by Tony Healey
Singh pointed a finger into the black, and at first Jessica couldn’t make out what it was he was Singh pointed to. But then she saw it. A pyramid.
“Yes.”
“Go and get it.”
She tried to leap forward, but her legs were useless. They wouldn’t move.
She looked at her Father helplessly. “I can’t …”
“I know Jess. I know,” Singh said. He wiped tears from his eyes. “Let me help you.”
He got behind her and placed his hands at the small of her back. She braced for what was to come. “Dad…I’m scared. I know what you’re about to do, but I’m still scared. It’s just a great big nothing.”
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll always be around, Jess. You’re not alone,” he said and shoved her into the void. She hurtled toward the spinning pyramid, reached out with her hands and grabbed hold. Behind her, she could hear his voice receding into the distance. “Good girl.”
* * *
“Doc!”
Clayton stopped his chest compressions and looked at Nurse Munoz, his eyes wide. Sweat dripped from his forehead. “Well?”
Frank Munoz shook his head. “Doc…I can’t believe it …”
Clayton climbed down and looked up at the board himself. She’d pulled through. Now they just had to monitor her closely and ensure she didn’t slip away again.
Dr. Clayton affectionately laid a hand on her forehead and smiled with relief.
“Good girl,” he said. Then he turned to Munoz. “I need a cigarette.”
15.
The Naxor raised its weapon in the air and shook its arms. Hawk had a split second in which to roll out of the way as the Naxor staff slammed down on the decking.
Gunfire popped and exploded in the smoky air around him, but he paid it no mind. The Naxor lifted the staff again and let loose a battle cry.
“Argh!” Hawk grunted as he swung his lower half around to swipe the alien’s legs out from under it. The insectoid fell backward. Hawk didn’t wait for it to fall. He sprang to his feet, at the same time grabbing his kataan from where it had slipped from his hand moments before. The Naxor pushed itself up on its forearms, glared at him, antennae twitching.
“Goodnight Vienna,” Captain Nowlan said and decapitated the Naxor soldier with one clean swipe of his blade.
He looked up in time to make eye contact with Master At Arms Eisenhower, who gave him a nod to say he’d seen the quick kill. Hawk shrugged cockily, in a way that said, “It’s effortless.”
Nowlan turned back to the never-ending invasion of Naxor from the other hole they’d bored through the Defiant. If only they could get a break in the fighting. Another one of those sonic grenades would just about do the trick…
Hawk watched as three Naxor stood before the gaping hole, holding one end of some large metal cylinder. They carried it through to the hangar, then the three Naxor on the other end of it followed. He burst forth, kataan at the ready to cut through them. His mind had no time to wonder what the object might be. He only sensed danger and knew he must act. Everyone around him was too involved in their own fights with the other Naxor soldiers to have seen it. He cut across the hangar to where they were setting the cylinder down and got ready to execute more bugs.
He didn’t see the Naxor rush up on the side of him bearing a hand canon. It fired, a blue wave of energy hitting him dead-on. His legs crumbled first.
I’ve been shot, was his first thought. Then, I’m dead.
But when he fell to the deck he realized he wasn’t going to die, at least not right now. Whatever they’d hit him with, it turned his whole body into a numb block of ice. He heard the kataan strike the deck plating and slid away somewhere. He flopped down and stayed there.
Sinking. Sinking. Hawk panicked because he could feel his breathing getting shallower by the second, but he couldn’t fight it. Couldn’t do anything but allow himself to sink away, deep down into the seas of unconsciousness. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he was gone.
Eisenhower watched as a Naxor soldier knocked one of the Defiant’s crew down then proceeded to level his gun at him. Eisenhower lifted his own weapon–liberated from a fallen comrade minutes before–and shot the insectoid in the back. It spun about, a hole through its middle, then fell down dead.
How ironic, Eisenhower thought. Now we’ve shot a hole through you.
He heard an energy weapon fire. You couldn’t mistake the sound. Eisenhower turned his head in time to see Captain Nowlan’s kataan fall away. The Captain himself looked out of it.
He rushed in that direction, but his legs just weren’t quick enough. The Naxor started to retreat back through the hole to their ship. They carried Hawk Nowlan with them.
As much as he was filled with panic at Hawk’s capture, his years of service kicked in above all else.
“Everyone clear the hangar! Get out of here!” he yelled. He made for the blast doors at the entrance. “GET OUT! RUN!”
The others saw him moving as fast as possible and started to follow. For some it was too late. The last of the Naxor soldiers leapt through the hole, followed by a loud explosion seconds later. The atmosphere rushed toward the hole as the Naxor vessel detached itself from the Defiant’s side to escape. It left a gaping hole, with everything inside the hangar sucked out into space. Several crew closest to the hole barely registered what was happening before they were sucked out.
The air rushed out of the hangar with a scream, and as soon as everyone who could get clear of it was on the other side of the blast door, Eisenhower slammed his hand against the control plate. The emergency contactor caused the doors to shut. Through a thick glass porthole, the Master At Arms watched as the last tendrils of breathable air were sucked clean out of the hangar on the other side. Gasping for breath, he hobbled over to the nearest comm. panel and contacted the Emergency Commander Centre. There were a lot of wounded crew sprawled on the floor, similarly trying to catch their breath.
