by Tony Healey
“Best speed to those co-ordinates, Rogers,” King ordered.
The Defiant turned, then the helmsman gave her a brief surge of engine power. She coasted past one particularly large obstacle. The damaged Krinuan ship lay dead ahead, turning in circles like a small toy model on display, hanging on a wire.
“Their starboard engine appears to be operating at half speed, hence their spin. We’ll need to match in order to get a good link-up, or use a shuttle,” Chang advised.
“Agreed,” King said. “Contact Captain Nowlan and ask him for his assistance. We could do with some of his legendary piloting skills on this one.”
There were chuckles all around.
“Captain!” Jackson snapped. He turned in his seat. “Enemy vessels. Closing fast.”
Jessica sighed and nodded at Chang. “Tell him to hurry.”
Lieutenant Jackson’s fingers flew across controls, and Jessica felt the main guns rotating into position. “Batteries activated. Locking in on targets.”
“Chang, the status of our energy shield?” King asked calmly.
“At optimum efficiency,” Chang reported. “And hull plating charged.”
King turned to Jackson. “Lieutenant, hold fire until my order.”
“Understood, Captain,” Jackson said. He licked his top lip.
“Krinuan ships confirm they are bogies,” Rayne said.
On the viewscreen, Greene’s ship turned and turned uncontrollably. To the far right, a dozen ships sped into view. Jessica felt her stomach twist into a knot.
“Captain Nowlan has just left in a shuttle. He’s asking we cover his flight path,” Rayne said, a hand to her ear piece as she relayed his message.
“As if we’d do anything else,” King said. “Okay, Jackson. Let’s show our hand. Fire tubes four through six. Proximity blast.”
The Lieutenant nodded sharp. He threw a switch and three missiles blasted away from the front of the Defiant on a collision course with the enemy ships.
“Krinuan ships are moving to intercept the Naxor,” Chang said.
The warheads blew. A lead Naxor vessel erupted into flame, dipped its nose and turned end over end. The other ships sped around it.
“Follow up with a chaser, Jackson. Tubes seven through nine,” King ordered.
“Aye!”
Three more Duotonic missiles burst from the front end of the Defiant, at the same time Hawk’s shuttle came into view as it raced toward Greene’s ship.
“Keep moving us in closer, Rogers,” King said. “We’ll cover them with the Defiant herself if need be.”
“Yes Captain,” Rogers agreed.
“Captain Nowlan now thirty seconds from the other vessel,” Chang said.
The three warheads blew. They took another two Naxor ships with them. But now the other Naxor were on them. They fired energy weapons. Jessica shielded her eyes. The friction of energy weapon and energy shield caused violent explosions of light just beyond the ship. A burst of thunder.
“God …” Chang said with a wince.
“Fire all batteries!” King yelled.
The deck trembled rhythmically as the Defiant‘s mighty guns let loose against the enemy. Through the breaks in fireworks, she could make out the Krinuan ships ducking in and out amongst the Naxor vessels.
“Captain Nowlan has achieved dock!” Chang reported.
Jessica grinned.
Legendary, she thought.
“Roll along her main axis, Rogers. Give that ship cover,” she ordered.
4.
The Naxor hadn’t noticed a small shuttle making its precarious journey from the underbelly of the Defiant to the crippled ship spinning in circles before them. For any lesser pilot, it would have been a chore to align correctly with the other vessel, but for Hawk it was a piece of cake. He slipped alongside, matched its spin as it went around and around, and slowly edged in against the docking ring. The shuttle butted up against the side of the other ship with a slight clank of metal on metal.
He equalized the pressure between the two, then accessed the interior of the ship.
Inside was smoke and chaos. He could smell burning. Could hear the whimpering of injured crew.
Hawk grabbed his kit and proceeded into the ship to see who was still alive.
* * *
The Naxor ships swarmed the Defiant, bombarding her with fire.
“Shields showing signs of strain,” Chang said.
I’m not surprised, Jessica thought.
“Captain?” Chief Gunn asked on the overhead speakers.
