by Cheree Alsop
Silence filled the bridge.
Devren set a hand on his captain chair. “Then it’s decided. We’ll leave Sveth’s team at Maffei Two, then pick up the Omne Occasus at the Atlas and head to Titus. Along the way, we’ll hide the Kratos and disguise the Gull. It might not be the safest ship to land on Titus, but with the warrant out, it’ll be harder to recognize us.”
“Incoming,” Hyrin announced. “It’s from the Aphrodite.”
Devren snorted. “Leave it to Sveth to name his Copper Crow Aphrodite. He always had an unhealthy attachment to his machines. Put it on the screen.”
Sveth’s face appeared on the main monitor.
“We’re ready to follow you, Captain Metis.”
Devren rolled his eyes. “That was my dad, Sveth.”
His red eyebrows rose. “So what does your crew call you?”
“Ornery,” O’Tule answered.
“Crabby,” Shathryn echoed.
“A hopeless romantic with a keen attention to his duties,” Officer Straham said.
Everyone looked at him.
“What?” Straham asked. He rubbed a hand across his short gray hair. “It’s true.”
Devren shook his head and turned back to the screen. “They call me Captain Devren. It works.”
“Alright, Cap Dev,” Sveth replied with a salute. “Ready when you are.”
“We’re going to take it fast,” Devren said. “Stay on my six and radio if you see any Scavs.”
“Will do, Cap. Over and out.”
Devren looked at O’Tule. “Ornery?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I couldn’t think of anything else.”
Devren sat in the captain’s seat. “Hyrin, take us out.”
Liora followed their route on the star chart above Hyrin’s station. They reached a transporter and Devren contacted Sveth.
“We’ll go through first. As soon as it’s charged, take it through. We’ll be ready.”
“Sounds good,” Sveth answered. “Just be warned. The Scavs have a tendency to hang out on the flip side.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Devren replied. When the screen went dark, he rose from his seat. “Officer Shathryn, arm the cannons. Officer O’Tule, send full power to the shields.” He glanced behind him. “Officer Duncan, notify the crew of the jump. Put them on full alert in case we’re ambushed.”
Officer Duncan’s calm voice echoed the captain’s words over the intercom.
Devren nodded at Hyrin. “Prepare to jump.”
Hyrin maneuvered the arm of the Kratos to the link on the transporter. The toggle came out, locking them into place. O’Tule pressed a button and red lights flashed throughout the bridge. A low warning tone sounded.
“Weapons are ready,” Shathryn announced.
“Shields are at full power,” O’Tule seconded.
“Captain?”
Devren nodded at Hyrin. “Let’s jump.”
Liora gritted her teeth against the chilling, pulling sensation, then they were across.
“Mercenaries,” Shathryn called out. “I count five ships.”
“They’re firing on us,” O’Tule announced.
“Return fire,” Devren replied. “We need to protect the transporter so the Aphrodite can make it over.”
“The solar sails are out,” Hyrin said.
“Let me know as soon as it jumps back,” Devren told him. “We need to be ready to defend Sveth’s ship.”
“Brace for impact,” Shathryn announced.
The ship rocked as two missiles struck the starboard side.
“Answer in kind,” Devren ordered. “Officer O’Tule, damage report.”
“Shields are holding,” O’Tule replied. “We’re at ninety-five percent.”
“Uh, Captain,” Shathryn said, her voice hesitant. “A Falcon just appeared from behind them. Its signature says the SS Artemis.”
“A Coalition ship?” Devren replied. “They must have come searching for the others when they didn’t return. Things are about to get heated. Any way we can get word to the Aphrodite?”
“We won’t have contact with them until they cross over,” Hyrin reported.
“The Artemis is opening fire,” Shathryn said.
“The Mississippi transporter jumped,” Hyrin called.
“Concentrate all firepower on the Artemis. If the mercs try to sneak around the sides, answer with the cannons.” Devren studied the monitor as missiles streaked toward the Iron Falcon. “They’re bringing out snipers. The bullets are small enough to get through the shields. I need someone to handle them before they damage the ship.”
