by Nate Johnson
“Sir,” Captain Freeborn finally said, his face pale with shock. “A hit on our port side. Their lasers breached through and then tore into us, hitting a fuel tank. One of the ones used for the backup railgun generators.”
Admiral McKenzie acknowledged the report with a sharp nod. It was to be expected he reminded himself. The aliens’ weapons were proving more powerful than they had thought they would be. Especially when they concentrated their fire. But they couldn’t last. Not as long as he kept pouring rounds into them.
“We’ve lost five guns,” Captain Freeborn said. “I don’t know if it was the laser or the internal explosion. But they are offline and won’t be coming back.”
The admiral nodded.
“Which guns?” Professor Sinclair asked, her eyes silently pleading with Captain Freeborn.
“Battery B,” the captain said, “and the last gun of Battery C.”
Mac watched as Janet’s eyes grew very big as all the color drained from her face. Her sad expression pleading with him. This was going on throughout the fleet, he reminded himself. Men dying in either the flames and heat of explosions or in the vacuum of space. Either way, dead, and never returning.
Turning away from her, he checked his fleet again. Damage reports were coming in. Like the Churchill, ships were taking a beating. Hits, where the lasers had punched through. But they were registering hits as well, continuing to fire into the alien ships.
A sharp beep gave him enough warning to grab his chair. He had no sooner secured himself when the gravity dropped for just a brief moment. As if he were in an old-fashioned elevator. But, almost immediately, it returned.
Both the sensor screen and the video feed confirmed what he had suspected. As he watched, the ships rolled up and off the screen, then flickered and were once more in place.
“What happened?” Professor Sinclair asked.
“Captain Freeborn just rolled over, to bring his starboard guns into play,” he told her. “Remember there is no up or down in space.”
She slowly nodded as she grasped what had happened.
“Round Twenty-Four,” Commander Evans said.
Admiral McKenzie nodded. It was time, he thought. Time to change things up.
“Roosevelt,” he said to his second largest ship stationed in the middle of his fleet. “Task Group Thirty- Two Point Four is established. Execute phase four.”
“Yes, sir,” the Roosevelt’s captain said. No one hearing the joy in his voice would ever have believed he was in the middle of a fight to the death.
Admiral McKenzie silently watched as the Roosevelt and three destroyers broke ranks from the long line of ships and turned towards the enemy fleet. He smiled to himself, it was working. The aliens didn’t realize what was coming.
Within two minutes, the Roosevelt passed through the alien fleet, bringing all of her guns to bear on the vessels on either side of her. She was crossing their T, pouring shot after shot into them.
“Chow, take the van and close up with TG Point Five.”
“Yes, Sir,” the Chow’s skipper said.
Returning to the Roosevelt’s gambit, he watched as the two alien ships shuddered under the constant impact of highspeed kinetic weapons. Nothing could survive that onslaught. And as if his thoughts were an order, both alien ships fell out of line, drifting, no longer maneuverable.
“Good job, Roosevelt,” he said.
“Thank you, Sir,” the captain replied, “With your permission, I will divert the Dauntless and Diligence to the ships forward of these two. No need to waste their chance.”
“Yes, of course,” Admiral McKenzie replied.
“Sir,” the Captain of the York started, pulling him back to reality. “I’ve lost my Higgs engines and will lose steerage in a minute. I’ve got to break off.”
Admiral McKenzie immediately shifted to a view from the Venturous behind the York. His insides tightened up. It appeared as if the old destroyer had lost half its aft end. Debris and smoke swirled around the vessel like a forgotten junkyard.
“Yes, of course,” Mac said. “Pine, stand by the York in case you have to take off the crew.”
“Aye, aye, Sir,” the young skipper of the Pine said.
As he watched, the old destroyer pulled out of line and the tender Pine moved in alongside, ready if needed. He glanced at the clock on the corner of his screen. Fourteen minutes. It had taken only fourteen minutes and he’d already lost one vessel.
Swallowing hard, he checked the damage reports from the fleet. Every ship had taken hits of one kind or another. Some worse than others. The Steadfast appeared to be in the worse shape after York. Barely holding it together, but still firing into its target.
“Sir,” Commander Evans said, interrupting his train of thought. “It looks like they’re breaking up. Scattering.” The tone of his voice held a touch of disbelief. A burst of adrenaline shot through Mac’s body. Had they done it? Had they stopped the Scraggs from reaching their jump point?
He watched as the enemy ships began to change course. Each taking off in a different direction. Each trying desperately to get away from the human ship pounding shots into them. Yes, this was the moment. The moment that he had been praying for.
“Take them,” he said to his fleet. “Stick to them. Don’t let them slip away. Hound them, pound them, and finish them,” he said through gritted teeth.
Chapter Fifteen
Sergeant Dex Carter peeked over the edge of the trench to study the Scraggs just as the distant sun kissed the top of the west ridge. Like his men, they were keeping their heads down. Stuffed in the fighting holes his men had dug.
On the far hill, the aliens continued to stare and wait. Thousands of them.
