Eric’s eyes widened just a little before he caught himself.
“Two more lies and I will put you in the room with my Rami,” she said.
“Your what?” Eric asked.
“My mates,” she said. “They’re waiting in that room behind you.”
“Your mates are giant birds?” he asked, putting as much sarcasm into his voice as he could.
“Yes, if they choose to be,” Faith said easily, ignoring Eric’s tone. “Now, are you ready to tell the truth?”
“Try me,” Eric said.
Faith tilted her head sideways, then sighed. “You aren’t taking me seriously, are you?” she asked. “I suppose I need to convince you.”
Eric rolled his eyes, then froze in shock as the petite woman in front of him suddenly became a gigantic bird like those he’d seen earlier. She was smaller, but she filled the small room as she opened a wicked looking beak and screamed into his face. A moment later she was Faith again, standing a few feet away, watching him cower on the floor. “Stand up,” she said.
Eric climbed to his feet, wondering if they’d drugged his food.
“Now, tell me, Eric, how did you get out of prison on Earth?” she asked. “And don’t lie.”
“I got an offer from the Xanti,” Eric said, deciding not to tempt the creatures in front of him. “They promised to get me out for a price.”
“That’s what we figured,” Faith said. “How did you find me?”
“I negotiated,” Eric said. “I wanted out, and I wanted to know where you were. Hell, I got to Jasan before you did.”
“How did you know I was on the Eyrie?”
“Pure dumb luck,” Eric admitted, seeing no reason to lie. “I saw you arrive at the Skyport, watched as you talked to those guards. Then you vanished. I had no idea where you went. I spent a week trying to find you, or someone who knew about you, but I got nowhere. Then one day I saw you walking down the street with three men, happy as can be. It wasn’t hard to find out who the men were.”
“How did you get aboard the Eyrie?”
“I intercepted a delivery,” Eric said, smirking again. He was actually enjoying the chance to show off his cleverness. “It wasn’t that hard. There were people running around like ants all over the place. I delivered a package, and then found a nice little closet to hide in. Once the ship left the Skyport I got a uniform from the laundry, and pretty much went wherever I wanted aboard the ship. The only problem I had was finding you, then catching you alone.”
“The poison that was on the knife,” Faith asked. “Where’d that come from?”
“The Xanti,” Eric said. “You’re like a damn cat, Faith. No matter how many times we try to kill you, you just keep coming back. That poison was supposed to make sure that when I put you down, you’d stay down, once and for all. Looks like it wasn’t worth the price I paid for it.”
“Oh no, you got your money’s worth,” Faith said. “It definitely would have killed me.”
“Would have?” Eric asked.
“Yep,” Faith said. “But you see, I’m not human, Eric. I think I just showed you that.”
Eric nodded slowly. She definitely wasn’t human. Had she always been this...whatever she was? No, he decided. That made no sense, considering all that had been done to her.
“Now the only question is, what do we do with you?” Faith mused, interrupting his thoughts.
“Send me back to Earth,” Eric said. “I’ll serve out my prison sentence. I don’t have any money left for bribes so you won’t have to worry about that.”
Faith stared at him for a long moment as though considering his suggestion, then shook her head. “Come on, Bubbles,” she said. “It’s time for us to go now.”
The red beast snarled at him once more, then shifted back into a small strip of fur before leaping up to Faith’s shoulder.
“What are you going to do, Faith?” Eric asked, unable to prevent himself.
“I’m going to go have lunch,” she said.
“What are you going to do with me?” Eric yelled angrily as she turned her back on him and walked toward the door. Before the echo of his shout faded, there were three tall, dark haired men standing in front of him. The Admirals. Eric pressed himself tighter against the wall behind him. These were seriously big, angry men.
“Speaking to our Arima in that tone is not wise,” one of them, the leader he thought, said coolly. “But then, you are not very bright so I suppose such behavior is to be expected.”
