by Dan Krokos
Lockwood seemed to read his mind. “It’s better than the first plan. We were going to destroy Nori-Blue, so the Tremist couldn’t have it if we lost. But none of that matters now. None of it. What matters is they have this gate we created, and they know what we intended. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it, but it won’t be good. It won’t be … you understand? Do you?”
Mason felt his heart thud, and pause, and thud again. His insides were as cold as space. It wasn’t hard to imagine what the Tremist would do with the gate. If the ESC had planned to steal Nori-Blue, the Tremist would want to steal it first.
Lockwood reached up and squeezed Mason’s arm so hard he felt it through the armor. The commander was shaking now.
Mason’s words came out in a tumble. “Sir, we’ll be okay. I had Elizabeth lock a Tremist in the bathroom. And Tom locked one in a tunnel. There are only eleven left. And I made it off the Hawk with Merrin. We can take the ship back and rally a hunting party to track the gate down.” He was speaking for Lockwood’s benefit, trying to offer the man some comfort. He knew this was the worst way to die, leaving eighteen cadets alone to fend for themselves. But maybe he was strong enough; maybe he would hang on a little longer.
“Can you do that?” Lockwood seemed to really be asking.
“I promise, sir.”
Lockwood nodded gravely.
“Cadet Stark. I name you captain of the SS Egypt. Take her back … and stop those bastards from using the gate.”
Chapter Fourteen
Commander Lockwood sank back into the bed when Stellan administered more of the painkiller. His eyes fluttered before closing. “He needs to rest,” Stellan said. “There’s hope for him if we get to a base with a proper hospital.”
Mason’s mind was still, like a stalled fossil-fuel engine. He tried to get it running again by replaying Lockwood’s words. He’d just been named captain. He was captain of the Egypt, responsible for the cadets, and responsible for recovering the ship from Tremist hands.
Mason wanted to turn off his emotions but didn’t know how. He wanted to be cool and calculating like the captains who made it into the lore books, like Captain Renner certainly would. That was impossible, though, so he decided to fake it. He’d read in a textbook once a quote by the famous Captain Reynolds: I am not a brave man. But bravery, like most things, can be faked. And sometimes, in rare instances, it will lead to the real thing.
“I need you with me if we’re going to take back the ship,” Mason said to Stellan. Someone else would have to watch over the commander. Lockwood’s condition was awful, yes, but the man had given him an order. It was time to stop thinking about his health and start thinking about the mission.
“I’m sorry,” Tom said, wrinkling his nose. “Did he just name you captain?”
“You heard him,” Merrin said.
Tom looked at Merrin for what seemed like the first time, as if he was just now remembering the unmasked Tremist on the engineering deck. Thankfully, he didn’t bring it up and make a huge deal in front of the other cadets.
“And we’re just going to follow your orders?” Tom said.
“If you want to remain in the ESC, yes.” Mason didn’t want it to be like that, not right away. Pulling rank was not something he admired. But it was something Susan had once talked to him about, when Mason took his Future Commanders course in fourth year. How if you didn’t put someone in line it could show weakness. Which would spread. Being in command meant sometimes you had to sacrifice a friendship. Not that Tom was his friend or anything. Or at least a good friend. Mason didn’t really know.
“Then what’s your plan, Captain?” Tom said.
Mason addressed the room now, the waiting cadets. He knew most of their names, but not all, which shamed him. He had spent two weeks in the same room and hadn’t bothered to remember each of them. Once their shared spacetime was up, it was likely they would never see each other again. It was always easier to say goodbye when you didn’t know someone.
“None of you asked for this,” Mason said, “but Earth is relying on us now. We have a mission. Some of you have been training for a year, some of you have been training for six. Either way, this is what we signed up for. We’re going to take back this ship, and then I’m going to need each of you on the bridge. If you specialized in something at school, go to that station. We’ll be learning on the fly, but we have a basic idea of how a starship works, right? That’s first year stuff.”
A few of them smiled.
