Rice joined him, and tapped a quick code into the airlock door. It slid open, admitting them all and allowing Kellers to bring Kelzin over.
“Ready?” Rice asked after a moment after they were all inside. Damien joined the others in bracing himself against the wall and outer door, ready to fire into the ship, and then nodded.
The airlock filled with breathable air, and then the inner door opened into the antechamber of hell.
As many men as had died in the shuttle bay had died in the corridor at the core of the Jay, and there was less space for the bodies to separate. To make it worse, these had been shot down with explosive rounds and micro-grenades. The air was filled with blood and parts of bodies. Damien choked back more nausea, and was glad he’d left his coveralls on.
“Forward,” Rice ordered, suiting actions to words and pushing through the mess.
Cringing against the wet pressure against his suit, Damien followed behind – so he was the one close enough to watch the Captain drop his rifle, grab a wall and launch forward like a rocket.
A moment later, Damien saw what Rice had seen and followed his Captain. He landed by the shattered combat exosuit only moments after Rice, who’d already lost his breather helmet and was floating in air next to Singh’s head.
“Narveer!” Rice snapped, reaching out to check for a pulse. Damien was about to say it was a waste, no one with that many holes in him was still alive, when Singh’s eyes popped open.
“Sorry Captain,” he groaned. “I tried.”
“Tried, hell,” Rice told him fiercely. “You drove them off Narveer – they left running. You saved the whole damn ship.”
“Ah,” Singh exhaled a sigh, blood bubbling from his lips as he did. Damien watched in horror as the pilot struggled to breathe. Armor-piercing rounds had gone clean through the suit, and his left leg had been blown off by a grenade. None of the wounds were bleeding much – the suit had to be doing something to stop it – but he had so many.
“You are not permitted to die,” the Captain ordered, his voice choked. “This was my mistake.”
“Never,” Singh coughed, more blood interrupting his words, “give an order you know can’t be obeyed.”
An armored hand reached up and grabbed at Damien. Wordlessly, Damien reached out and grabbed the older pilot’s hand in his own. Rice grabbed Singh’s other hand and the old Sikh warrior looked from one of them to the other.
“Stay strong boy,” he ordered Damien. “Both of you,” he glanced at Rice, and then back down the hall at the mess he’d created holding the corridor.
“Not a bad way to go, I gue…” he trailed off, and was gone.
Damien gently, carefully, folded Singh’s hand back onto his chest. He looked over at Rice, the Captain was frozen, covered in other men’s blood, and holding the armored gauntlet of his friend.
“Captain, you’ve got to get to the bridge,” he said quietly. “I need to get to the simulacrum. If we can’t save the ship, Singh died for nothing.”
Rice met his gaze, swallowing hard and slowly releasing Singh’s hand. He looked back at Jenna and Kellers.
“Get him and Kelzin and the others to the infirmary,” he ordered. “I need to go make sure our former passengers don’t blow us to hell.”
#
Kelly looked up in obvious relief as David entered the bridge, snagging his chair as he drifted by and strapping himself in.
“Thank gods you’re here, sir,” she told him. “I have no idea what to do!”
“You’re doing okay so far,” David replied, spotting that the Jay’s two anti-missile turrets had been spun up, ready to intercept any missiles launched from the running shuttles or the ship they’d run to. “Any word from the Rock?”
“Not a peep,” Kelly answered. “It’s like they haven’t even noticed what’s going on.”
“With the jamming, it’s possible. But it’s not likely,” David said grimly. “How are the engines?”
“Everything’s green – the boarders seemed to be heading for the bridge and the simulacrum chamber,” she explained.
“Makes sense,” David realized aloud. “They thought Damien was on board – they were trying to eliminate him before he could return the favor. They’d brought enough men they could deal with him – and not enough to deal with Singh.”
“You found Singh? He’s okay?” Kelly asked quickly, only to whiten as David shook his head silently.
“You’re the best engineer on this ship bar Kellers himself,” the Captain said gently, trying to get her to focus. “Can we burn the engines with that tanker still attached?”
“She’s latched onto our cargo points,” LaMonte answered. “We’re a bit unbalanced, but the computer can adapt for that automatically.”
Turning away from the only crew-member currently on his bridge, David hit a series of commands on the screen mounted on his chair, opening a ship wide channel.
“All hands, hear this, hear this,” he said into. “Cruise acceleration in thirty seconds. Secure for acceleration. I repeat, cruise acceleration in twenty-four seconds.”
He ran the toggle bar up on his screen, and hit a command that activated ‘automatic mass balancing.’ It had been a while since he’d flown the freighter himself, but it was a lot less complex than flying a shuttle. His full weight pressed him down into his chair, and he breathed slowly, beginning to relax.
The other jump ship in the system was a shining beacon on his scanners as they continued to scream out-system at an ungodly acceleration. Every person aboard had to be strapped in and half-crushed, but the push had put them outside any range at which Damien could reach them with the amplifier, even if the Mage wasn’t half-dead anyway.
“Sir, we’re receiving a transmission from the Rock,” Kelly, who was covering every task on the bridge that David wasn’t – thankfully! – announced.
David flipped a few controls and brought the video transmission up on his screen. He was unsurprised to see the strangely-pupilled eyes of Major Niska, though the Augment looked oddly relaxed given that a battle had just taken place on the planet beneath him.
“Captain Rice,” Niska greeted him cheerfully.
“Major Niska,” Rice answered carefully, somewhat put off. “What can I do for you?”
“I want to inform you that we’ve completed our inspections of the gunships, and we’ve found no issues related to their transport,” the Legatan officer said. “Your contract is fully fulfilled, and we have no complaints.”
David opened his mouth, about to ask what was going on – they’d just escaped the local army and a space-borne boarding attack, and Niska was talking about the delivery contract? – but the Augment slightly, almost imperceptibly, shook his head.
“We did run into some issues with the ships’ engines,” the Augment continued, “but my techs have them stripped down and assure me that it’s a manufacturing defect – they’ll have all four ships running in a few days.”
The Blue Jay’s Captain stared at his former passenger in shock for a moment. The gunships, which he’d been worried were going to chase his ship down, had their engines stripped down? The Augment had disabled them?
From the cheerful smile on Niska’s face, he was perfectly aware of what he’d done, but was mugging for the inevitable Chrysanthemum interception of the communication.
“I’ve just transmitted your funds now,” the LMID soldier continued. “I’ve included a small bonus for your patience with us and with the locals. I hope you’ve come out of this with a positive impression of the Directorate, at least.”
David ever so slowly nodded to the camera.
“I think I have,” he admitted. “And thank you, Major Niska. Thank you.”
He didn’t say what he was thanking the cyborg for. From the bright grin the other man flashed him, he didn’t need to.
The bridge was silent for a moment as the channel cut out and he met Kelly’s shocked gaze, and then Damien’s voice cut in as the Mage brought up the intercom screen from
the simulacrum chamber.
“Did he just do what I think he did?” the young man asked, his voice incredibly tired.
“I think he did,” Rice confirmed, and glanced back at the screen. “You go get some rest Damien. We’re going to burn for the outer system as fast as we can – and as soon as you can, jump us out of here, I want to brush this planet’s dirt from my heels!”
###
Watch for Starship’s Mage: Episode 4
Coming September 2014
If you liked the novella, please leave a review!
Follow Glynn Stewart on Twitter @faolanspen or on his blog at www.faolanspen.com
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Starship's Mage: Episode 3 Page 9