Eric heard the door close and looked between two of them, surprised that Faith had really left. “What are you going to do?” he asked.
The Falcorans only smiled at him. One of them placed a hand on his shoulder and a second later he blinked, shocked to find that he was no longer on a ship. Instead, he was standing on a planet with a sickly green sky. He looked around, seeing nothing but reddish dirt and rocks for as far as he could see in every direction.
“This planet has an atmosphere capable of sustaining your life,” the leader, Tristan Falcoran, said while the other two simply stared at him with tiny smiles on their identical faces. “There is water, and some of the vegetation is compatible with your physiology.” He gestured toward two crates sitting on the ground nearby that Eric hadn’t noticed. “You will find a small tent, a pack with survival tools, a change of clothes, and enough water and food to last you a couple of weeks, if you’re careful. After that, you will need to fend for yourself.”
“What is this place?” Eric asked.
“Buhell III C,” Tristan replied. “A small, uninhabited moon with no intelligent life, a fact unchanged by your arrival. There are some rather vicious animals here though, so you may wish to be careful. Particularly as we did not provide you with any weapons.”
“You mean there are no people here?” Eric asked.
“That is correct,” Tristan replied. “No people, no technology. Aside from yourself, of course, and what is contained in those two crates. Farewell, Eric Kick.”
“Wait!” Eric shouted frantically. “You can’t just leave me here.”
“Of course we can,” Tristan replied. “It’s either this or kill you outright, and you do not deserve the release of an easy death. This is much better.” With that, the Falcorans stepped sideways and vanished, leaving Eric Kick alone on a barren planet at the outer rim of the galaxy where he could never harm anyone again.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“There are eight Xanti ships that have just taken up a barrier formation between us and Onddo,” Tristan said, standing at the head of the long tactical conference and manual plotting table in the Operational Command Center aboard the Eyrie. Seated around the table were the Katre Consuls, the Gryphon Consuls, their Arimas, and the captains and Chief Tactical officers from the Vyand, the Ala-Lahoi, and the Eyrie. Attending the meeting via secure tight beam video link were the captains of the five Jasani battleships and four cruisers that made up the remainder of the task force.
“Thanks to Unblind, we know their locations, as well as their specifics,” Tristan continued. “They are surely aware of us but do not know that we are aware of them. It’s reasonable to assume that the Xanti plan is to avoid revealing their presence to us until they see what our intentions are. That gives us a window of opportunity, but I wouldn’t count on that window lasting very long.”
“Given that the Xanti do not know that we can see them, they will not expect to be attacked. That fact gives us the element of surprise, which we should seize by attacking now,” Maxim Katre said. “Normally, negotiations might be in order in this situation. But, since in the centuries since our first contact with them, no Xanti ship has ever surrendered. We know that attempting to negotiate with them would have no benefit, and would serve only to alert them that we are aware of their presence, throwing away the tactical advantages that surprise affords us. Their formation is directly in our path and can easily shift to block us from reaching Onddo no matter which trajectory we take. So, again, I say we must attack
now, while surprise is still with us.”
“Consul Gryphon?” Tristan asked.
“Consul Katre’s analysis is sound. We agree,” Olaf said.
“In that case...,” Tristan was interrupted by an insistent buzz from the comm panel. He swiftly opened the circuit with the stab of a finger.
“Admiral, sir,” the comm officer said, “we are receiving a video signal directed at us from the planet’s surface. The sender insists on speaking to ‘whoever is in charge.’”
Tristan looked around the table, and sensed the desire of those present to find out what the unknown sender had to say before engaging the Xanti force. When engaging a largely unknown enemy, additional intelligence was a good thing. “Route the signal here,” Tristan said. A second later, one of the video screens on the wall came to life, revealing the face of what appeared to be an elderly Narrasti female.
“I most humbly beg your pardon,” the female said. “I know that I am uninvited, but I believe my rudeness is necessary under the circumstances. Will you agree to listen to what I have to say? I assure you that it is in the best interests of your people, as well as my own.”
