant for us.”
“The destroyer is shielded,” Helm announced. “It’s already costing us, though. Shields are taking a beating.”
Reynolds jumped to his feet, waving to Jiya and the others. “Get over there and get power back to that ship, so she doesn’t die out there. Do whatever you have to.”
Jiya saluted and raced off, Maddox and Geroux at her heels.
“You sure this is a good idea?” XO repeated.
“Not really,” Reynolds replied, “but it’s what we’re doing.”
“Does this feel insane to anyone else?” Ka’nak asked as the crew crowded outside the boarding tube, armed and armored and ready to board the listing destroyer.
Geroux raised her hand.
“See? It’s not just me,” Ka’nak mumbled. “This is crazy.”
“It’s what we’ve been ordered to do,” Jiya countered,” so it’s what we’re going to do. Period.”
“Here!” Takal offered Jiya a belt with several small oval containers on it.
“What are these?”
“Screamers,” he answered, “for lack of a better name. They’ll be useful as distractions should you need them. Just make sure to keep your helmets on or your ears will hate me later. I’ve added baffles to protect you.”
Jiya nodded and took the belt, strapping it around her waist. “Everyone know their job?”
“Convince the enemy that we aren’t their enemy,” Ka’nak stated.
The rest of the crew nodded, and Jiya sucked in a deep breath to steady her nerves. “Let’s do this,” she ordered and signaled for the boarding tube to be opened.
Weapons in hand, they raced down the tube with Comm’s voice in their ears. “Boarding point is clear,” he reported. “The crew is busy trying to save the ship, but you won’t have long before they realize you’re there, so stay frosty.”
Jiya replied in the affirmative as the crew burst through the hatch onto the enemy ship. Smoke filled the air, and tiny electrical fires sparked in the electronics along the wall.
“Clean shot,” Maddox whistled. “Too bad we weren’t trying to take them out.”
“You’ve got life forms headed your way,” Comm told them.
Jiya turned to face her people. “Geroux, you and Takal get to engineering and try to resuscitate this wreck.” She waved them off before turning to the remaining crew. “It’s up to us to hold this point as long as it takes for Takal and Geroux to restore power to the ship.”
She motioned down the hall to where the Valter’s crew would be coming from, the opposite direction from where Geroux and Takal had run off.
“Do what you have to, but stun only,” she ordered. “We can’t go killing them if we want to pull this off.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Ka’nak complained. “Doesn’t seem fair, you ask me.”
“Life ain’t fair,” Jiya told him. “Let’s make sure it works out the way we need it to.”
Bolts of energy screamed down the corridor and Jiya
darted to the left for cover, Maddox and Ka’nak going to the right. They returned fire, snapping shots down the hall, grateful that Comm had led them to a place on the Valter that provided them with reasonable cover.
“I count twenty crew,” Comm said over the communicator. “They’re clustered at the bend at the end of the hall. No way to advance without making a target of themselves, so stay tight, and you should be fine.”
Ka’nak loosed a few bolts in the general direction of the Valter’s crew to help them with their decision to remain behind cover.
“We’re going to have issues when Geroux and Takal return,” Maddox pointed out. “No cover down that corridor.”
Jiya nodded, having realized that herself. She patted the belt that Takal had given her, letting Maddox see it. She had an idea what she’d do when the time came, but right then, she had her hands full trying not to get shot while they waited.
It’d only be a matter of time before Captain Asya figured out a way to come down the corridor and make this a real fight. Jiya didn’t want to be there when that happened.
“How’s it going?” she asked Takal over the comm.
Takal came back, breathing heavily. “There’s a system-wide failure,” he reported. “I’m trying to reboot it, but I’m having a hard time getting it to take commands. It’s largely unresponsive.”
“What does that mean?” she pushed.
“It means I don’t know if we can bring her back online in time to save the crew or us,” Takal told her.
“Not sure what the enemy crew is doing, but they’re gathering,” Comm announced. “Piling up behind one another, drawing closer to the corner.”
“Shit,” Jiya muttered, shaking her head. “They’ve either got something to deflect shots or they’re willing to sacrifice some of their people to get close enough to take us out.”
Jiya had to admire their courage, considering the Valter’s crew didn’t know Jiya and her people were intending to immobilize them instead of killing them. She snarled into the comm. Ka’nak started to growl deep in his throat with the adrenaline surge of the impending fight.
“I need to know now, Takal,” she said, “Can you fix this tub or not?”
“It’s going to take some time,” he came back.
Time they didn’t have.
“Screw it, then,” she told him. “You and Geroux get back here now! We’re getting off this ship.”
“What about the crew?” Maddox asked.
Jiya shrugged. She hadn’t thought that far ahead.
Captain Asya didn’t give her any more time, either.
The Valter’s crew pushed around the corner in a tight mass, looking like a Roman shield wall, bodies standing tall upfront and weapons poking out of every available cranny. They came down the hall at a brisk run.
Jiya swallowed hard. Even if she took out the lead crew members, the rest would be on them, and that’d be that.
But much like when she’d faced off against her father’s guards, she knew she wasn’t going to go out that easily.
Rather than yank a single screamer off the belt, she removed the whole thing and triggered the devices, hurtling the entire belt down the hall at the advancing enemy.
“Fire in the hole,” she shouted, having no clue exactly what to expect.
The screamers went off when they struck the ground, and the effect was instantaneous.
True to their name, the screamers did exactly that: scream loud enough to shake the great struts holding the once-impressive destroyer together.
The Valter’s crew shrieked in response to the wailing-harpy pitch of the screamers. They stumbled, dropping their weapons and clutching at their ears despite the helmets they wore.
