Far From Home: The Complete Second Series (Far From Home 13-15)

by Tony Healey

  "Where are we?"

  "Working on it, Captain," Chang said.

  The comet dragged behind it an enormous bluish tail. The ball of ice and rock itself was in a state of degradation, boiling away into the vacuum as it made its way through whatever system they'd emerged into – certainly not the Bos system, that was for sure.

  "Zoom in on the comet for me," Jessica said.

  Banks did as he was told. What had seemed a spherical ball of ice, a dirty snowball, was in fact a doughnut shape with a hole in the middle. Not a big hole, but perhaps . . .

  "The Jandala has exited the Jump," Chang said.

  "Banks, take us in close to the comet, while we figure everything out," King ordered. Her eyes sparkled with relish. "Time we fight dirty."

  PART III

  Tempest of Ice

  21.

  In other circumstances, she might have called off the hunt. But on this occasion Cessqa did not have the luxury of returning home for repairs. Or to take command of another ship and return to finish what she'd started.

  Things are as they are.

  "The Defiant has entered the comet's tail," Gelvin said. "I can't track them on sensors, nor can I make visual contact."

  "A clever move," Cessqa said. She stepped forward to stand behind him. "How are we holding up?"

  "All systems functioning, by the looks of things. Risa is performing admirably, holding the ship together."

  "Yes, she is most efficient," Cessqa said, herself impressed by Risa's single-handed coordination of the drones elsewhere in the ship. They could be trusted to fix almost anything, to repair any and all systems . . . and yet they still required a sentient mind to guide them. They needed a living being to order them about, ensure they didn't waste time.

  "Do we follow the humans?" Gelvin asked.

  Cessqa thought for a moment. She turned back to her holodisplay, to the image of the comet there before her. It had an icy core and ejected a plume of blue-grey ice for millions of kilometres behind it. It's tail consisted of highly charged particles and radioactive matter – perfect for hiding a starship.

  It's like trying to see through a hail, she thought. A tempest of ice the likes of which I have not seen since I left our wasted homeworld, so many centuries ago.

  "Proceed slowly, with caution," she told Gelvin.

  "As you wish."

  Cessqa left the command deck and ran through the bowels of the ship to where Risa was busily conducting the intuitiveless drones as to what to fix next. She passed sections of deck that had been blown inward, debris everywhere, cables and wires hanging like spilt intestines. Risa looked up as her commander approached. "Cessqa."

  "Risa. How long until we have the energy shield?"

  "A while," Risa said.

  "Very well. I need you to make it your priority."

  "Yes," Risa said.

  Cessqa regarded her. Risa, one of Namar's most celebrated warriors. Before the fall of their people. Before they were lost from memory, relegated to the very mists of time.

  "You still have your blade?" Cessqa asked her.

  "I brought it aboard . . ." Risa answered, her head tilted slightly to the left as she tried to ascertain Cessqa's intentions. "Why?"

  "Keep it handy," Cessqa said and stalked off, back to the command deck where Gelvin piloted the Jandala into the tempest, once more in pursuit of the Defiant.

  *

  "Jeez, it's like flying into a hail storm," Banks said. They were advancing on the comet itself, pushing through the megatonnes of material and matter it left behind.

  First extreme radiation, gravity, and time dilation, Commander Greene thought. Now ice. Deadly ice that could destroy us any second.

  As it were, the comet's tail proved mostly harmless. But if a sizeable chunk of it were to break away and head straight for them, the Defiant would not be able to move out of the way. For all the cold outside, Banks couldn't help but sweat.

  "Take us around the comet, Lieutenant. I want to get ahead of it."

  All eyes turned to Jessica.

  "Jess . . ." Greene said, forgetting himself in his shock. "You can't be serious."

  "Captain I seriously advise against it," Chang told her.

  "I can do it," Banks said, face taut with tension as the comet's body appeared out of the din. He pushed the Defiant's engines as hard as he could, pushing on past the giant icy satellite. It spewed material from every inch of its surface, it seemed. Some of that violently, catapulting debris away from its surface, clattering against the vessel's hull.

