“I’m really hoping they don’t have Pral teleporters,” Luke said and unracked his rifle in the cage next to him. Leonessa, Morals and Pavlis also grabbed rifles.
Teleklos and three of his droid officers entered the bridge followed by ten warbots with heavy weapons. The warriors arrayed themselves around the combat information center, facing in all directions. Musashi came up to stand behind Luke.
“There is no way we can outrun that thing,” Halsey said. “I am showing it is twenty thousand gravons, four kilometers long and three wide.”
Luke stared at the featureless light blue craft coming at them. There were no apparent weapons but Luke was pretty sure they were there.
“That is a lot of mass,” Luke said.
“We cannot defeat it,” Shum said. “That is a Battle Singer warship.”
“We can’t outrun it,” Halsey said and looked at Shum. “Suggestions?”
Shum shook his head.
“We are doomed,” Shum said.
“Anything else you could tell me would be helpful,” Luke said.
“Even long ago the Battle Singer ships could have taken on this ship,” Shum said.
“What do they mean ascension or extinction?” Luke asked.
Shum was silent, staring at the screen for a moment. Luke was about to ask him again when Shum spoke.
“It is a promise,” Shum said. “Based on their view of the tapestry and the threads of life, they believe when our physical forms release our life essence, they can collect the essence. They claim that they can then allow that essence to return to the physical world normally, which will eventually lead to ascension, or they can trap the essence in their machines.”
“What do they do with the trapped life essence?” Luke asked.
“We do not know for sure,” Shum said. “It is said they capture the life essence, so it does not return to the physical world. Perhaps they use it for something?”
Luke nodded. “Surrender or we devour your soul?”
Shum nodded. “That would be an apt comparison.”
“Another transmission,” Halsey said.
Luke frowned, they wouldn’t have had time to receive a response.
“Play it,” Luke said.
“Human vessel,” the voice said. “We sense a Tal aboard your vessel. The conditions have changed. Surrender the Tal to us alive and you may go free. Otherwise you will be rendered extinct.”
Luke glanced at Shum.
“Why would they want you?” Luke asked.
“For the secrets of the Pral that I may hold,” Shum said.
“We can’t have that can we?” Luke said.
“All hands secure to gravity stations!” Halsey said. “We are being fired upon by plasma lance.”
The sirens screeched for people to find an emergency gravity station. Luke glanced around, everyone was already in their seat and Luke felt the force smash him into his seat as the ship maneuvered.
“That is impressive range,” Pavlis said.
“The Battle Singer ship is now seven light seconds away and closing,” Halsey said. “They appear to be concentrating on us and ignoring the Amazon.”
“Captain Summers,” Luke said opening a channel. “Get away from here. Looks like the Singers want Shum. We will evade them. Monitor the battle and tactics and get those recordings back to the Bronkaw and New Alamo. We can’t outrun it and we can’t deal with lances that have that kind of range. All frigates will be transferred to your command. Use them as you need to.”
“Aye, aye Admiral,” Brita said. She sounded strained as well.
On the screen Luke watched as the Amazon peeled away and pushed acceleration toward the nearest wormhole. A quick calculation showed it would be a day away for her.
“You should surrender me,” Shum said.
“No,” Luke said. “I don’t surrender my crew to torture.”
“I am not human,” Shum said.
“You are part of my crew,” Luke said. “I’m not done with you and you have not disappointed me. Now shut up and let’s see how we can delay the Battle Singers. They will be on us shortly. They don’t seem to have the full speed of a Topa ship. We need to give Brita time to escape.”
“There is that part about extinction to consider,” Pavlis sent. “Besides, why should we show loyalty to the Pral? They are aliens.”
“You scared?” Luke sent back on a public channel. With the acceleration crushing them into their seats. The droids and warbots were clamped onto several bulkhead rails. A quick query of his InnerBuddy showed the rails were strong enough to hold them, but if one lost its grip it would become a lethal missile. Nothing to do about it now though.
