by M. D. Cooper
“Also the guy who managed to make your nano work and then lose it,” Sera added.
“I count about a thousand SSF ships in the vicinity,” Rachel said from Tanis’s side. “But I’d be surprised if half those make it before the enemy shows up.”
Tanis nodded. “So about ten-to-one once our fleet deploys.”
“The usual,” Sera added.
“You’re not worried, are you, Captain?” Tanis asked.
“No,” Rachel shook her head. “More about those SSF ships and Dessen. There’s no way Peter Rhoads’ ships can get through our stasis shields. I can’t imagine them powering atom-beams.”
Tanis nodded. “Let’s hear what this Grayson has to say, then respond to Smithers when we’re close enough for real-time.”
“Yes ma’am,” the comm officer replied.
A man appeared before them, looking crisp and dapper in his uniform. His back was ramrod straight, and his shoulders were thrown back. Grayson’s expression, however, was one of extreme concern.
“Unknown vessel, you have entered Silstrand Alliance space under the banner of friendship, but we have an enemy fleet inbound. Are you here to render assistance, or are you here as their vanguard? Please state your intentions.”
“Huh?” Tanis said. “Kinda thought our standard welcome did state our intentions. Maybe we should work on that.”
“He’s just being all military and stuffy. Mind if I reply?” Sera asked.
“Sera, I’m military.”
“And?”
Tanis sighed and waved her hand. “All yours.”
“Colonel Grayson. This is Sera Tomlinson, President of the Transcend, aboard the ISF I2. Today is your lucky day. We’ve come to pull your asses out of the fire. Stand by for our next communication.”
“Asses out of the fire, eh?” Tanis asked. “You’ve got a lot of class, Madam President.”
“Trust me, these Silstrand types respond well to straight talk. Besides, all that formality at Scipio repressed me. I’m acting out.”
Rachel chuckled and Tanis cast her an appraising look. “Don’t get any ideas, Captain.”
Rachel hid her smile with a hand. “Of course not, Admiral. I would never pull anyone’s ass out of a fire. Let ‘em burn, that’s my motto.”
Tanis rolled her eyes and brought up the message from Smithers. “Might as well see what he has to say for himself.”
When the figure appeared before them, Tanis was more than a little surprised to see the face of a young man.
“I2 thank you for coming to render assistance, this facility is the enemy’s primary target. Please ensure that no damage comes to it and you will be well compensated.”
“That’s presumptuous,” Tanis said. She saw that they had closed to within one light second of Dessen.
“Open a channel with Dessen,” she directed comm.
“Aye, Admiral.”
When the channel was established, Tanis faced the static figure of Smithers as though the real man was before her.
“Smithers, this is Tanis Richards. I imagine you remember me. I see that you’ve put the tech you licensed from me to good use. However, I suspect that you have also broken our arrangement. We will defend your station, but rest assured we’re going to have some very pointed conversations after the battle is over.”
With only one second’s lag, she saw Smithers’ eyes widen with surprise before she finished speaking. The surprise turned into alarm before he schooled his expression.
“Miss Richards, what a surprise to—”
“Admiral Richards,” Tanis spoke overtop of Smithers, unconcerned that she cut him off late due the lag.
“Um, yes, Admiral Richards. I must say that it’s a surprise to see you again. You are here to render assistance? You seem to have traded up in the world.”
Tanis nodded. “We’ll protect your station, but you are under my orders for this engagement. I want whoever is in command of your fleet and your defenses to coordinate with my CIC.”
“I was about to suggest the same thing,” Smithers said.
“I’m not negotiating with you,” Tanis said. “I just spent a lot more time in some very long conferences with lawyers and politicians drawing up a treaty between Silstrand and Scipio because you developed some very interesting nanotech, and then couldn’t keep your hands on it. Part of that treaty included giving Scipio much of the same tech I licensed to you.”
“Gave?” Smithers paled. “But the market—”
“Do you have any idea how close you came to seeing a Scipian Fleet on your doorstep?” Tanis said in cold, even tones. “And then I learn of another fleet of zealots headed right for your doorstep. It turns out you were a poor steward.”
“Admiral Richards—” Smithers began.