King accessed her comm. panel. “Go ahead, Chief.”
“We’re struggling to reroute extra power to the shield down here, Captain. Any more of this and we’re in big trouble.”
“Understood,” King said and closed the channel again.
Directly ahead Jackson struck lucky against a Naxor ship and it exploded. The Defiant rocked from side to side.
“Rayne, contact Captain Nowlan and tell him to move his butt,” King ordered. “Chang, try to move power from non-essential systems to feed into the energy shield. See what you can do.”
“Yes Captain,” Chang answered and set straight to work.
Goddamn energy shield’s the only thing keeping us alive, Jessica thought. That and Jackson’s trigger finger.
* * *
Commander Greene helped pull the weak and injured through the airlock onto the awaiting shuttle. At a push, it would take all of them in one hit. Given Captain Nowlan’s account of the huge fire fight going on outside, that was fortunate.
The Commander ushered a group of Krinuans toward the airlock.
“I’ll take care of these,” Hawk said. “Go and get yuh people from the bridge. Yuh say Salnow’s in a bad way?”
“Yeah. Cut to ribbons. The sooner he gets to medical, the better,” Greene said.
“Well go get the last of ‘em. I’ll make sure we’re good to go the second that hatch is shut,” Hawk said.
* * *
The Defiant shuddered.
“Return fire on that Naxor ship,” King ordered.
Jackson nodded, accessed the gunnery controls and turned all turrets to target the enemy vessel. They blanketed it with a wall of deadly munitions. The hits registered against its own energy shielding.
“Direct hits across its port side!” Jackson reported.
“Fire tubes one and two!” King snapped.
Two missiles sped from the Defiant’s nose to the Naxor ship. They broke through the fractured shielding and slammed straight into the enemy’s hull. The resultant explosion tore the ship in two.
“Yes!” Jackson yelled. He looked about at everyone else with a grin, then turned back to his console. Jackson cleared his throat, as if restoring his resolve. “Uh, locating the nearest enemy vessel to engage.”
Good work, Jessica thought. The strength of the Union must remain unrelenting.
Who had told her that? A Fleet Commander many years ago. It all seemed like memories of another life. In a way it was.
“Captain, Naxor vessel targeting the rescue party,” Chang said. “They’re locking weapons. If that ship gets hit…”
“I know. Jackson, protect that ship. We need to give them time to get the hell off,” Jessica ordered.
* * *
The bridge of the Krinuan craft was in a state of complete carnage. Virtually pitch black with only the feeblest green light attempting to cut through the dark haze. The acrid burn of metal and plastic made his eyes sting, but Greene pushed through it. He found Ensign Boi tending to Salnow. The security officer sat slumped in a corner, cut all over. Boi turned at the sound of Greene’s approaching footsteps.
“Commander.”
“How is he?” Del asked. He got down on his haunches and looked the man over himself. He was in bad shape.
“Not really with it sir,” Boi said.
The ship shook around them. Greene looked about, as if he expected the roof to cave in any second. Something sizzled to his right. A burned out console. The
bridge was dead. As was the ship.
“Where’s Banks?”
Boi ran a hand over his dirty, sweaty face. “The Lieutenant took a couple of the Krinuan crew to the shuttle.”
“I didn’t pass him on my way through,” Greene said doubtfully.
Boi shook his head. “Not from here, sir. Their engineering section. There were crew still messing about in there last we heard. Banks went down there to round them up.”
“Good.” He helped Boi get Salnow to his feet. “Get the other side, Ensign and let’s get him -“
A murmur at the entrance to the bridge made him stop mid-sentence. A female Krinuan staggered into the room, dazed. Greene spotted the hole in her side, the fur poking through her uniform matted with blood. She looked at him helplessly, then her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Before she could fall Greene got there and scooped her into his arms. She was surprisingly light, if awkward to carry.
“Come on, Ensign. Let’s move.”
* * *
The Defiant’s fire blasted the stern of the other Naxor ship, its energy shield crackling from the reactions of impacting artillery smashing into it. The vessel released two sparkly balls of energy from its bow.