Jiya gasped as the sound stabbed her in the skull even through the baffles Takal had installed, giving her an instant headache she figured would last a week or more. She could only imagine how bad it was for the Valter’s crew.
“You used all of them?” Takal asked, coming alongside her, his eyes narrowed in pain.
“I wasn’t supposed to?” Jiya asked.
He shook his head.
“Seems to have worked,” she muttered over the comm, although she was sure he could barely hear her.
She turned back to the Valter’s crew, who were scattered about the floor. Only a few of them still moved, the majority of them unconscious. As the screamers died out one by one, the rest of the crew stilled and flopped to the ground.
“I’m going to need a hearing aid,” Ka’nak shouted despite the devices having gone silent.
“Me too!” Maddox yelled, tapping the side of his helmet.
“What’s going on?” Comm asked. “All of the Valter’s crew are down. How’d that happen?”
“We, uh, stunned them,” Jiya shouted into the comm, also unable to talk at a normal volume.
“You don’t have to yell at me,” Comm complained.
“I really think I do,” she answered, still yelling. “Get us some bots down here fast,” she told Comm. “We’ve got twenty Loranian crew members who are going to need medical assistance.”
“You want to bring them aboard?” Reynolds asked, cutting in.
“You wanted a chance to make peace, right?” Jiya shouted. “Here it is.”
“Taking hostages wasn’t exactly what I intended,” he answered.
“Don’t think of them as hostages, then,” she replied. “Think of them as guests. Give them tea and cookies, and it’ll be okay.”
Reynolds growled. “Get back aboard,” he ordered. “We’re taking a beating here and can’t hold out much longer.”
“Yes, sir,” Jiya replied and waved the crew through the boarding tube after the bots arrived to haul away their guests.
“Score one for the good guys?” Ka’nak asked.
Jiya shrugged. “Guess we’ll see soon enough.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
On the bridge of the SD Reynolds, the crew gathered around the still unconscious Captain Asya. The rest of her people had been placed in Pod-docs, being healed but kept asleep until there was some resolution to the current crisis.
“Why are we still hugging this heap?” Tactical asked. “We need to let the Valter go and defend ourselves.”
“Gravitic shields are degrading quickly,” Helm announced. “We’re taking actual hull damage now,” he reported. “It isn’t much, but it’ll add up quickly.”
“Wake her up,” Reynolds told the crew, gesturing to Captain Asya.
Jiya went over and gave the captain a quick sternal rub. The captain grunted and bolted upright as Jiya stepped back.
“Wha-what?” the captain asked, clearly still reeling from the effects of the screamers. Dried blood was visible in her ears. “Who?”
“I’m sorry to have brought you aboard under such difficult circumstances,” Maddox told her, taking the lead since Reynolds looked like a murderous metallic skeleton, “but we need to make it clear that we are not your enemy.”
The ship trembled as the fleet continued its barrage.
“Shields down to thirty percent,” Helm warned.
“I’m…where?”
“You’re aboard the SD Reynolds, Captain,” Maddox continued, “And I’m sorry, but we don’t have time to catch you up on everything. Your fleet’s continuing assault is going to force us to make a decision we don’t want to make.”
Captain Asya clambered to her feet, swaying unsteadily. Jiya stayed close to steady her, remaining wary. Ka’nak also stood nearby.
“I don’t understand,” she said, finally appearing to gather her wits. “Why am I here?”
“Because your ship was dying,” Reynolds said, stepping in, his impatience clearly getting the better of him. “It was struck down accidentally, and it was clear your fleet prioritized our defeat over your safety. We couldn’t let you die for our mistake.”
“But the Thra’kal scout ship…”
“Was a mistake, as I tried to tell you earlier,” Reynolds replied. “We had believed
it to be a Kurtherian ship and meant it no harm.”
“We’re not some invading force,” Jiya added. “We’re on a mission to find Kurtherians, gather intel on them alone, and make alliances. Believe it or not, we come in peace.”
Captain Asya frowned. “Tell that to my crew and my ship.”
“Your ship was an accident,” Reynolds told her. “You flew into a missile meant to disable another of your craft, not take you out.”
“As for your crew,” Jiya said, “they are alive and well in stasis. They’re all fine.”
“If we had meant to kill you, we would have done it from the get-go,” Maddox told her. “We have weapons aboard this ship that would scorch holes in your planet.”
“But we held back,” Reynolds offered. “Even now,” he gestured to the viewscreen and an image of the SD Reynolds hovering in space, still connected to the Valter, appeared. “We’re taking a beating because we don’t want to hurt your people.”
“We boarded your craft to rescue it,” Jiya said. “The only reason we stunned you was because there was no way you’d believe us in time to get you off that wreck before someone died.”
Captain Asya spun in a slow circle, looking at the crew and the ship around her. “You kidnapped us to prove your peaceful nature?”
The screen altered and a readout of the Valter’s condition appeared alongside its image. It was clear from the data that the ship was dead in space, life support and all systems fried.
“You could fake that,” the captain argued.
“We could, but do you feel that shudder?” Reynolds asked. “That’s your fleet pounding us while we sit here with our thumbs up our asses, holding back our true potential. We don’t want to fight you, and we’re not here to invade, but we’re going to have to fight back very soon. Now or never, Captain.”
“Give us a chance to prove our capabilities. Show you that we could have wiped your fleet out from the start but didn’t,” Jiya said. “Your life is as much at risk here as ours are, Captain,” she explained. “If nothing else, call a pause to the battle so we can ship you back to your people. Whatever happens, we don’t want you or your crew hurt.”
Captain Asya growled and glared at the viewscreen showing her ship’s stats. She stood there rigid for a moment, then she turned around and nodded at Jiya. “Can you open a channel?” She offered up a specific frequency.