“That’s great, Captain,” Tom said, “but what about the part where we take back the ship? You know, from the Tremist that are currently flying it.”
Mason’s eye twitched; he hoped no one saw. Tom wanted a plan right this second, but Mason didn’t have one. Not even close. They had to immobilize each Tremist, one at a time if possible. All it would take was a few sweeping talon beams to cut them all down. A methodical attack would win out over blunt force. Mason’s training was still there, and he was glad for it. But it was one thing to use your skills in a training exercise, and another to use them in a hostile situation.
The odds were against them, maybe stacked too high. The escape shuttles were still under their control, for now. They could save themselves and leave the Egypt in Tremist hands. Not an option, Mason reminded himself. They had orders, and the king had the planet gate. If they didn’t warn the rest of the fleet, no one would.
So for bravery, Mason would have to fake it.
Mason touched the space under his ear. “Elizabeth, where are the Tremist now?”
When she spoke, her voice filled the room, not his ear. “The six Tremist are still on the bridge, now joined by two more. That leaves one locked in the bathroom, one in the engineers’ tunnel, and three roaming the ship. Those three are heading for the gravity-free bay on the starboard side, sir.”
Mason tried to remember the functions of the gravity-free bay. It was smaller than storage but could still act as storage. The doors could open to space, with a force field to hold the air in. And every surface had the ability to become magnetic. The magnets could be toggled on and off instantly, the way Mason had done to make Tom lose his race. And magnetic fields often didn’t get along with energy weapons, depending on what kind they were.…
Mason asked, “If the magnetic field is in place, will their talons work?”
A pause. “No. But photon cannons will be operational.”
“Perfect,” Mason said, smiling. To the cadets, he said, “I hope you remember your zero G training.”
* * *
Two cadets—a smaller first year boy and a girl trained in medicine—stayed behind with Commander Lockwood. Merrin sealed them inside, in case the Tremist won, but the two cadets would have the ability to use an escape shuttle before the Tremist gained total control of the ship. Tom gave them access to the ship’s cameras, so it would be up to them to decide when to leave.
The remaining sixteen marched through the ship on silent feet, to the sub-armory located two levels down. There Tom and Jeremy stood grim-faced, passing out handheld P-cannons to the cadets, the same kind Ensign Michael had given to them earlier. These barrels glowed with the same swirling colors as before, shifting weirdly like Mason’s Tremist armor. He wondered where Ensign Michael was now, whether he was dead or alive.
Jeremy was sweating. So was Mason, but he stood off to the side, giving a nod to any cadet that looked his way. A few nodded back. One boy’s lower lip was quivering, and Mason was again reminded of who they were. Not true soldiers. Mason almost pulled the boy aside to have him join the two in sick bay, but the boy took a breath and set his jaw. It inspired Mason. Gave him a burst of hope that they weren’t truly doomed, no matter what actions they took.
Merrin came up to him at one point. “I know you’re being strong for all of us.” She could always see right through him. “Just know you don’t have to be strong for me.” She touched the back of his hand with her fingers, then turned away before Mason could say anything. He felt
a rush of warmth for Merrin, and a cold, poisonous anger for the way he’d acted toward her.
Down the hallway, he saw Tom accessing a computer terminal in the wall. Just far enough away to be outside the main group.
“Elizabeth,” Mason whispered. “Give the audio to Tom’s terminal.”
“I told Cadet Renner he had a message from Captain Renner, in the event of her death.”
“Wait—” Mason began.
There was a click, and then Captain Renner speaking all at once, mid-sentence. “—seeing this, then something happened to me. I’m really sorry about that. I knew when I got pregnant with you things were going to be rough. I wanted to give you that home life you deserved. You know, with Grandma’s money we could’ve afforded to get one of those big Earth houses with a huge sprawling lawn and all that.”
Cut the audio, Mason thought but did not say. He felt the shame of listening in on a private moment, but couldn’t stop himself. From far away, he saw Captain Renner’s face on Tom’s screen.