“I do not have enough information,” Pavlis sent. “They could be bluffing.”
“Unlikely,” Luke sent.
“How do you know?” Pavlis sent.
“I don’t,” Luke sent. “But they have better speed, weapons and sensors, these are not exploitable weaknesses. Why would they bother bluffing?”
“Commander,” Halsey said. “We are experiencing fluctuations in the output of our generators.”
“What do you mean?” Luke sent wishing there was a way to ignore the crushing acceleration.
“The output is decreasing,” Halsey said. “I’m also detecting low level gravity waves from the direction of the Battle Singer ship.”
“So they are doing it?” Luke asked.
“That would be my theory,” Halsey said.
“No way to block them?” Leonessa sent.
“I don’t even know what or how they are doing it,” Halsey said. “I have an AI cluster working on the problem but if it increases, that will force us to slow down. It also seems to be draining our gravity compensators.”
“Which means what?” Pavlis sent on the common channel.
“It means we will have to reduce acceleration,” Halsey said. “Or you will be turned into meat and bone paste. It will eventually mean we have no gravity.”
“Maintain as long as possible,” Luke sent. “Every second we can buy Brita the better.”
“That won’t be long,” Halsey said. “The frequency of drain is increasing the closer the ship comes.”
“Keep sending information to Brita,” Luke sent. “And do what you can to test the Singer’s limits.”
“Aye, aye Commander,” Halsey said.
Occasionally, minor losses in the gravity compensator caused Halsey to slow down even further. Shum was unconscious minutes later when the compensators failed. The reactors were only putting out five percent.
“Incoming transmission,” Halsey said as the Battle Singer ship came closer. It had stopped firing long ago, but the Tigress had nothing to shoot. The Tigress was still hurtling out of the Vress system at fifty percent at the speed of light. Most of the power was being used by the magnetic shields to keep a small pebble of space dust from shattering the ship.
“Our generators are working at full, but putting out zero,” Halsey said. “Battery power is sustaining us. If we lose shields at this speed, we are going hit something and splatter.”
“Do what you can,” Luke said glancing at the medical robot leaning over Shum. Luke’s InnerBuddy reported Shum would be okay, just sore as nanites flowed through his system repairing the damage. If the Battle Singer wanted to kill them, there was nothing to stop them from ripping apart the Tigress with plasma lances.
Around the CIC warbots crouched, ready for a teleporter field to appear.
“Plans?” Luke asked Teleklos.
“I expect Battle Singer sensors to detect life forms. They will know you are here. If they teleport in I have a heavy weapons team here and ten weapon teams in the corridor. If they come in anywhere else, we will adjust our plan, but I will expend everything I have to keep them from getting to you, Captain Ferrero and Falla Shum.
Luke nodded and glanced at Leonessa who stood there, her rifle ready. Her eyes were darting around and she looked bone weary tired. Pavlis and Morals also looked nervous
, perhaps realizing how expendable they were.
“You okay?” Luke asked Leonessa.
“This is twice I’ve ended up on a crippled ship facing a boarding action,” Leonessa said. “The third time I’ve been on a crippled ship facing eventual death.”
“And you have survived every time,” Luke said.
“My luck is bound to run out,” Leonessa said.
“It hasn’t yet,” Luke said forcing his smile. “Don’t give up, even to the last breath.”
“Never,” she said and Luke saw her relax. There was the ghost of a smile as she looked at him.
“Happy endings are for story books, children and massage parlors,” Morals said. “I would recommend we give them Shum.”
“You going to go with him?” Luke asked pinning down the intelligence officer with his scowl.
“You are human,” Morals said. “Your loyalty is to the human race, not the Pral, not the Bronkaw, not the Nalee or anyone else. It is to humanity. What is wrong with you?”