Officer Straham rose. “I’m on it.”
“Me, too,” Liora echoed.
At Devren’s surprised look, she said, “I’m not doing anything here. Let me give it a shot.”
“Literally,” Straham said. “I could use a second gunman.”
Devren nodded. “Be careful. Stay behind the ship.”
“Will do,” Straham answered.
Liora jogged beside him to the loading deck. She followed wordlessly into the cargo bay and stepped into one of the hanging atmosphere suits.
“You know what you’re in for, right?” Straham asked.
“I know if we don’t find a way to stop the Artemis before the Aphrodite gets here, Verdan’s lost more than just another cargo transfer,” Liora replied.
Straham nodded. “Right. Let’s shoot some snipers.” He attached the helmet to his atmosphere suit.
Liora zipped up the front of the body-hugging, stretchy cloth. It fit over her Ventican uniform without hampering her movements. She pulled on the helmet and took a breath behind the close-fitting shield. While the sound of her breathing was loud, she could see clearly to fasten the sheath of her knife over the leg of her suit.
“Ready?” Straham asked.
She looked up to find him holding out a gun almost as long as she was tall.
“It’s an energy pulse sniper rifle. Just look down the sights and pull the trigger,” the older officer directed as he led the way to the cargo bay door.
“I can handle that,” Liora assured him. She slung the rifle on her back like he had and fought down a rush of nerves at the unfamiliar weight.
“One last thing,” Straham said. He picked up a cable with a clip on either end. He attached one end to a loop near the waist of his atmosphere suit and did the same to hers. “Just in case.”
He pushed the button and a door slid up to reveal the small pressurization chamber. They stepped inside and the door slid shut behind them. Straham put a hand to the second panel. A warning beep sounded and numbers flashed on the screen. Liora followed Straham’s example and grabbed the bars along each side as the room depressurized and gravity disappeared. The door between them and the vast reaches of space opened.
“Here we go,” Straham said over his headset.
“Be careful,” Devren told them. “They’re sending out Grebes.”
“What are those?” Liora asked.
“Small trajectory guidance crafts,” Straham replied. “The snipers can use them to get closer to the Kratos.”
“Handy,” Liora acknowledge. “Do we have any of those?”
Straham glanced at her through his shield. “Nope, but I’ll have Lieutenant Argyle add it to the shopping list if we ever get back in favor with the Coalition.”
“I’ll let him know,” Devren answered with a hint of wryness in his voice.
“Thanks, Captain,” Straham replied. “It’s about time we upgraded our equipment.”
Chapter 12
Straham edged out of the starship. Liora followed close behind. The older officer kept one hand on the ship, using the rungs and handholds placed along the Kratos’ hull for just that purpose.
“Straham, Day, the snipers are firing at the secondary fuel storage,” Officer O’Tule called over their headsets. “Shathryn can’t get a bead on them. You’re going to have to take them out.”
“Will do,” Straham replied. He glanced at
Liora. “We’re going to have to pick things up a bit.”
He grabbed one of the rungs with both hands and rocketed himself upward along the side of the ship. Liora followed, her heartbeat pounding in her ears and the tether between them the only reassurance that if she missed the final handhold, she wouldn’t go shooting off into the black expanse of space above them.
Straham latched onto the top rung and waited to be sure that Liora had done the same before he removed his gun. Liora followed suit. She rested the gun along the edge of the ship and looked down the sights.
It wasn’t hard to follow the small bursts of light from the snipers’ rifles to the men and women who fired at the Kratos. Nearly a dozen of them dotted the sides of the Artemis, while several more were occupied with holding onto the Grebes. The Grebes turned out to be small, domed thrusters barely large enough protect those who angled them toward the Kratos. As much as Liora wanted to pick them off before they drew nearer, the main threat to the Kratos were the snipers who peaked out just long enough to shoot at the fuel storage before ducking back behind the Iron Falcon’s protective sides.