Why? he wondered for the hundredth time. Why hadn’t they attacked in force? He and his men would be dead by now if they had.
Turning, he slowly slid down the wall of the trench to contemplate once again everything that had happened and every possible way things played out in the future.
Shaking his head, he couldn’t see a way the Marines held them off. Not if they attacked in force. And with the loss of the shuttle and their command frequencies being jammed. There was no one to tell. And no one to know how much they needed help.
A quick flash at the sandbag wall caught his attention. Miss Miller, bent over at the waist, was running for the trench. What was she doing? Why couldn’t she stay back in relative safety where she belonged? He knew his heart would be a lot happier if she did.
But, not this woman. She was like an ancient war horse he had read about. Always eager to get in the middle of the action.
Jumping into the trench, she slid down the rear slope to come to rest directly across from him. Her quick smile letting him know that she thought she had it all under control.
“Ms. Miller,” he began.
“Alicia,” she replied.”
“Alicia,” he said with a sigh. “What could possibly be important enough to risk exposing yourself like that? This is not exactly the best place for you, you know.”
Her smile dropped into a slight pout. She reminded him of a little girl who had worked hard on a project only to be criticized. His stomach turned over with shame. He shouldn’t criticize her. She was doing so much to help them.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that I worry about you. You don’t have armor like us. If you get hit, it will be bad.”
She nodded slowly, accepting his apology. “I came to tell you that your injured men are doing better. All three will recover. Two of them want to return here. But I told them to wait until you sent for them. For some reason, they can’t communicate with you.”
His brow furrowed for a second. “The reflective properties of the sandbag wall. No light or electronic signals can get through them. Plus, I think your Rift walls are heavy with iron. They act like a Faraday cage.”
She nodded her understanding then moved to stand up and look over the lip of the trench.
He immediately reached over,
grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down next to him.
“They will pick you off in a heartbeat. Please keep your head down.”
She looked chagrined for a moment then settled down next to him, her back leaning against the trench wall just like him.
“When will they attack?” she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. But if you ever figure these guys out. Please fill me in.”
Smiling slightly, she stared off into nothing for a moment.
“What is so funny?” he asked her.
Shaking her head, she continued to smile. “I was just thinking. A few weeks ago, I was complaining about never having any adventures. About never doing anything important. I guess the old adage ‘Be careful what you wish for’ means something after all. I always thought it was the dumbest thing I ever heard. But today, maybe not so much.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
The two of them settled into a comfortable silence, both of them watching the shadows creep up the canyon walls and turn into dusk. A gray, colorless dusk that washed away the day.
“Are you married?” she asked suddenly, shocking him with the abruptness and personal nature of her questions.
His brow narrowed into a deep frown as he shook his head. “No,” he answered. Why was he having this conversation? Because you both may be dead within the next few hours, he thought to himself. If you’re going to die, best to spend it talking to a pretty girl about whatever she wants to talk about.
She nodded slowly. “I just wondered what it must be like for a wife, sitting home on some distant planet, not knowing what was happening to her husband. Knowing that he might be dead and she wouldn’t get the word for weeks.”
Dex shrugged his shoulders. “If too many of us die, and the aliens win, she might get the word when their starships start dropping Scragg warriors in the middle of her town.”
The girl next to him nodded slowly. “I know, it’s just the idea of sitting around and waiting. I don’t know if I could do that. Is that why you never married? You didn’t want someone sitting around worrying about you?”
He laughed and slowly shook his head. “Honestly, until recently, I didn’t see the compulsion to get married. I mean, the Corps was my life.”
Alicia nodded, “And with places like the Riverside, female companionship was never an issue.”
He chuckled, how right she was.
“What made you change your mind?” she continued. “You said, until recently?”
“I don’t know,” he said as he shifted to a more comfortable position. He’d been in this armor for a day and it was starting to chafe. “I guess I was beginning to see how it would be sort of nice, you know, sharing things with another person. Starting a family.”
She nodded, but kept quiet while his mind wandered.
“Once, on Valeria,” he said, “I was on leave, I took off on a long hike through the Atlas mountains. I was way back, as deep into them as you can get. I came around a bend and saw the most beautiful valley ever. It just took my breath away. I mean literally.”
“More beautiful than Drake’s Rift, ” she said with a teasing smile.
“This is pretty, but this valley up in the Atlas mountains was unbelievable. A solid blanket of wildflowers from end to end. Every color, every shape. Like someone had spilled a thousand paint buckets down the walls of the valley. You know?”
She nodded slowly.
“I saw it and knew it wouldn’t last, a frost would come, or a drought. The seasons would turn, and it would disappear forever. At that moment, I wished there was someone I could have shared it with. Someone that would have seen what I had seen.”
An awkward pause fell over the both of them as she turned to look him in the eye.
“I wish I could have seen it with you,” she said, her eyes sending a sharp message.
He sighed and looked away. “Maybe, if we get out of this, I could show it to you sometime.”
She smiled and nodded. “I’d like that,” she said as she turned to lean against the trench wall again. But this time, her shoulder rested next to his.
