Above them, the Host plane flew overhead and started to bank back around for another attack. Senaya sprinted for the transparent tube to the left of the cruiser’s landing pad. It had been abandoned and not fully docked, allowing for their entry.
Kai slowed to help Marella as she struggled with her newly patched stomach. “Come on, keep going,” he said, urging her on as the Host ship finished its banking maneuver and headed right toward them.
Bandar opened fire and yelled for them to get to the tunnel for cover.
They wasted no time and managed to get inside before the Host ship flew overhead, twin lines of cannon fire cutting ditches across the landing pad. Bandar remained out there, crouched between the lines, smoke all around him.
He spun round and fired his rifle until he had no rounds left. One of the Host's engines flamed, and black smoke poured out. Yet it quickly corrected for the loss and started its banking maneuver once more.
“Bandar,” Kai yelled once they were safely inside, “get over here.”
The older man looked at Kai, then back to the plane. “Keep Maio safe and find the Blackstar,” he shouted back and sprinted to the gyrocraft.
“Don’t be stupid. That thing doesn’t even have any weapons.”
Bandar wasn’t listening. He jumped into the pilot seat and rose into the air as the Host ship completed its return circuit.
Kai’s stomach tightened as he realized what the old fool was going to do. He opened a channel to Bandar, using their near-field comm system. “You don’t have to do this. We need you down here with us.”
“Maio’s too important,” Bandar replied amid the roaring of wind and rotors through the broken window. “I’ll create a diversion. Get on the Jettech cruiser and make the subspace jump before the Host sends reinforcements. Maio knows where to start the search; you just need to get it out of her.”
“But… what about—”
“Been good knowing you, kid. Stay sharp; the Coalition needs you.”
With that, the comm channel cut out and Bandar navigated the gyrocraft into the Host ship’s current vector.
Chapter 17
Kai led Senaya and Maio across the strip to the Jettech cruiser. They clambered up the steel steps to the airlock and waited as Senaya pulled a hacking device from one of her many pockets to break the security and gain access to the ship’s AI.
“It’s going to take about a minute,” Senaya said. “Encryption is pretty standard; there’s just a lot of it.”
“Don’t rush,” Kai said. “Just focus on getting it done right.”
It was easy for him to say; he wasn’t the one creating this opportunity for them.
Less than a hundred meters above them, Bandar was weaving the gyrocraft in wide sweeping motions, avoiding most of the Host plane’s belching cannon fire.
One of the rounds struck the top of the cruiser but thankfully sparked harmlessly off the armored chromed shell.
“Oh crap, he’s actually going to do it,” Kai said.
Maio put her arm around his shoulder and squeezed as they watched Bandar and the Host plane get inevitably closer.
Kai turned away and looked into Marella’s eyes. She was focused on the sky.
A second later a small explosion reverberated around the port.
Marella closed her eyes and her body tensed. She hugged Kai and said in his ear, “He… did it.”
Debris crashed to the ground, and the air got thick with smoke. Senaya's filters detected the change and altered its filtration system, cutting out the worst of it, but Kai could taste it in the back of his throat.
A hush descended. Senaya looked up at him, shock written on her delicate features.
Perhaps like him, she thought Bandar would do something clever and survive to fight another day. The wreckage behind them told them otherwise.
Kai felt the same flood of emotion as he did with Tallis. That seemed so long ago now. An entirely different era, a different life. He’d only known Bandar for a handful of days and, despite not particularly liking the guy in that time, had come to respect him so that this loss now cut more keenly than he would have imagined.
He squirmed out of Marella’s embrace and slammed the butt of his rifle against the shell of the cruiser once, twice, a dozen times. As many times as it would take for him to release the rage that bubbled up inside him.
A hand gently gripped his wrist—Senaya’s.
“We’ve got access,” she said calmly. “Let’s do what Bandar told us to do. We can’t waste the opportunity that he created for us.”
Sweat dripped from Kai's face, and his hands trembled. He lowered the rifle and focused on Senaya. She was right, of course.
“This whole situation is getting more and more messed up. I was getting closer to my father. Bandar, he…” Kai dropped his head, ashamed of his own selfishness of losing a clue to his father. Bandar was more than that; he had saved their asses a number of times, and despite his reputation, Kai ultimately knew there was some good in him.
Marella stood behind Senaya and said, “It’s war, Kai… but we can play a role. If we leave now, I’ll tell you what you want to know about your father and the Blackstar.”
“Bandar said you knew where to start the search.”
“Yes, I know how to get to the last place anyone saw him. Let’s just get out of here while we can. I’ll explain more once we’re safe.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone sooner?”
She stared into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity. “Because up until a few days ago, I didn’t even know I was Marella Maio. I’ll explain more later.”
In the distance, beyond the rising smoke, two dark shapes appeared.
The Host had sent reinforcements.
“Let’s do this, then,” Kai said.
Senaya slapped him on the arm and gave him a determined smile. She led them through the airlock and into the cruiser.