“Have your fleet commander and planetary defense commander reach out to me in the next minute, Smithers.”
Tanis closed the connection and shook her head. “Was he that much of a pompous ass last time?”
Angela shrugged in her mind.
“Let’s have a chat with this Colonel Grayson. Hopefully he’s more agreeable. We’ll need to see what the SSF can bring to the table.”
ZEALOUS DEFENSE
STELLAR DATE: 10.07.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: RFS Liberation
REGION: Outer Silstrand System, Silstrand Alliance
Ricket grunted as the Revolution soldier slammed the butt of his rifle into the backs of her knees. She fell to the deck and glared back at him.
“You know, you should have just tried pushing on my shoulder first. I could use a little break, I would have sat right down.”
She looked around aware now that the soldiers had brought her to the bridge. These guys need to work on their protocols. Brig, not bridge.
A man rose from the ship’s command chair. He turned and they both had a moment of surprise. It was David Rhoads.
“Who’s this?” David asked. “Where’s my sister?”
“This is the woman we reported in about. You said to bring her to the bridge,” said the woman who had knocked Ricket down.
“You said you caught ‘her’, I assumed that meant my sister,” David said with an exasperated sigh. “Who is this?”
The guard shrugged and David took a step forward, glaring down at Ricket.
“Well, who are you?”
“Name’s Ricket. I tend bar here on the ship. Mostly in the officer’s lounge, that’s where the best tips are. I heard one of the shuttles had a stash of brandy, and I was looking for it to serve after the big win.”
“The big win?” David asked.
“Sir, we are transitioning,” a voice called from across the bridge.
“Shit,” David muttered as he turned away. “Take her to the brig. We’ll deal with her after we cleanse this system.”
Ricket saw the forward view change to show a familiar starscape, the dark sphere of Dessen a small pinprick highlighted in the distance.
“The big win. Killing Garza and your father,” Ricket called out at his back.
Everyone on the bridge turned to face Ricket and she took the opportunity, to reach up and seize the guard’s rifle. She had already hacked its biolock when the guard had hit her with the weapon a previous time in the shuttle bay.
“Eat this,” she cried out and opened fire on him.
He dove to the side and Ricket spun and fired at the guard behind her who still had his rifle, before shooting the woman whose gun Ricket now held.
Two down, the entire bridge crew to go.
Unfortunately, one thing the Revolution Fleet believed in was armed crew. A half-dozen bridge officers d
rew their weapons, and Ricket scrambled behind a console, checking the weapon’s charge cylinder. She had enough to take out ten, maybe eleven of them before she was out.
Ricket shrugged. Not like she couldn’t grab their weapons as well.
An ensign rushed her, and Ricket shot him in the face before she spun to take out another opponent. Then David was on top of her—he must have leapt right over the console.
Ricket was stronger, but the man bore down on her and delivered two punches to her gut, and one in the jaw. She blocked his next strike and delivered a blow to his kidney. He groaned and she was about to strike him in the side of the head—Kylie might be pissed if she killed her brother—when something changed in his eyes, and he rolled off her.
Kylie, you wonderful—kinda bitchy—woman! You did it!
“What? No….” he whispered.
She watched David rise and stare about in confusion. “Lower your weapons,” he said.
Ricket took the opportunity to stand as well and saw two things that concerned her greatly. The first was that only two other bridge officers had the same dazed look on their faces. The rest looked just as angry and alert as they had a moment ago.
The second was the sight of a massive ship on the holodisplay. It was easily thirty kilometers long, and was flying directly toward the massed Revolution Fleet, seemingly unconcerned about the twelve thousand ships it was wading into.
“What the hell?” she whispered.
“We’re under attack,” the officer at the scan console called out.
On the screen, Ricket saw the massive ship release a torrent of fighters before its own beams began slicing into the Revolution ships.
“Stand down!” David yelled. “We need to surrender.”
“David, you were under your father’s control, but they’re all true believers. We have to get out of here!”
Half the bridge crew was looking back at their stations, but one of them—a major according to her insignia—stared David down. “You’ve lost your way.”
She raised her weapon to fire on them and Ricket knocked David to the deck as an explosion somewhere further aft shook the Liberation.