“Enemy fire!” Chang reported.
“Target those birds! Now!” King shouted.
Jackson shifted his targeting recticals to the first of the Naxor torpedoes. The battery fire detonated it with a bright flash of energy. However, the other torpedo continued its course toward the stricken vessel.
“Jackson…” King said.
The Lieutenant didn’t say anything. He bit his bottom lip with concentration, yet still the guns failed to reach their target.
“Oh no…” King heard Chang whisper to the side of her. On the viewscreen the crippled ship turned with the Union shuttle clamped to its side. The torpedo ploughed down on top of it. Jessica flinched from the explosion.
* * *
The ship bucked beneath his feet. Greene sprang through the airlock and set the lady Krinuan on the deck. He turned back. Boi still struggled along the corridor with Salnow’s arm draped over his shoulder, his feet dragging on the decking.
“Come on!” the Commander yelled at them. “Quickly!”
“Wait here,” Banks said and pushed past him. He ran down the corridor toward the two struggling crewmen. He took up the other side of Salnow.
The hell mouth opened. Boi glanced behind him at the sound of a massive explosion. The Krinuan ship shook. A wall of flame surged up the corridor, sucking the air out. Salnow cried out in pain. They were still so far away. Banks looked up. He had time to fix his eyes on Commander Greene, then the flames consumed them.
“NO!”
The hot blast threw Commander Greene against the other side of the shuttle. He struck the bulkhead then landed in a heap on the floor. Fire licked inside the shuttle like dragon’s breath. A Krinuan male rushed to the side of the open airlock and slammed a paw against the control panel. It closed, sealed against the inferno on the other side.
At the same instant, Hawk disengaged and propelled them away. The Krinuan ship blew apart next to them, pelting the hull of the tiny shuttle with shattered pieces of ship.
“Woah! That was close!” Hawk yelled, throwing the shuttle into the kind of manoeuvres its designers had never been fortunate enough to imagine. He glanced back into the hold. “Hey, Commander -“
Greene stirred on the deck, but he didn’t respond. Blood spilled from the side of his head, and his skin looked charred and bobbled as if he’d been roasted. Several Krinuans tended to him, held a bundle of torn cloth against the gash along his temple. He tried to spot the other members of the Defiant’s crew but couldn’t.
Then he realized they were no more.
Hawk turned back to his helm controls, his jaw set as he sped them back to the Defiant.
5.
“Captain Nowlan coming in hot,” Rayne reported, holding her earpiece. “And he’s got casualties.”
“Did they all make it off alive?” King asked. They’d seen the ship blow apart, and had feared the worst until they saw the Union shuttle inexplicably emerge from the explosion intact.
Ensign Rayne listened, then looked up at Jessica with big, sad eyes.
“Boi, Salnow and Lieutenant Banks were killed. Commander Greene has been badly injured,” she said quietly.
Jessica couldn’t afford the news even a moment to sink in, as much as her heart sank instantly at the news her crew were gone.
“I want a crash team in that hangar. Medics, fire team. The lot,” she ordered. “Lieutenant Rogers, please move us out of the immediate vicinity. Use the surrounding debris as cover.”
“The shuttle is aboard,” Chang said.
“Do it,” King told the helmsman.
“Aye,” Rogers replied. The Defiant turned under his fingertips.
“Olivia, contact Praror and inform him of what we’re doing. I don’t want him to think that we’re leaving.”
“Yes Ma’am,” Rayne said.
“Enemy fire to our stern,” Chang said. “Naxor ship in pursuit.”
Jessica grimaced. “Jackson, I want every turret pointed at that ship. Target their shields.”
“With pleasure,” Jackson said and accessed his controls. The Defiant vibrated beneath the fury of her guns. The viewscreen changed to show an aft view. The Naxor suffered under the artillery barrage and tried to turn.
“Launch all tubes. Taker her out!” Jessica ordered.
Jackson fired at once. A spread of Duotonic missiles shot from the front of the Defiant, turned either side and rushed to the back. They tore the Naxor ship apart.