“I wanted that for us. But the threat our species faces is too grave, and I hoped you would understand why me and your father chose this life for us. And I think you do understand. So I’m here to say I’m sorry I couldn’t give you that normal life. I’m sorry we pushed you so hard and demanded so much of you. I’m sorry we seemed cold at times. But I wanted you to be hard, my darling. A hard soldier is a strong soldier is a living soldier. Grandpa told me that when I was a little girl, and he said that’s how he was able to stay alive during those cold nights on Titan. I hoped I would live long enough to see the end of the war with you, but that’s not the case now. When it was over, I wanted to give you that life I dreamed about. A safe life. Your father will have to give that to you now, and if he’s not around, I know you will find it yourself. Because you’re strong. You have me and your dad in you, and I know that will be more than the Tremist can handle. I’m sorry, baby. I hope you never have to see this.”
Tom stood at the terminal, frozen, his head bowed.
Mason felt pressure behind his eyes, and he wished he was still wearing the helmet. He thought of his own mother, the day of the First Attack. His parents were rushing out the door, late for the meeting. His mother gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then left. She popped back in a moment later and said, “I love you,” and smiled.
Mason had said, “I love you, too.” And then the door had shut and he never saw his parents again.
Don’t think about this now. Lead. Lead your soldiers.
They need you.
He banished the memory, feeling hollow.
At the terminal, Tom pushed the heels of his hands into his eyes, and when he turned back to the group, his eyes were free of tears. It was like the message had freed something inside of him. He didn’t look devastated; he seemed lighter.
Mason looked away quickly, and ordered everyone to set their P-cannons to paralyze. He wanted the Tremist alive. It was unlikely the Tremist King would accept hostages as trade for some of the captured ESC crew, but maybe the cadets could learn something about the weapon, and the king’s intent, by questioning them.
The cadets followed his order, and the barrels of their P-cannons hummed and shifted to a milky green and white.
“Captain,” Elizabeth said in his ear while the cadets messed with their newly acquired weapons. A few practiced firing stances; Tom showed a group how to run a diagnostic to make sure the weapon was performing at peak capacity; Merrin led stretches with everyone else.
“What is it?”
“I’m afraid I miscalculated about the number of Tremist on the ship.”
His throat clenched. There were really fifty on board. Or a hundred. Or five hundred. More Tremist ships were incoming. Stop, he thought. Wait for the analysis.
“Yeah?” he said.
“There is one more Tremist on the ship than my previous report, but he’s been hiding from me.” No relief. One Tremist was okay, but not one that was somehow hiding from Elizabeth.
“How—how is that possible?”
The computer hesitated. Never a good sign. “It’s a Rhadgast, sir.”
She was talking directly into his aural nerve, so no one else heard. “Say again?”
“A Rhadgast.”
Now Mason really wanted to flee. The word froze his blood.
“They’re real?” The Rhadgast were a myth, something soldiers talked about seeing but could never confirm. They were Tremist, it was thought, but a different kind. Some people claimed they could control magic. Rhadgast supposedly meant wizard in the Tremist tongue, although that was never confirmed either. What Mason knew is that they were dark, and moved like spiders, and could control lightning with their hands. A dangerous thing on a starship.
“They’re real?” Mason said again. Jeremy was watching him now, but pretended to study his P-cannon when Mason noticed.
“I believe so, sir. He matches all reports.”
“Where is he now?”
“I can’t get a good read. He’s interfering with my sensors. I think he’s near the gravity-free bay, two levels up, maybe three.”
An idea came to him then, about how to possibly deal with the Rhadgast. If he could lure it. He turned to Tom, who was demonstrating the proper grip on a P-cannon to a first year. “Can you turn the gravity on and off in the gravity-free bay? On my command?” He pointed at the dataslate hanging from Tom’s belt. “With that thing.”
Tom looked at him in annoyance for two full seconds, and Mason was about to ask again. Then he said, “It would take a second after the command, but sure. I’ll use that thing. It’s called a dataslate, by the way.”