Kai’s head was spinning. His pulse sounded loud in his ears, but he composed himself, focusing on the luxury interior of the Jettech ship.
He and Marella quickly followed Senaya through the plush cream-walled corridor until they came to a carpeted cockpit with two-seventy-degree surround holoscreens and heavily cushioned seats. The place was more like a spa than a ship.
“Control,” Senaya said as she gestured commands on the holodesk at the front of the oval-shaped cockpit. She sat in the chair and leaned forward, manipulating the ship’s controls.
“Identify,” the AI said.
“Code three-eight-bee-seven-hash-nine, override." Her words translated through her hacking device, providing the necessary workaround of the system's defenses.
The screens switched on, and Kai saw the Host ships approaching from southwest of their position. They were just half a minute away from striking distance.
“Senaya, we need to get out of here, right now,” he said.
“I’m working on it.”
Marella collapsed into one of the chairs, her face glossy with sweat, the stress and effort of an escape post-surgery clearly affecting her. Hell, Kai felt like crap, and he hadn't had a backstreet surgeon open him up.
“Kai, take the pilot’s seat. I’ll need you to engage the jump drive,” Senaya said. “The Host ships are trying to block us. Their tech is more sophisticated than I would have thought.”
“They’re going to stop us?”
“Not if I can help it. I’ll have to overclock the ship’s processors to run my defense software, though. Means more power diverted from shield and weapons systems.”
“Do it.”
Marella strapped herself into what would have been designated as the second in command’s chair. “We need to travel to Oberus,” she said. “That’s the last place I saw your father.”
Kai had a thousand questions, but with time running out, that was not a luxury he could afford. It was a complete gamble; he didn't know this woman any more than the brief he had read. For all he knew, she could be sending them right into the hear
t of Host-controlled territory. But if he didn't act, they'd be destroyed right here, and Bandar's sacrifice would be worth nothing.
“Fine, let’s do it. Give me the coordinates,” he said.
“Subspace drives ready to use in ten seconds," Senaya said. "After that, who knows? The Host has some serious hackers on the line."
Marella narrated the string of numbers to Oberus’s location as Kai acquainted himself with the ship’s OS. It wasn’t too different from what he was used to. Jettech systems were ubiquitous across Coalition spacecraft. This one was just more fully featured than the operating systems he’d previously used. He navigated through the subsystems, gesturing across the holographic cube spinning on its pedestal in front of his seat.
The Host ships were imminent any second now.
He activated the jump drive initiation while he still could.
“Subspace engines online,” the AI said. “Preparing for standing jump. All occupants to remain seated until otherwise noted.” It then counted down from five.
“Strap in,” Kai said as he closed the clasps around his body.
The ship shook violently as the engines roared to life, manipulating and colliding particles, building the energy required. Kai had never made a subspace jump from a standing position within an atmosphere before. He’d heard bad things about the process, but this cruiser was equipped for such a maneuver. At least, he hoped it had decent dampening protocols installed.
“Subspace pre-routine complete,” the AI said. “Jump imminent.”
A red triangle surrounding the two Host ships flashed. Half a dozen rockets blasted from beneath their wings, smoke trails pluming in the sky as they sought their target.
Senaya removed her hacking device and swiped a three-finger gesture across her control panel. She looked over her shoulder to Kai and started to say something. Her lips were moving, but there was no sound. Just a whistling noise.
The ship seemed to elongate in the silence.
A force pushed against Kai’s chest so hard he thought his breastbone would give against the compression. He squeezed his eyes shut and curled his fingers around the armrests. Then everything went black as the whistling noise grew louder and so shrill Kai thought his head would explode with the pressure.
And then, as soon as it had come, it dissipated.
He lurched forward, coughing and spluttering.
Marella and Senaya were both slumped forward in their seats, the straps holding them up. They were both still, and he couldn't tell if they were unconscious or dead.
Blood dripped from his nostrils.
He wiped it away with the back of his hand and looked up at the screens. The dizzying black and silver swirl of subspace told him that they had succeeded in their escape.
But at what cost?
Was Bandar’s life worth it?
Chapter 18
Brenna sat up on her cot. She sensed a day had probably passed since her last encounter with Sule. They’d given her a tray of food and a flask of water since then. The ship’s engine drone had changed subtly, indicating a course correction.
The cell was still in darkness. She had come to miss Lutes's company—or any company at all. She had spent the last few hours thinking of Kai, wondering how he was getting on and whether he had found either the Blackstar or his father yet.
She wondered about Lopek. Although Kendal’s appearance to her earlier was a hologram, his words still reverberated around her mind.
Was Lopek a traitor? Had he helped the shrain infiltrate the Coalition worlds?
There was nothing to suggest any of this was true. And it was a classic doubt-inducement technique, but still… false or not, that was the cruel thing about the method: once the suggestion was made, the human subconscious worked on it as though it were a problem, making it real, solid.
Intellectually, she knew it to be unlikely. But the doubt was there now.
“Bastards,” she spat into the darkness.