“One at a time,” Straham said quietly. He drew in a breath, let it out slowly, then squeezed the trigger at the end of his exhale.
They didn’t hear the impact or the pained yell of his target, but Liora saw the sniper’s gun spin through the airless void on a trajectory toward darkness. She put her eye to the sights and followed a pulse of light to a gun on the lit hull. The sniper poked out just long enough to aim again. Liora let out her breath and squeezed the trigger. The sniper’s head jerked back and he slid out of sight.
“Nice,” Straham said. Satisfied that his ward wasn’t about to get them both killed, he took careful aim again.
Liora followed. She picked off two more in quick succession.
“They’re falling like flies,” Shathryn announced.
An explosion shook the side of the Kratos.
“What’s going on?” Straham called.
O’Tule sounded frazzled when she answered, “Their missiles are getting past our defenses. They’re firing faster than we can shoot them down.”
“Double the response,” Devren ordered. “Send out pulse bombs to draw the missiles away from the ships.
“The wall of the secondary fuel storage has been compromised,” Lieutenant Argyle announced. “We can’t take many more hits.”
“Sveth’s ship is here,” Hyrin told them. “They’re under heavy fire from the mercs.”
Liora peered over the side of the Kratos long enough to see four of the smaller ships advancing on the Aphrodite.
“What’s the best case scenario?” she asked Straham.
“Best case is we get someone aboard the Artemis, use the transportation chamber to send over a bomb, blow it up, then we can concentrate the firepower from both ships on the mercs,” Straham answered.
“That’s a suicide mission,” Devren replied, his voice tight. “I forbid it.”
Liora shot one of the snipers who drew close. He grabbed his knee, letting go of the Grebe.
“We have our chance,” she said.
“No,” Devren told her. “Stay put. Our firepower combined with the Aphrodite can take care of it.”
“They’re shooting my ship full of holes!” Liora heard Sveth’s voice say. He must have been shouting loud over the ship’s intercom for her to hear it on the headset. “My beautiful ship is being torn to pieces!”
“Concentrate your fire on the mercs. We’re targeting the Iron Falcon,” Devren told him.
“They’re loaded for ursilis,” Sveth replied. “And five against two isn’t exactly winning odds. I say let Liora and Straham go.”
A blast of missiles sped toward both ships. Return fire from the Kratos and Aphrodite shot down several. One slammed into the Kratos and two hit the other ship. Liora and Straham held tight against the answering jolt.
Liora steadied her sniper rifle and shot another Coalition sniper.
“Best case scenario, we survive this somehow and limp to the closest Gaulded,” Shathryn said. “But we aren’t going to be welcome there for repairs, and if another Coalition ship comes onto us, we’re doomed. We need to survive this intact if we’re going to get the Omne Occasus to Titus.”
As if in answer, two more missiles cleared the Kratos defense system and impacted the hull.
“Shields are down to thirty percent,” O’Tule announced.
“We’ve got ten,” Sveth answered.
“One merc ship down,” Shathryn called with a note of triumph. “Those platinum hungry sellouts deserve to sleep in the depths of space. It serves them right for picking up our warrant hoping for an easy payout.”
“Brace for impact,” O’Tule called.
The ship shook again.
“Twenty-five percent,” she said. “Captain, we aren’t going to hold together much longer.”
Straham and Liora picked off the last two snipers along the Coalition starship’s hull. Liora turned her attention to the two hiding behind their Grebes near the starboard side. She took a shot, but it glanced off the protective dome of the little craft. The sniper took aim at the fuel storage again. Liora glanced around quickly. Her gaze rested on the Grebe from the first sniper she had shot. With no one to steer it, the vessel drifted close to the Kratos hull.
“I have an idea,” Liora told Straham. She motioned toward the Grebe.
“I’m not sure it’s a good one,” he answered.
Aware of the tether between them and the safety it provided, Liora knew she needed him on board before she acted.
“One of us flies the Grebe, the other acts as a pendulum. If the one who pilots can arc the other behind the snipers, we’ll have a shot.”