“Chang here.”
“This…is Eisenhower…” he said. The old man paused to breathe. “He’s gone…the enemy…they’ve kidnapped…Captain Nowlan…he’s gone…”
* * *
The words rang out like hammer blows against a church bell.
“Hold the line,” Chang told him. She looked up. “Jackson, track that ship!”
The Lieutenant’s fingers flew over the controls. “I have their course plotted.”
“Intercept at maximum velocity. Ensign Beaumont, make contact and warn them that we will stop at nothing to get our crewman back.”
“Aye.”
Chang felt her gut churn.
Lieutenant Rogers smacked his hands against the helm console and spun about, frustration etched onto his face. “No response through the helm. She’s dead!”
* * *
Chief Gunn glanced about as the lights in the engineering section dimmed, then died altogether. Emergency lighting flickered to life.
“Complete power failure to lines two and three,” Belcher reported. He worked on a nearby station.
“Keep on it. I’ll try to bypass the affected systems. Ensign McJunkin come with me,” Gunn ordered a nearby Ensign. He fell in step with her as she raced around the engineering section.
* * *
“Enemy vessel getting away. We’re losing contact on sensors,” Jackson said with a snarl. “Dammit!”
Chang sighed. “Beaumont, contact engineering and ask them what the hell is going on down there. We need power.”
She shook her head and flipped the channel to the hangar back open.
“Eisenhower, are you still there? Eisenhower?”
* * *
The Master At Arms heard her voice, but felt incapable of answering straight away. His face pressed against the port of the blast door, he watched the long metal capsule the Naxor had set on the deck come to life. Lights flashed along its outer edges in a rapid sequence.
“Oh crumbs,” he said under his breath.
16.
�
��Radiological alarm!” Jackson spun about on his heels. “Main hangar!”
“Hangar bay!” Chang shouted into the comm. “Eisenhower do you hear me?”
The overhead crackled and spat static until a voice spoke. It was the Master At Arms again. “I may just be the old fella who hands out the shooting pistols at the duel, but if I’m not mistaken that’ll be a bomb they planted on our deck,” he told her.
Chang swallowed. When would it end? How far did it have to go?
“I don’t have to tell you what’s going to happen if that goes off,” Chang warned.
* * *
“Yup,” Eisenhower said. He closed the channel, drew a deep breath and turned to the others.
“I need four people to suit up and help me get that thing onto a shuttle. The rest of you need to get out of here, on the double.”
Whilst they busied themselves around him, the old man went back to the little bit of glass separating them from the depressurized hell of the hangar. He watched the lights on the capsule flash faster and faster. Sweat tickled the back of his neck and he wiped it away absently.
The clock is ticking, he thought.
17.
“Alert Praror that he needs to clear the area. We have a bomb on board that might blow any minute. Tell them to get some distance,” Chang told Beaumont.
“Aye.”
Chang opened the comm. to the engineering section.
“Chief, we could do with that Jump Drive right about now,” Chang said.
“We know the situation, but it’s not gonna happen, Lieutenant,” Gunn said on the other end. “I can’t give it to you.”
“Even a short burst, just enough to get us clear of the immediate area,” Chang said.
“Sorry,” the Chief said. “The best I can do is reroute power to the hull plating.”
“We’ll take whatever you’ve got,” Chang said and closed the channel.
* * *
“Careful fellas,” Eisenhower said. The other men slid the capsule into the back of Speedy and shut the hatch. They raised their suited hands in salute to the Master At Arms, who returned the gesture.
“Good luck sir,” one of them said.
“And to you too, boys,” Eisenhower said. He climbed into the cockpit of the legendary fighter and sealed it up. The crewmen stepped away from the ship as it came to life, its engines glowing white hot.
Eisenhower hadn’t flown in some years, but everything came back to him as he brought Speedy up off the deck and moved the craft slowly toward the hangar doors. A moment later they parted for him, and he pushed Speedy forward, into space.
* * *
The Chief watched with satisfaction as the power levels to the hull plating increased dramatically.
“Lieutenant, I’ve got you your hull plating. I’m sorry I can’t do more …”
“Thank you Chief, for everything,” Chang said. She closed the channel then stood behind Rogers at the helm station. “Give it all you’ve got, Rogers.”
She looked up at the viewscreen. It showed their aft as they limped away from the battle zone. She could still make out Speedy in retreat behind them.
Good luck Eisenhower, she thought.
* * *
Eisenhower could still see the Defiant even though it was a long way away. Behind him, in the cramped cargo compartment of Speedy, the Naxor bomb hummed with energy. He swallowed, terrified at what was about to happen.
He looked around the confines of the ship’s cockpit.
Well, at least I got a spin in it, he thought. If I’d known as a kid that I’d one day get to ride a mission in Speedy I’d have wet my pants.
He started to laugh at the notion. It started out quiet, and then it was so loud it took his breath away. At the very instance the weapon blew, Master At Arms Eisenhower was still laughing.