Yes, he’d like to show this woman his valley someday. Smiling to himself at the sweetness of the idea, he reached over and draped his arm around her shoulders. A bittersweet thought that would never happen, he realized. But there were worse ways to spend your time than dreaming about a happy future.
.o0o.
The changing of the watch woke him. Men scrambling to relieve each other, taking up positions or slipping off to grab a few hours of sleep.
He shifted and felt the comfortable weight of Alicia resting against him, her head nestled in the crook of his shoulder. Shifting slightly, he tried to free his arm, he needed to be up and checking things. Not sitting around with a beautiful woman in his arms.
“I’m awake,” she said as she slowly pulled away from him. Glancing up, her eyes caught his and a pretty shade of pink flashed through her cheeks. Even in the moonlight, he could see that she was embarrassed for some reason.
Reaching over he took her hand, “Stay here, I’ll be right back. Then, you’ve got to get back to your people. But don’t leave until I’ve returned, okay?” She nodded. Making his insides relax just enough for him to leave her.
Sighing, he left her to check on his men. Bent over to keep his head below the edge of the trench, he weaved back and forth between the Marines lying at the bottom of the trench, stepping over long legs and around snoring guys to slowly make his way to the far end. Giving those that were awake a quick smile and a soft slap on the back.
They looked back at him with full confidence. He would keep them alive, their eyes seemed to say.
Each time he saw such a look, his stomach would clench up into a tight ball as he fought to hide the fear inside of him. If they saw the truth, they would never be able to fight like he needed them to.
By the time he got back to Alicia he’d come up with a plan to get her back.
“I’ll follow you,” he said. “Keep close, my armor should get us through. Keep your arms tight to your side, and run like the wind.”
She frowned at him, “I made it here.”
“You were lucky. Now hurry up. It will be daylight soon. No reason to make it easier for them.”
She looked at him strangely for a second. He knew he was sounding like a jerk, but he needed to get her out of there so he could concentrate on the things he needed to do.
Sighing heavily, she pushed up off the ground and got ready to run up the slope. He could tell that she was nervous, but there was something about the set of her chin and the determined look in her eye that made him proud of her. She was a Valerian lioness, he realized. Pure courage and all tough.
“You ready?” she said, looking over her shoulder at him. Giving him a quick smile and a challenging stare.
He nodded, and she was off. Up the slope and running for the wall. He followed, only inches from her back, spreading himself out, trying to make himself as big as possible to cover her.
Immediately, the darkness was pierced by bright blue lasers seeking a victim. If one caught her it’d burn through her like a hot knife through butter. Holding his breath, he shifted to keep her in front of him. A laser caught him at the waist joint, his suit beeped at him, telling him something he could already feel. The burning felt like a red-hot poker in his back. Shifting a little, he threw the Scraggs aim off enough to move the laser impact up to his armored back. Just enough to render it ineffective.
And they were there. Around the edge of the wall and behind its protection. Alicia slid to a halt, dropping to a knee as she sucked in large chunks of air.
“Are you okay?” she asked with obvious concern.
“I’m fine,” he said as he knelt down next to her. Being careful to not wince in front of her.
“Then why do you smell like a seared steak?” she asked, her eyes studying him intently.
He laughed. “I’m fine, I promise.”
Her frown let him know she didn’t believe him. She was pretty when she frowned like that, he realized. But then she was pretty all the time.
Giving her a quick smile he said, “tell my men to man the wall, I don’t need them in the trench.” She stared back at him and nodded. He gave her a quick smile and turned to get back to his men before he made a fool of himself.
“Stop,” she said, as she reached out and held his shoulder. Turning back to her he cocked an eyebrow, trying to figure out what she wanted.
She held his gaze for a long second then leaned forward and kissed him. Surprising him to his very core. A quick kiss, but not too quick. He had not expected that. Not in a million years. And just as fast as it started, it was over as she drew away, looking at him from beneath her brow as if unsure how he would react.
“Just in case,” she said with that little girl pout.
He smiled at her and took her hand. “I’m going to show you that valley. I promise.”
She smiled back at him, a tear threatening to fall from the corner of her eye. Biting her lip, she nodded and turned to go back to her people.
Dex watched her go, the curve of her hip and the lingering scent of jasmine pulling at him. Damn it, he thought. Why now? Why here? Why couldn’t he have met her somewhere else at some other time? This was a woman to face the galaxy with. A partner that a man could be proud of and rely upon.
Shaking his head to try and clear the thoughts dancing through his brain, he quickly examined the sandbag walls. His men had done a good job. Two bags thick. The first wall was five feet high. Perfect for shooting over the top of. The bags were set to fully reflective. If a laser broke through the outer layer. It’d just turn the sand to glass and increase the reflectiveness.
He smiled to himself. They might just hold up. The Scraggs hadn’t shown any use of explosives. These just might be enough. Turning, he inspected the openings of the first wall. One on each side, just wide enough for a man to squeeze in between the wall and the Rift stone cliff. The opening for the second wall was located in the center of the wall. This wall was seven feet tall with a bench to stand on. More than enough height to shoot over the top of the men in front of them.