The viewscreen changed to show the bow. Rogers dropped them below a spindly mass of rock, then took the Defiant up behind it.
“Any word on Commander Greene?” King asked Chang.
The Lieutenant shook her head. “It’s not good, Captain. He’s out cold and he’s got bad burns to his face and arms. Dr. Clayton’s attending.”
Jessica swallowed.
She fought back memories of Captain Singh’s broken form in the munitions section months ago.
“Captain!” Rayne pivoted about. “Praror reports enemy birds headed our way.”
Jessica looked to Chang.
“I don’t see them on my -” Chang started to say, then her eyes lit with realization. “Yep. Four of them. Ten seconds to impact.”
“Everybody, grab hold of something!” King shouted. She gripped the sides of her chair as the enemy torpedoes hit. The Defiant seemed to break around her.
She closed her eyes momentarily against the roar of explosions happening over the ship.
Emergency klaxons wailed.
“Energy shield is disabled!” Chang shouted over the din. “Multiple hull breaches.”
Jessica unclipped herself. She squinted. The bridge was full of smoke. It burned her eyes.
“Activate the extractors -” King stopped when she saw the smoke rushing off the bridge. What started as a high pitched whistle soon became a scream of air escaping from the ship. It took a second for everything to register, then it hit her. She shot up from her chair. “Evacuate the bridge! Evacuate!”
A small hole in the wall next to the viewscreen widened, sending a piece of thick hull material out into space. The smoke hurried in its bid to escape into the vacuum. Jessica dove forward, yanked Rogers from his seat. She shoved him toward the entrance. “Get out!”
She turned to Jackson. The Lieutenant was already moving.
Rayne ripped her earpiece out and was getting down from her station. Jessica hurried past Chang.
“Move it!”
The Captain reached the entrance behind Rogers and Jackson. She turned back. Chang had stopped to see that Rayne was on her way. The last tendrils of smoke tore through the hole, then it split wide open before taking the entire portion of wall holding the viewscreen with it. Bare, naked space pulled every last particle of atmosphere from the bridge. Jessica clutched her last breath,
her mouth pinched shut. She clung to the sides of the door frame. Chang slid, fell to the deck and was pulled toward the open end of the bridge. Olivia bounded across and grabbed her. With her last effort she swung Chang toward Jessica.
Chang caught the Captain’s free hand, and for a moment they formed a chain like that. Then Olivia’s hand slipped.
Chang made eye contact with her one last time before the pull of open space took her away, her arms flailing helplessly before she was lost to the darkness.
With her last ounce of strength, as the blackout closed in around her, Jessica just managed to pull them both through the door before it slid shut behind them, forming an airtight seal against the compromised bridge.
Chang collapsed on top of her Captain, gasping for breath. But Jessica didn’t move. Her face had turned a deathly shade of blue. Chang looked around. She took several breaths then called for a medic. She felt Jessica’s neck and found a pulse.
Weak, but it was there.
“Hang in there Captain,” she said. “Help’s on the way.”
6.
Dr. Clayton supervised the Captain as two orderlies loaded her onto a stretcher. She had a breathing apparatus strapped over her face.
“Careful. Now get her to medical, quickly” Clayton said.
Chang took hold of his elbow. “Doctor. Will she be all right?”
“What happened?”
“Hull breach at the front of the bridge. Ensign Rayne got sucked straight out into space…” her voice faded away for a moment as the memory struck her. The grief she’d felt during the wait for Dr. Clayton rose again, surfacing from a self-imposed fog. Her heart ached. Chang pushed the loss back down inside. She wiped at a single errant tear as it spilled down her cheek. “The Captain pulled me through to the corridor, but I think she got too exposed to the vacuum.”
“It can take seconds for it kill a person. I’ve heard of people doing space jumps without suits, but it’s fifty-fifty whether or not you survive,” Clayton explained.
“Do you think it’s air deprivation, then?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. She didn’t hit her head or anything?” Clayton asked.
Chang shook her head slowly. “Not that I’m aware. But I did land on top of her. She might have smacked the deck a second beforehand. It’s a possibility.”