* * *
A baby sun blossomed into life behind them. The crew manning the Emergency Command Centre shielded their eyes from the blinding light of the explosion, and knew the shockwave would follow.
It slammed into the back of the Defiant, a brick wall of pure kinetic and radioactive energy. Lieutenant Jackson managed to hang onto his console, but Chang was thrown to the floor. Beaumont staggered about, barely kept his feet.
Systems blew around them.
Rogers cringed at the shower of sparks raining down around them. “Engines are offline!” he managed to shout over the din.
The Defiant shook from bow to stern. The ship shivered in her bones.
This time she’ll snap, Lisa Chang thought.
But then the ship stabilised. They’d ridden the worst of the energy wave, and the Defiant was left to coast through the last of it. She drifted forward from the residual thrust.
18.
“Captain Praror offers his assistance,” Ensign Beaumont told her.
Lieutenant Chang nodded. “Give him our situation and tell him we’ll gladly accept any help he can give us.”
Beaumont relayed the message. As she waited, Chang asked Jackson to try his systems again. The Lieutenant did so, then shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“Praror would like to attach grapplers to the front of our hull and tow us back to their planet,” Beaumont said.
“Agreed,” Chang said curtly.
“Makes us a load of spare parts,” Jackson remarked.
Chang shrugged. “That’s one way of looking at it. But then we will still need someone in here firing the manoeuvring thrusters and monitoring communications.”
“I guess so.”
“So who does that leave?”
“Me?” Beaumont asked, looking at the other two then back to Lieutenant Chang.
She nodded slowly. “I have something in mind for you, Lieutenant. It should be right up your alley.”
19.
“Take a seat, Commander,” Jessica told him. Greene perched himself on the edge of her bed.
“What is it?” he asked softly.
“I’ve not been honest with you, Del. And for that I’m sorry. As the second in command of this ship … and as my friend, I should have told you and I didn’t.”
The Commander frowned. “I don’t get it …”
“A little while ago it was revealed to me that Andrew was my Father,” she explained. Tears came, and she made no attempt to hold them back. “And that he had MS, Del. He knew all about it but never told anyone.”
Greene was shocked. “And he knew you were his daughter?”
Jessica nodded.
“And the MS …”
“I have it,” Jessica said. “And I’ve started to feel the effects of it. The doctor tells me that I may need a stick to help me walk.”
She broke down and started to sob into her hands. The Commander leaned forward and took her in his arms, held her tight against his chest and let her cry it out.
“It’ll be okay,” he whispered.
The door to the sickbay opened behind him, and the Commander turned in time to see Chief Gunn walk in.
She stopped short of the bed, unsure of what was going on. Greene patted Jessica’s back and then let go. She sat up, wiped at her eyes and nose.
Gunn grabbed a handful of tissues and returned. “Here honey. Here.”
Jessica took them gratefully and cleaned the mess off her face, sniffling.
The Chief rubbed her back as Greene explained all that had happened. He’d got a full report of everything following the explosion. “We lost Boi, Banks, Salnow,” he told her. “Ensign Rayne. Eisenhower …”
He looked at the Chief, who urged him on.
“And, uh, there’s another loss. But he’s not dead. Well, not yet,” Greene said.
“Who?” Jessica asked.
“Captain Nowlan. They took him,” he said incredulously.
Jessica shook her head in disbelief. “Our whole family has been torn apart. When will it end, Del?”
He opened his arms out. “I don’t know what to say, Jess. I don’t know what to say.”
&
nbsp; “Maybe we should give the Captain some rest. Let her absorb everything. We’ll come back a bit later,” the Chief told her. “I’ll bring you something hot from the mess.”
Jessica smiled. “Thank you Chief.”
“And we’ll sort everything out, you just watch,” Greene promised her.
She smiled again and watched the two of them leave the sickbay. But when they left her smile left with them.
* * *
Outside the Meryl Gunn took Commander Greene’s hand in her own as they walked along the corridor. He looked at her in surprise but she made nothing of it.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” Gunn said. She bit her lip, as if deciding whether or not to say what came next.
“I love you.”
The Commander gave her hand a good firm squeeze. “You know, I love you too. I think I always have.”
There was a moment, as they walked hand in hand, where they stared into each other’s eyes. It lasted only a second, but for the two of them lost in that moment, it stretched out for an eternity. Despite the doom and gloom around them, there was still the hope they found in each other. A love that had only grown through all they’d been through. Nothing else mattered. Whatever happened now.
“Soppy sod,” Meryl said with a chuckle.
* * *
Lieutenant Roland Beaumont checked the list on his data pad against the numbers Lieutenant Ken Dunham shouted back to him. The munitions section remained otherwise quiet; the battle over, all but relief crew had been sent to their quarters to get some much deserved rack time. That is, apart from the two Lieutenants tasked with doing a full stock take of their weaponry.
“I always wanted to be down here,” Jackson said, tired but happy. “You know, work down here.”
“It has its moments,” Dunham said. “You can add another batch of twelve to that list.”
Dunham clambered out from the firing tube and dusted his hands.
“So that’s it then,” Beaumont said. He signed off on the report and sent it away. It would make its way to the personal consoles of all the command staff.
They’d all know just how few Missiles remained.