  A jagged piece of ice hurtled toward them. Banks pitched the Defiant to the left. the made a grinding noise that rattled the ship as it scraped the hull.

  "Damn that was close," Greene said.

  Before, it had been hard to judge just how fast the comet was travelling. But now they struggled to overtake it, the Defiant's engines pushed to their limit.

  "I'm getting some detailed telemetry of the comet," Chang announced.

  "Overlay on the viewscreen," Jessica ordered.

  Chang did so. Her data appeared over the view of the comet sliding past to the right as they appeared to inch forward. The telemetry showed the comet's jagged, sharp edges as an almost donut shape, a hole in the middle like a tunnel straight through its core, hurtling through the cosmos, racing toward its own inevitable destruction.

  "Orders?" Banks asked, his voice strained.

  Jessica eyed Commander Greene. "A Driscoll special."

  He cocked an eyebrow. "Oh," he said. He looked back at the viewscreen, at Chang's scans of the comet. "I see."

  The bridge crew shuffled in their seats nervously, unsure of what was about to commence.

  Jessica opened a channel to the munition's bay. "This is the Captain. Load one nuke into tube one."

  "Yes Captain," came the somewhat stiff reply.

  She closed the channel. Now she definitely had everyone's attention. You could have heard a pin drop. "Banks, here's what you're going to do . . ."

  22.

  The image of the Defiant flickered momentarily, then disappeared on the holodisplay. Yet there could be no mistaking their present location.

  "Gelvin, take us closer toward the comet's nucleus," Cessqa ordered.

  Risa arrived on the command deck. "I thought I might be of help up here. The drones are doing all they can. We have limited energy shielding, which I've assigned to the front of the ship."

  "A good plan," Cessqa said. She eyed the giant blade at Risa's hip. "And you have come prepared."

  Risa nodded slowly, her hand falling to the hilt of the weapon. "I thought it prudent, considering we are nearing the end of this matter."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean to say that, given your tactics, you mean to either completely destroy them or cripple them so they have no choice but to surrender," Risa posited.

  "Perhaps I mean to take them by force."

  "And not offer a chance at surrender?" Risa asked, her face lit with amusement.

  "Only the weak surrender, Risa. I do not think this Captain King will ever succumb to my demands. She is surprisingly resilient. No, she will have to die first. Then her crew," Cessqa said. "One by one."

  *

  Banks took the Defiant ahead of the comet, using every ounce of available energy to pump extra thrust from the engines. He ran a hand over his face, dried his palms on his trousers, then set to pivoting the Defiant about.

  Jessica didn't need to tell him he would only have seconds to perform the manoeuvre before the comet caught up with them, smashing them to smithereens.

  "Okay . . ." he said, not entirely full of optimism.

  Damn him, Jessica thought.

  They all watched the viewscreen, collectively holding their breaths as the Defiant lurched to the right. Banks threw the engines into full reverse, to give himself additional seconds to complete the turn. There before them, the comet rushed to meet the Defiant and directly ahead lay the hole that gave the ball of ice its donut appearanc
e.

  Lieutenant Banks accelerated again. They closed in on the hole, the sides rushing past at incredible speed.

  "Activating external illumination," Chang said.

  Search lights along the Defiant's exteriour came to life, showing the sides of the tunnel in stark relief. Lieutenant Banks made minor adjustments to their course as they barrelled through it.

  A sharp outcropping appeared ahead of them, but the helmsman reacted quickly, yawing the Defiant to avoid it. There was clearance of less than two metres, but they made it past.

  "That was too close," Greene said.

  Light showed at the end of the tunnel and the Defiant was soon racing to meet it, leaving the insides of the comet behind.

  *

  The image of the ship flashed rapidly, seemingly out of nowhere. Cessqa barely registered that it was headed straight for them. Gelvin, luckily for her, did. He attempted to steer away, though it was futile.