“We agree,” Tristan said at once. “I am Tristan Falcoran, Admiral of the Jasani Fleet. To whom am I speaking?”
“I am Marqex,” the female said. “I claim no rank or title, other than that of a Narrasti citizen desirous of peace.”
“It is our honor to speak with you, Marqex,” Tristan said politely. “Please continue.”
“To begin, I ask that you understand that there are two factions of the Narrasti. It is a sad, but necessary result that could not be avoided in light of certain actions taken by the one called Magoa, and the Xanti. They are not aware of us, which has allowed us to infiltrate them, providing us with certain insights into their plans. With your approval, we will now transmit data to your ship that will allow you to penetrate the Xanti’s Blind Sight shield.”
“You have our leave, and our appreciation,” Tristan said at once.
Marqex turned to nod at someone they could not see. Seconds later Captain Rolin confirmed receipt of the data. “Transmit it to the other ships,” Tristan ordered. Captain Rolin confirmed the order, his fingers already flying over the control panel.
“We have been forced to withdraw our people from the enemy camp, but we strongly believe that the Xanti intend to attack you at any moment,” Marqex said. “Unfortunately, we do not have any means of preventing such an attack, or of aiding you during it.”
“You already have, Marqex,” Tristan said, listening as the Katres and the Gryphons left the room for the Observation Deck. “We are aware of eight Xanti ships. Do you know if there are more?”
“There were twice that number up until a few days ago,” Marqex replied. “A shift in Xanti politics caused those to leave, and these eight to take their place. This has happened several times over the past couple of years. I am quite certain that more ships are on their way, but for now, eight is the number we have as well.”
“Thank you, Marqex,” Tristan said. “If you will excuse me for a time, I must direct our forces. May I contact you on this frequency when we are finished?”
“I would be honored,” Marqex replied. “Good luck to you, Admiral.”
Tristan bowed, then turned and headed for the door, gathering Faith to his side, Gray and Jon flanking them. They hurried up the hall and into the Observation Deck where they stood before the viewport.
“Can you guys see them now?” Faith asked.
“Yes, we can,” Tristan said. “At the exact coordinates you indicated, too.”
“They’re moving,” Faith said.
“Yes, they are,” Tristan replied. “Their sensors have picked up the Blind Sight neutralizing transmission. Now that they know we can see them, they are positioning themselves to attack.” He moved to a panel and keyed a short command sequence causing a device in the room to project the bearing, course, and weapons state of each of the Xanti ships onto the large viewport so that they could be seen by the room’s occupants.
“They have all armed their weapons and are dispersing into an attack formation.” They watched as the Xanti ships, which had been arranged in a single, roughly circular array stretched across the task force’s course, broke into four two-ship elements, each of which made a bee line for one of the four most powerful Jasani vessels. He pointed to the two largest Xanti ships, which did not seem to be moving at all, until Faith squinted at them and could see that they were slowly growing larger. “Those two are headed straight for this ship. We will be within range of their weapons in less than ten seconds. Their technology is superior to ours—they will not be within range of our weapons for five seconds after that. During that interval, they can fire at us, but our weapons will be ineffective against them.”
Faith wondered why no one was doing anything. Running away. Evading. Whatever it was that space Admiral types did in this situation, this certainly seemed like a good time to be doing it. The Xanti ships looked extremely powerful and extremely menacing. Cold tendrils of fear encircled her heart and began to squeeze it in an icy embrace. Almost unnoticed, her arm slipped around Tristan’s waist. She reached out with her feelings to all three Falcorans, wondering what emotion she would sense: apprehension, fear, even resignation at impending death?
“Two seconds to Xanti weapons range,” Tristan announced. “One . . . NOW.” Then, in an instant, Faith’s reading of the Falcorans’ emotions became clear. She felt no fear. Certainly no resignation.
What she felt was . . . triumph.