Officer Straham hesitated, but a glance back at the snipers showed that they had no other option unless they wanted to sit back and watch their ship be picked to pieces.
“I’ll fly,” he said.
Relieved that she wouldn’t have to figure out how to steer the Grebe in such a short amount of time, Liora climbed hand over hand down the ship behind Straham. Another explosion nearly threw them from the side, but they reached the end of the Kratos without incident.
“What are you guys doing?” Hyrin asked.
Liora looked down and found that she was standing on the outside of one of the bridge’s wide windows. The crew stared up at them from the inside.
“We’re improvising so we can save your butts,” Straham replied.
“Be careful,” Devren said, his gaze worried.
The bridge and crew looked shaken by the impacts. Liora knew exactly how they felt.
The Grebe floated a ways beyond the ship.
“Hold onto something. I’m going to jump for it,” Straham directed. He jumped without giving her time to respond.
Liora fumbled for a grip. Her hand slid into a groove between two of the windows. She grabbed the cord with her free hand to ensure that it didn’t somehow become unattached from her atmosphere suit. Her worst fear would be for Straham to miss his mark and for her to watch him drift toward the unfathomable darkness of space without a way to bring him back.
Straham’s aim was true. He grabbed onto the Grebe and jerked to a stop. The jolt nearly tore Liora’s grip from the window. She held on and glanced down to see the entire crew watching them with open mouths.
“Now what?” O’Tule asked from inside.
“Now for the fun part,” Liora replied.
Another volley of missiles sped toward them. The Kratos sent out defensive fire. Liora crouched at the same time that Straham got the Grebe straightened out. He gunned the engine. Liora launched herself into space.
The flash of explosions littered the space around the ships as Liora flew forward. She held onto the tether as though it was a lifeline. It felt like an eternity passed with her soaring toward the stars. For a moment, she feared the tether had slipped at Straham’s end and she was the one plummeting through space; then the tether tightened and she vaulte
d around the Grebe toward the other side of the ship.
The snipers came into view. Liora took careful aim, squeezed the trigger once, aimed again and fired. Both snipers jerked back from their Grebes. The first floated lifelessly backwards while the second held his stomach and tried to reach the Grebe again, but it and his gun were too far away.
“The secondary fuel storage is safe,” Liora reported.
Cheers replied from the Kratos.
“Now for the Artemis.”
“Officer Straham, your course of action is denied,” Devren replied. “Return to the Kratos.”
Officer Straham pulled on the tether to slow Liora’s pivot. She reached the Grebe.
“What’s the plan?” she asked.
“Our shields are down,” Sveth called. “We’re sitting tarlons.”
Straham glanced over his shoulder at the Coalition’s Iron Falcon. “Captain Devren, the plan will work. We have a Grebe. If you can cover us so the Artemis doesn’t notice our approach, we can get aboard and radio back. We’ll be able to bring it down from the inside.”
“We can circle around the starship,” Hyrin replied. “If Shathryn lays down a line of fire along the starboard side, Straham and Liora could take the port side and enter through the cargo hold. With some luck, the troop might miss the Grebe entirely. What do you think, Captain?”
“Do it,” Sveth called over the main intercom.
“It’s the best plan we’ve got,” Devren gave in. “But I’m adding that if you can’t get into the Artemis without being seen, you fall back immediately and we pick you up.”
“Will do,” Straham agreed.
“Liora?”
Liora fought back a smile at Devren’s questioning tone. “It’s not like I take a lot of risks,” she said.
“Seriously?” Devren replied. “Liora, if you don’t give me your word….”
Straham nudged her.
“You’ve got my word. We’ll be careful,” she said.
“Fine. Hold onto the door latch on our starboard side. When we swing around, it’ll put you under the wing portside,” Devren instructed.
“And we’ll trail along,” Sveth said from the Aphrodite. “We’ll provide cover fire and it’ll get us away from these mercs before they tear us apart. Whatever happens, you two need to hurry.”