“Run!” Ricket said, pushing David ahead of her as they used the moment’s distraction to get off the bridge. They burst out into the passageway just as the doors slid shut behind them and a klaxon wailed, the call going out for general quarters.
“What the hell is going on?” David exclaimed.
“Don’t you remember?” Ricket asked. “You’re the captain of this ship, the Liberation, about to rain fire down on evildoers everywhere.”
David nodded. “Yeah, I remember…but it’s fuzzy, like I was locked away in my mind. There was happiness if I obeyed, and pain if I didn’t. Nothing felt real…”
“Well, this shit is real. I don’t know what that big effing ship is out there, but it’s headed straight for the Liberation.”
“David!” a voice called out and they turned to see Kylie rushing toward them.
Blood was smeared on her face and on the grey Revolution uniform she still wore from the brig.
“Kylie!” David said as he rushed toward her. “What the hell is going on. Is dad….”
Kylie nodded. “He’s dead, and we need to get off this ship.”
“No,” David said, pushing her back. “Hannah, David Junior…we have to find them.”
“Lead the way,” Kylie said.
Ricket followed as David led them to a lift and hammered the call button.
“What happened,” Kylie asked. “How did Dad do all this?”
David shook his head and let out an angry breath. “Mom was acting funny. She started to say he was taking things too far. He was building so many ships, you know? So many, and he was using them to make systems fall in line. They had a big blow-out, and then the next day Mom agreed with him, with everything he said. So I confronted him about it.” David squinted as he thought. “Then…then he did something to me.”
“Did Paul stand against him too?”
David shook his head. “I don’t think so. Paul always believed in the cause. Hard-wired for it.”
Marge said.
“Shit, really?” Kylie asked.
“Yeah, really,” David replied as the lift opened and he stepped in. “You know Paul was always like that.”
“Sorry, no, I was talking to my AI. Whoever took control up there is going to ram Dessen; everyone on this ship is going to die.”
David’s eyes grew wide. “I need to get to Hannah, get her off!”
Kylie was about to follow David when Ricket put a hand on her shoulder.
“David, I have to go,” Kylie said. “You need to get your family to safety. I need to stop this ship.”
David nodded silently as the lift doors closed, and Kylie took off at a run, following on Ricket’s heels.
Marge replied.
Kylie nodded.
SHUTDOWN
STELLAR DATE: 10.07.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: RFS Liberation
REGION: Outer Silstrand System, Silstrand Alliance
“They’re not going to be happy to see us,” Ricket said as they approached the ship’s engineering control center.
Wasn’t that the truth?
From here the Liberation’s massive antimatter and fusion engines were managed. They could be shut down, or controlled from this location, cutting the bridge out of the equation entirely.
“We’re going to have to make them see our way. With Dad dead, they’ll be confused. Let’s hope they’re happy to have someone give them some direction.”
The doors opened a moment later and weapons fire erupted, shots blasting out into the corridor.
Ricket fired her pulse rifle into the room, catching one of the engineers in the head, and Kylie caught another in the arm, spinning him around.
They traded fire for another few seconds, and then Kylie called out. “You’re all going to die if you keep fighting. Either we get you, that massive ship out there does, or you slam into a planet. Surrender and we can all get out of this alive.”
She peered into the room and saw a man and a woman slowly raise their hands. One of the other defenders pointed his rifle at them, and Ricket shot him, knocking him back.
They rushed into the room and subdued the last aggressor with pulse fire before turning to the man and the
woman. “Can you disconnect from bridge control?” Kylie asked. “We need to change course and power down the engines.”
“Uh, yeah,” the woman said.
“Then do it!” Ricket yelled.
She didn’t know if his presence meant the SSF had taken him back or what, but that meant she had a friend on the inside at least, and that’s exactly what she needed.
The ship shuddered and Kylie swore.
Grayson made an exasperated sound.
Kylie took a deep breath.
She didn’t know why she’d told him that, she’d just had to say it. I killed my father today. I blew his brains out.
“Kylie,” Ricket said aloud. “Stop talking to loverboy…or do it on the run. I don’t care, we need to get gone. There’s a bay three decks up. There should still be a pinnace waiting—I sabotaged it so no one could fly it out in case things went to shit like this.”