She sat back down and focused on better times. A time before she cared whether Kai was her real son or not. Back then, it didn’t matter. He was the center of their family, the glue that kept them all together.
That he wasn’t her biological son mattered little. If anything, because of that she loved him even more. He was more special than he could ever imagine…
Her thoughts were cut short. The door to her cell opened. Light flooded in and a shrain she hadn’t seen before stood in the doorway, its male form silhouetted. He held out a tray.
Before even Brenna knew what she was doing, she sprang forward, smashing the tray up and into the shrain’s face.
It stumbled back, arms flailing.
Brenna grabbed the loose tray and smashed its edge against the shrain’s nose once, twice, three times until blood covered its face.
It growled and wiped the blood from its eyes before trying to claw at Brenna.
Her body and mind had slipped fully into a frenzied kill mode as she let out all her pent-up rage, slapping aside its groping hands. She kicked viciously at the creature’s knees until she heard a crack.
The shrain screamed and collapsed to the floor.
Brenna kicked it hard in the face with her shin, breaking its jaw and forcing it onto its back. She yelled with fury and continued to stomp on its face, the bones breaking beneath her attack until it moved no more.
Blood covered her foot, the walls, the floor, and the still remains of the shrain.
Her lungs burned with the exertion. Her heart thudded hard against her chest, and her mind began to refocus. The shrain had a security pass attached to a clip on its pocket, which she grabbed along with its communications badge attached to the lapel of its blood-soaked jacket.
She thought of the engineer she had seen on her way back to her cell and headed off down the corridor, following the route she’d memorized.
A moment later she found the door and used the security pass to gain entry.
The narrow passageway was much darker than the main corridor. Pipes and conduits ran overhead. Steam and the scent of grease wafted out on warm air from somewhere deeper in the ship. This was clearly a maintenance access.
She stepped forward slowly, heading further into the ship’s innards.
Tracing the wiring and conduits, she came to a hub attached to the wall.
Inside was a crystal network—the ship’s comms unit.
Using all her experience, she reprogrammed the signal of the badge she had taken from the shrain and hijacked the ship’s transmitters to contact Lopek’s off-grid, secure emergency channel, transferring her unique ID code that would encrypt the two-way communication.
Amid the subspace interference, a crackling voice came from the badge: Lopek.
“Where are you, Agent?” he barked. “We’ve been trying to contact you for—”
“I don’t have much time,” she said. “I’m transferring a trace. I’m on a shrain ship. I was hijacked en route. You need to send someone for me.”
“Signal received,” he said before going quiet for a moment. She guessed he was checking the coordinates and direction of subspace travel.
“Agent, we’ve got a lock. We’re sending help, but it’ll take about fifteen hours to get to you. Will you make it until then?”
“Yes,” she said, not entirely sure that would be the case, but there was little else she could do right now. Even if she could get to her ship, she wouldn’t be able to just fly directly into a subspace route; she’d be crushed immediately by the sudden change in gravitational forces.
“Listen, things have escalated considerably,” Lopek said.
Brenna turned the volume down on the badge and brought it up to her ear while she squeezed herself into a dark nook between the pipework. She was out of sight as long as no one specifically looked behind that particular section of wall.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“We have a dozen battlefronts active on the edge of the quadrant. We’re now officially at war. Resources are being
diverted as I speak, and we’re on our way to a Host strategic center on one of our planets. The bastards have been transmitting from there for over a year right under our noses.”
“No doubt with the support of the shrain. Who knows how many of them there are and how many of the Coalition planets they’ve spread to.”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Lopek said. Brenna took confidence from his firm statement. Listening to him speak diminished any doubt she had that he was helping the Host and the shrain. Lopek was no traitor.
“Have you heard from Kai?” she asked.
“We received a report a few hours ago. He’s got Maio and is heading to an undisclosed planet he says Maio and Kendal visited. It’s there he believes he’ll find out what happened to Kendal. I have to admit, I doubted he’d be able to do this.”
“My boy is more capable than anyone would believe.”
“It’s looking that way. Let’s just hope he finds the Blackstar soon. This war is going to test us to the limit.”
Footsteps echoed down the passageway.
“I’ve got to go. Someone’s coming.”
“Stay safe and don’t do anything stupid. We’re coming for you.”
“Be quick about it.”
“We’re coming as fast as we can. In the meantime, transmit anything you know about the ship. Send us details of the hijacking, anything that will be useful. Good luck, Agent.”
With that, the comm line went silent. Brenna placed the comm badge in her pocket and eased herself further into the tight space, contorting her body over and under pipes until she was so deep into the ship's arteries that she could no longer see the light from the passage.
Her body shook as she lay on the floor beneath a one-meter-wide pipe. The aftereffects of her brutal attack and relief of contacting Lopek had taken it out of her. Her training kept her mind focused, but her body protested.
She needed to rest out of subspace, but for now, she'd have to just focus and wait. All hell would break loose when the Coalition intercepted the shrain ship. She would have to be ready to fight.
Blackstar Command 1: Prominence Page 14