  How did they get around that thing so fast? Cessqa asked herself. It's impossible.

  "We can lock weapons," Risa said next to her. "We should take the opportunity."

  "Do it," Cessqa said coolly.

  "Locked. Shall I fire on them?"

  "Yes."

  23.

  "Jandala on sensors."

  King looked at Chang. "Certain?"

  The Commander nodded. "More than certain, Captain."

  The Jandala opened fire on them. The Defiant shouldered the hits, and the concussion of the Namarian weapons thundered against the hull.

  "Jackson, are you ready?" Jessica asked the weapons officer. He gave her the thumbs up signal. "Then aim and fire. Detonation on impact, not proximity. Enable remote detonation, in case we need it."

  "Yes Ma'am," he said, his hands braced above the controls. "Ready to fire."

  "Do it," she ordered.

  The nuclear warhead pirouetted through the short distance between the Defiant and Jandala, sparkling yellow. It found the Namar ship and exploded on contact with the Jandala's hull. An incredibly bright, white explosion filled the screen, then the aftershock slammed into the Defiant.

  Everything seemed to turn upside down right then as the aftermath of the awesome force exerted by the exploding nuke. Banks wrestled with the controls, tried his best to keep her from succumbing to the wave.He managed to fly the Defiant straight. The bow shock chased their tail, Banks steering the Defiant barely ahead of it, then it slammed into their hull, a gigantic crash that sent them reeling but the after effects subsided swiftly.

  "Man, that had to have done some damage," Banks said with a wince.

  "The Jandala! What is the situation of the enemy?"

  Chang looked up. "Crippled. No propulsion to speak of. Minimal weaponry."

  Jessica watched the viewscreen. Now that the glow had faded, she could see the outline of the Jandala in further detail . . . and the spots where she burned. Where she lay open to the ravages of the vacuum.

  "I can see for myself," King said. "If I know anything of them by now, it's that they'll have that ship repaired within the hour. That's why we must put them out of action entirely."

  "They're lucky they weren't destroyed," Greene said. "A direct hit like that from a nuke . . ."

  "We took quite a hit from that ourselves. Hull plating is now inoperable and other systems showing signs of failure," Chang advised. "But if it's any consolation, the Jandala's defences are also down for the time being."

  "Let's start taking damage reports from all sections, Del. Start with –"

  Jessica found herself suddenly suspended in darkness, with only the audible presence of those around her to remind her she was not floating in a void.

  "Looks like those systems failed sooner than I'd thought," Chang said glumly.

  Commander Greene sighed. "Is this what you had in mind?" his now disembodied voice asked Jessica.

  "Not exactly."

  24.

  Cessqa opened her eyes.

  I still live.

  The Jandala creaked and groaned around her. She rolled over to her front and with great determination and strength she pushed herself up off the deck. With a drunken stagger, she stood and reached out for the nearest edge to steady herself.

  Sparks rained down from somewhere, the stench of burning plastics and alloys thick on the air. The Jandala listed, throwing the artificial gravity off. The imbalance made her want to go skittering off to the side.

  "Gelvin . . . Risa . . ." she asked the room, eyes still focusing.

  "Here," Risa's strained voice came from behind her. Cessqa turned to see the tall, slender Namarian clutching a duct overhead.

  "And Gelvin?" she asked.

  Looking back at the front of the command deck, she made out an arm on the floor, pose loose and flaccid. Cessqa got there as fast as she was able, but she knew it was futile. He was already gone.

  Gelvin lay sprawled on the floor, his face staring up at nothing with a fixed, empty expression. She looked down his body, to where a section of the ceiling had collapsed on him, crushing his internal organs.

  "Gelvin," Cessqa said softly and she reached out to touch the top of his head, as if his thoughts still lingered there.

  She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling a stab of what could only perceived as grief. But it passed. It always did.

  She stood, turned to Risa, now fully composed. Recovered from her fall.

  "Gone?" Risa asked.

  She didn't say anything to the contrary. "We have work to do."