Suddenly, Faith felt the Eyrie begin to accelerate toward the attacking Xanti and noticed the other Jasani ships doing the same. In that same instant, one of the Xanti ships that was headed for the Eyrie vanished in a blinding flash of brilliant white light, as though a new sun had been ignited within its heart. Faith immediately turned to the second ship and saw with astonishment that, before her eyes, its hull was being pulled back in four huge sections, like the rind of a ripe fruit, after which—deprived of its protective skin--the ship’s fleetingly visible interior structure was torn to pieces by structural stresses and internal atmosphere pressure, seemingly aided by an unseen force that sundered structural support frames from one another and chopped bulkheads and decks into chunks in a manner resembling some gigantic vegetable being cut up by an invisible, but impossibly sharp, knife. After a few seconds, nothing was left of the second ship but a swirling field of glittering debris.
The remaining Xanti ships immediately broke off their attack, turning their weapons ports away from the Jasani and accelerating away as hard as their drives could propel them.
But, as Faith could see from the ranges projected on the viewport, the Jasani ships were closing on the Xanti. Having begun their closure maneuver before the Xanti began their evasive one, the Jasani had the laws of mass and acceleration on their side for a few more seconds.
“The Xanti are now within missile range. The battleships are requesting permission to fire,” Gray announced from his station near the center of the room.
“Weapons free. They may fire at will,” Tristan said. Less than a heartbeat after Gray repeated the order, Faith could see a swarm of countless brilliant streaks lancing across the black background of space almost too fast for the eye to follow. It was only with her enhanced Clan Jasani vision that she could distinguish the bright pinpoint of light generated by the each missile’s engine rapidly accelerating to nearly the speed of light. The swarm suddenly divided into six groups, each of which surrounded and overwhelmed the defenses of one of the remaining Xanti ships. One by one, each of the spider/crab like vessels was blotted out of existence, disappearing in an almost impossibly white flare of nuclear fire.
“They had no shields,” Tristan said in surprise. “Xanti shields are very powerful, but require more than five minutes to power up. The Xanti were so confident in their Blind Sight system that they went into battle with their shields down. They didn’t start the activation sequence until th
ey detected the signal that let us see them.”
“It would have been fun to see the looks on their faces when we penetrated Blind Sight and they realized we could see them, and that they didn’t have shields up,” Gray said.
“Indeed,” Tristan said, a cold smile spreading across his face.
There were three ships left. The Katres detonated the fuel in one, the Gryphons tore open the hull of another, and they all watched as the two ships ceased to exist. Leaving only one.
“That was almost too easy,” Tristan said, grinning with relief. The Xanti had fired only a handful of missiles, none of which caused any appreciable damage to the task force.
Faith frowned as all of the Jasani relaxed. “What about the last one?”
Everyone stared at her for a moment, then turned to look out the viewport again. “We don’t see another one,” Tristan said tightly. “Where is it?”
“Number four,” Faith said, checking the diagram of ships she’d identified earlier. “It’s just sitting there. You don’t see it?”
“No,” Tristan said. “It’s the furthest from us. Plainly it’s too far for our transmission to cut through its Blind Sight.”
“We’ll get it,” Maxim Katre said.
“Too late,” Faith said. “It just went behind the planet. I don’t see it any more.”
“Damn,” Tristan said.
“I’m sorry,” Faith said. “I thought you guys could see all of them.”
“It’s not your fault,” Tristan said. “We thought we saw all of them too, but you told us where they were and how many. We should have at least counted them.” He turned to Captain Rolin. “Order two battleships and a cruiser to the far side of Onddo, one with the direction of the planet’s rotation, one against, and one in a polar trajectory. Maybe they’ll get lucky.”
The captain acknowledged the order and immediately transmitted it.
Tristan turned to a view screen and called up the frequency that the Marqex had used.
“Greetings, Marqex,” Tristan said when her face appeared again.
The Falcoran’s Faith Page 34