Merrin held up her own. “I’m actually faster on this thing than Thomas.”
Tom raised an eyebrow.
Merrin smiled a close-lipped smile and wiggled the dataslate back and forth. “Be prideful of the uniform, but not of your abilities. ESC handbook page thirty-seven, under the title Cadet Guidelines.”
“She … might be faster,” Tom said. “That conclusion is not verified.”
Mason couldn’t smile, not with so many lives at stake. But it was there, under the surface. “Perfect. Back each other up. Just wait for my command.” It was amazing how the seed of a plan could occupy his mind, even if he only saw the edges of it right now. To Elizabeth, he said, “What are the Tremist doing now?”
“They’re moving the fallen ESC members into the bay. I anticipate they’ll send the casualties into space.”
The sudden anger, hotter than the Egypt’s main engine, burned away the fear. He was grateful for it, hoped it would last.
The cadets were armed and waiting. He debated telling them about the Rhadgast, but knew the fear it would bring might unravel them on the spot. It wouldn’t prepare them, either, since no one was trained in how to deal with one. It felt like lying, but was still the best course.
“We’re ready, Captain,” Stellan said softly. He gave a small nod, and Mason realized it wasn’t Stellan calling him captain, so much as it was Stellan trying to present a kind of unified atmosphere under Mason’s command. He appreciated it more than he could show.
Mason told them a very basic outline of the plan, hoping to come up with the rest on the way.
“Just listen for my voice,” he said. “Do what I say, when I say it, and we will make it home. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” many of them replied in unison. Merrin smiled slyly and Tom gave a nod of approval.
Then they broke as one and moved to the crossbar, to meet the enemy head-on.
Chapter Fifteen
Mason led the fifteen cadets (ten boys, five girls) in two loose lines, following the perimeter of the now-empty storage bay. The bay was enormous in its emptiness, and Mason tried to imagine every square inch filled with the cube. With it gone, all of the perimeter levels were exposed above and below him, full of sharp shadows and dark places.
Easy places for a Rhadgast to hide.
His eyes darted from space to space, searching
for a ghost, but seeing sleeping Fox fighters instead. The Fox fighters were one-man spacecraft with thrusters on every surface, which allowed for insanely quick maneuvering. They were shaped like arrowheads, the weapon units clustered underneath, almost like the Hawk. He made a note of their location, in case they were needed later. He’d never flown one before, but had studied the basics in the Starships of the Earth Space Command II course.
During the transit from port to starboard, Elizabeth couldn’t find the Rhadgast again. Then she refused to confirm she’d seen it in the first place. Her systems might be compromised, she said, and she might not even be aware of it. Which meant Mason would have to fully rely on Tom and Merrin to change things in the computer, if he wanted to be sure. For now, the ship was haunted, and Mason was the only one who knew.
Once they reached the outer door to the gravity-free bay, Mason called a full stop. To their credit, the cadets appeared solid. None of them whimpered in fear or let their lips quiver, even if they had to be terrified on the inside. Mason was. An instructor once said if you didn’t call it fear, then it couldn’t be fear. That sounded completely untrue. Still, they were hiding it well, which Mason hoped would translate to steady aim and quick reaction times.
Mason figured he should say something here. So he tried: “Aim true. Take a second, rather than firing wildly. Don’t hit each other.” He paused.
Jeremy stepped next to him. “If one of the Tremist is taking multiple hits from a cannon, switch to another. Don’t be slow, but don’t get crazy.”
Then Merrin. “Quick reminder,” she said, giving her best smile, which Mason had to admit was the best he’d ever seen. “We take these guys out, all that’s left are the Tremist on the bridge. And then we’re in the lore books.”
Mason fought the smile he wanted to make. Captains didn’t smile before combat. But he let approval show through, approval of his men. “Let’s show them what ESC cadets are made of.”
A cheer would’ve gone up then, under normal circumstances. But this was battle. Instead the cadets who were friends clapped each other on the back and nodded and a few even smiled. They had their P-cannons. They were as ready as they ever would be.