  *

  With a perceptible groan, emergency lighting came on around them, systems started to reboot.

  "What happened?" Greene asked, unclipping himself.

  Jessica opened a channel to the engineering section. "Chief?"

  "That nuclear blast blew half a dozen relays down here, hence the power cut. We're working to fix it, but . . . it's going to take time."

  "How much time?"

  "At least two hours."

  King sighed. "Can you find a workaround? Just for the time being?"

  "I'm sorry, Captain, but they have to be replaced. I can get you some engine power, but for the time being both the weapons systems and the hull plating will be out of action. At least until I can get these relays changed over."

  "Understood, Chief," Jessica said and closed the channel.

  "Damn," Greene said.

  "We didn't have full power to the plating when I ordered the nuke," Jessica told him. "I shouldn't have ordered it."

  "You did what you had to. There was no knowing it would cause this."

  Ensign Olivia Rayne stuck her earpiece in, looked up, eyes wide. Captain King saw her reaction to whatever was coming in on the other end. "Ensign?"

  Rayne's eyes were wide. "Captain . . . it's Cessqa."

  25.

  Captain King stood. There was no viewscreen. Emergency lighting gave just enough illumination to see by. Every console stood dark as they rebooted. "Put her on audio."

  The speakers crackled to life around her and were then filled with the boom of Cessqa's cruel voice.

  "Captain King. You still live."

  "Despite your attempts to the contrary Cessqa, yes, I do."

  "You have fought well. But this dance is ended. I am the victor."

  How can she know that? Jessica wondered. Sophisticated sensing technology?

  Her eyes narrowed. "Where are you headed with all this?"

  All the while she thought: Buy us time. Buy us time.

  "Give yourself willingly and I will spare the rest. You must surely desire to save your crew, Captain?" Cessqa asked. "Is it not a worthy sacrifice?"

  "I do wish to spare them," Jessica said. "Enough that I would happily give my life to save theirs. But I won't. You would never keep to your word. They would suffer, needlessly."

  "A valiant resolve, Captain," Cessqa said. "And yet . . . futile. I have given you opportunity to surrender, and you have refused. I have given you the chance to give your life for theirs, and even then you will not
see reason. You will not end this folly."

  Jessica thought fast on her feet, eager to buy them as long as possible.

  "All right. I'll do it. But I need fifteen minutes to inform my crew."

  "You may have ten. After which time you will . . . present yourself . . . to me."

  The line went dead. Olivia Rayne looked up. "Transmission's been cut their end."

  Jessica surveyed the faces in the room. She clapped her hands together. "Right, so we have ten minutes. Let's get a move on, people."

  "Our plan?" Chang asked.

  Jessica watched Commander Greene unbuckle himself from his seat and head for the exit.

  "Hope the Chief manages to get us something we can work with," King said. "And do whatever we can to help her along."

  26.

  "Seven minutes," Rayne's voice thundered through the ship as Greene arrived at the doors of the engineering section.

  God, give a man a chance, he thought as he walked in.

  It was a scene of chaos. Lights dying, then flickering back. Men and women running back and forth in all directions, most carrying various tools and devices. And in the midst of the madness, orchestrating such a haphazard rabble stood the Chief.

  "You! Get to the secondary cylinders!" Gunn yelled. She caught sight of a young woman hauling a big grey case. "Hey, Juarez, slow down before you brain someone."

  "Use an extra pair of hands?" Greene asked.

  Gunn acted as though he'd been due there the whole time, and she'd simply been waiting for him to turn up. Not that he'd run the length of the ship of his own accord, to be there for her, to help her get them out of this jam. Still, he followed as she led him away.

  "If I can redirect energy from the Jump Drive, by shutting it down, I can get us some engine power. It's your call," she said bluntly.

  Greene hit a nearby comm. unit and dialled the bridge.

  "King."

  "Captain, we can give you engine power, but in order to do so we've got to divert energy away from the Jump Drive, meaning you won't have it available. Not that it's in that good a shape right now . . ."