“What is wrong with you?” Leonessa said before Luke could answer. “For an intelligence officer, you are a moron. We cannot fight the Vress, the Caliphate or the Battle Singers on our own, and we need to build an alliance, we need to risk ourselves for others or we will find ourselves alone in a cold hard and uncaring universe.”
“I agree,” Morals said. “But this one time. We give them the Pral and survive. There is no reason for us to die.”
“No,” Luke said. “End discussion. There is a reason for us to die, it is called loyalty, integrity and honor.”
Morals stared at Luke and Leonessa, his face unreadable.
“You do realize that if we are immortal, our life essence is at stake?” Morals said. “Our souls if you will?”
“Which means we are as much brothers and sisters to the Bronkaw, Nalee and Pral as our fellow humans. If we all have souls that are intertwined, then our basic biology is irrelevant. We are fighting an enemy from our darkest nightmares, demons that will drink our souls, monsters that will violate and feast on our living flesh, and you want to run?”
Silence reigned on in the combat information center as Luke and Morals stared at each other.
Finally, Morals nodded, but Luke wasn’t fooled. Morals could not be trusted.
“Keep an eye on him,” Luke sent to Teleklos.
“I never stopped,” Teleklos sent back.
“The enemy ship is coming alongside,” Halsey reported and everyone’s eyes turned back to the holographic board and the displays watching the ship from different angles. Point defense lasers and rail guns were attempting to savage the Battle Singer ship but if the massive vessel was being damaged, there was no outward appearance.
Lances speared out from the Battle Singer ship and caressed the Tigress.
“They are destroying our point defenses,” Halsey reported.
“They are not likely to teleport then,” Luke said and Halsey nodded.
“There would be no need to destroy point defenses otherwise,” Halsey said.
“I will deploy to repel boarders,” Teleklos said. “All internal bulkheads are sealed.”
“Boarding ships are being launched,” Halsey reported.
Luke watched what had to be several hundred red icons swarm away from the Battle Singer ship and toward the Tigress.
“That is a lot of hate and discontent,” Morals said. “Do we know anything about Battle Singer infantry?”
Luke shook his head and glanced at Shum, the only one who might.
“Those are Vress markings on the shuttles,” Halsey said.
“They are using Vress assault troops?” Morals said. “A weakness? They are not using robots or their own race?”
“We don’t know yet,” Halsey said watching the displays and likely watching a more direct feed through his InnerBuddy.
“Standby to repel boarders then,” Luke said and Teleklos nodded.
“They are entering in four areas,” Teleklos said standing in front of the holo field, his black skin and red eyes a stark contrast. “The Tigress has one main corridor running along the spine on the top and one on the bottom to facilitate rapid movement between the front and rear of the ship. They are labeled the high way and low way. Based on their breach points it appears they do not know where we are at. I have numerous strike teams using service tunnels and regular access corridors to strike at the Vress. Right now, I estimate there are about five hundred Vress aboard the Tigress.”
Everyone watched Teleklos as he pointed out the points on the holographic map of the Tigress as he mentioned them the corridors lit up.
“So far, they do not seem interested in capturing anything specific. They are focusing on the front of the ship which indicates that is where they think the combat information center is. This would be characteristic of a normal human built or designed vessel. We believe the CIC, in the center, the armored heart of the vessel, is unknown to them. Since they cannot access the Tigress datanet, they cannot locate any identifiers or information. They have entered through the hangers and have captured two sections in the low way. Two elements are working their way toward the bow and stern. Topside they are burning through the hull and attempting to reach the high way.”
Teleklos turned to Halsey. Luke considered those long corridors with frequent blast doors.
Halsey nodded and everyone turned to look at the blue droid.
“We are detecting attempts to hack the datanet, but it is mostly shut down and the attempts so far seem amateurish and half-hearted,” Halsey said.
“Which makes little sense,” Luke said. “You would think the Battle Singers could help.”
Halsey nodded in agreement.
“The Battle Singer vessel is maintaining course and speed in parallel with the Tigress,” Halsey said. “It is sending over additional forces but not in massive waves like the first assault.”
“Are they using robot support?” Musashi asked.
Teleklos shook his head, “just Vress assault troopers, like when the Bronkaw battleships were boarded in Bronkaw Secundus.”
“No help from the Battle Singers?” Luke asked.
Teleklos shook his head.
“Apparently not,” the black droid said.
“A test of their vassals?” Pavlis asked.
“Unknown,” Teleklos said. “Or perhaps it is a form of battle the Battle Singers are not familiar with and prefer to outsource it to their slaves. But it works to our advantage. I think at this rate, it could take them several days to secure and clear the Tigress.”
“If the Battle Singers don’t help,” Pavlis said.
“There is that,” Teleklos said. “We are making it very expensive for them. They are taking heavy casualties and our warbots give us an advantage.”
Luke nodded.
“For now, I recommend we hold position here in the CIC,” Teleklos said. “When they get close, I have several escape routes and I have two teams preparing alternate routes.”
Luke sat down and looked toward Leonessa. Back to waiting.
“The Battle Singer is breaking apart,” Halsey sent over a common channel.
“What?” Luke asked bringing up a display on his InnerBuddy. The sound of the Vress weapons fire had been increasing in tempo and Luke expected another assault at any moment. There were countless shattered warbots around and two of Luke’s Praetorian guards were motionless in the pile. Teleklos was preparing to lead a flanking attack to spoil the upcoming assault.
Now the Battle Singer ship was like a cracked egg, pieces drifting away as the distance between the Tigress and the enemy vessel increased. Luke could see areas where it looked like a plasma round had shattered the armor though.
“It has just sustained multiple hits from a plasma lance,” Halsey said. “Serious damage, and it is drifting away from us. It appears dead. I am detecting additional plasma lance rounds incoming and aimed the Battle Singer.”
“From where?” Luke asked as the firing stopped outside. He could still s
ee a pair of warbots watching down the corridor so the Vress must have just learned they were stranded. Musashi crouched nearby and smiled at Luke.
“The Amazon is seventy-two light seconds out,” Halsey sent. “And closing.”
Leonessa cheered and Luke smiled.
“That is some very fine shooting,” Luke sent.
“Our course and the Battle Singer have not changed course since the boarding yesterday,” Halsey sent.
“I thought I told her to escape?” Luke sent bringing his weapon to bear on the corridor. The Vress might get desperate now. Trapped they would be even more dangerous and predictable. “Ask her why she disobeyed.”
“Aye, aye Commander,” Halsey said. “It will take time to get a reply though.”
“Fine,” Luke said. “And tell her thank you.”
“Aye, aye, Commander,” Halsey sent. “I should also point out we are getting full power from the reactors. We are also getting full power to gravity compensators and sensors.”
“Scan the hell out of that Battle Singer ship,” Luke said smiling at Leonessa. “I want to know everything we can. Do we have any probes we can send?”
“Yes sir,” Halsey sent. “All sensors are focused.”
“You did it again,” Leonessa said as she reached over to hug Luke.
Luke hugged her back.
“No, Brita did,” Luke said just as the Battle Singer ship exploded.
“Are you going to yell at her?” Musashi asked.
“For disobeying me?” Luke replied.
“Yes,” Musashi said.
Luke shrugged.
“She had a point, the Battle Singer would have been able to run her down very quickly, in this system or the next, and she sent a pair of frigates back to Bronkaw Prime with the information.”
“Why aren’t you out there hunting down Vress?” Luke asked.
Musashi shrugged, “Gotta keep you safe meat sack.”
“Thanks,” Luke said, not bothering to hide his sarcasm.
“Any time,” Musashi said with a smile, either clueless or uncaring.
“Commander,” Halsey said. “I think we have a very big problem.”
New Empires: Conglomerate Series Book 3 Page 20