by J. J. Green
Jas unclipped her helmet and slowly removed it. Two good pilots dead. Now she knew why the soldiers had been disappointed and angry to find only defense units aboard the transport.
The bangs and bumps the transport received had been the fighter ships pushing it the remainder of the distance to the ship. Such a maneuver would have taken great skill. Jas’ heart froze at the thought that one of the pilots might have been Carl. The enemy must have spotted what was happening and attacked the vulnerable fighters.
“LK29, are you in contact with the Infineon’s computer?”
“Yes, Corporal Harrington.”
“Can you read its data banks? Like, can you find out the names of the pilots on board?”
“I do not have the necessary permissions.”
“Okay. Can you tell me where I can find Commander Torben?”
***
Jas had told the units to wait in the equipment room as she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with them. She followed Pint-Size’s directions through the ship’s corridors, heading toward the bridge. The ship was as utilitarian as the transport had been. The metal floor was worn and scuffed with the passage of thousands of booted feet. No signs explained what was down the corridors or behind each door, possibly as a defense against boarders. Jas imagined that the soldiers had to memorize the layout of the ship.
The whine of air filters and the scent of burnt plastic and chemicals told her the ship’s force field hadn’t been an adequate defense against all the fire targeted at it. A repair bot almost hit her as it flew past on its way to fix something, and at one point she must have been near the ship’s hull, for the metal on one side of the corridor was discolored and warped. At the sound of running feet from up ahead, she moved over to allow the approaching soldiers to pass. In another second the group appeared. They were nearly past her when she heard a snippet of dialogue about the fighter ships still in action.
“Hey,” exclaimed Jas. “Hey, are you pilots?”
One of the group turned her head. “Yeah. What’s it to you?”
“Is there a pilot called Lingiari aboard this ship?”
“No. Leastways, I never heard of him,” called the woman, then the group was gone.
Jas finally found the bridge. After the guards had let her enter, she was a little relieved to see that Commander Torben was a Cruthian, like Flahive had been.
Everyone on the bridge was focused on a hologram that hung in midair in the center. Jas noticed the dark-haired officer who had entered the transport was there. He and the other officers sat at controls around the constantly moving image, which displayed four suns and many dots in a range of colors. This was the area where the Unity and Shadow ships had met head on. One color—red—predominated, and Jas guessed that it signified the enemy ships. The other colors had to be Unity ships of various classes or those belonging to the galactic alliance.
Some of the dots were pulsing and moving slowly, others were still and steady. The red dots of many Shadow ships were motionless. If Jas was reading the hologram correctly, it looked like the Shadow forces had nearly been defeated.
Torben lifted an upper limb to Jas as she approached the commander, its disc-like appendage held flat. Jas paused and awaited the commander’s attention.
“Enemy ship on the move in sector six,” said an officer, lifting her eyes from her interface to the hologram.
Jas saw it: a pulsing red light was moving slowly in the direction of the nearest sun, as if intending to slip behind the star for protection. Though the ship was crawling, it must have been traveling incredibly fast.
“That’s ours,” said Torben. “After it before it jumps. Prepare all pulses.”
The bridge of the Infineon shifted beneath Jas’ feet as the artificial gravity took a moment to compensate for the sudden movement of the ship. Jas gazed at the hologram. She’d never seen a space battle before. The blinking green light that crawled toward the Shadow ship had to represent the Infineon.
“Pulse distance in forty-three seconds,” said another officer.
“If it doesn’t jump before we get there,” muttered someone else.
“Quiet on the bridge,” barked Torben. Though her translator moderated her voice to a near monotone, somehow the feeling behind the words was carried through.
“Corporal Harrington?” Torben asked.
Jas was so intent on the hologram, she almost didn’t realize she was being addressed. “Yes, Commander.”
“We just received notification of your arrival from the Camaradon,” Commander Torben said. “A little late. You and your units are to sweep defeated vessels. Remain on standby.”
“Yes, Commander,” Jas replied, impressed by the commander’s coolness in dealing with side business when about to engage in combat. Jas wasn’t sure if she should leave. She decided she would stay, at least until Torben noticed she was still there and dismissed her.
“Pulse distance in twenty seconds.”
“Prepare to engage,” Torben said. The officers at the consoles surrounding the hologram fixed their eyes on the image. Their hands hovered over their interfaces. If the Infineon had been in the battle from the start, which had been soon after the Council officers had arrived at Ganymede Outpost, they’d already been fighting for many hours.
“Ten seconds.”
The hologram zoomed from a general display of the battle zone to a detailed image containing the Infineon and the Shadow ship. Now, the dots moved much faster. The red dot was streaking away from the green one and curving into the outer orbit of the sun. The green dot was gaining on it, however.
The atmosphere in the room became tense.
“Five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One.”
Three tiny pale yellow dots sprang from the Infineon. They traveled faster than the destroyer, and faster than the enemy ship. The green dot responded with some kind of weapons of its own, laying down a trail of defensive fire, a long line of sparks that ranged behind it.
“Evasive maneuver,” Torben said.
The deck dropped from beneath Jas’ feet as the Infineon’s pilot took the ship abruptly downward. She became momentarily airborne and grabbed a rail to steady herself. The ship’s artificial gravity didn’t seem to be working properly. Maybe it had been damaged in earlier skirmishes. The sparks drew closer.
The enemy ship also attempted a maneuver, abruptly changing its trajectory with a speed that would have tested the ship to the limits of its strength, Jas guessed. But the Infineon’s pale yellow bolts of energy had just enough time to alter their course to match the change in direction of their target. They sank into the red dot and vanished just before the Shadow ship’s sparks converged on the Infineon. Many passed them, but the tail hit, and Jas heard and felt their dull thumps on the hull.
The red dot stopped moving. Whoops, hollers, and alien celebratory noises filled the bridge.
“Quiet on the bridge,” Torben barked again. “Damage report.”
“Force field’s down again, Commander,” said an officer. “Damage to decks five through seven. Details still arriving. Repair crews dispatched.”
“Right. Keep me up to date on the situation.”
Another officer said, “Commander, the scanners are showing we took out the Shadow ship’s jump engine. It’s going nowhere.”
“Excellent. Good work, everyone,” said Torben.
“Unity Command is hailing, ma’am,” someone else said.
“Thank you,” Torben said. “Please ask Command for permission to put the comm on general broadcast.”
“Yes, ma’am.” A pause. “Permission granted. Routing to ship’s comm.”
A voice sounded from the bridge intercom. “Crew of the Infineon, this is Commander General Coney. Congratulations. You just took out the last Shadow ship remaining in the vicinity.”
And with that, all hell broke loose.
Chapter Thirteen
Torben was the first to die. One of the guards lifted his weapon and calmly blasted the commander i
n the head. As the Cruthian’s suit split apart, her body erupted in a massive froth through the gap. Jas was already running at the guard. He saw her and turned, but before he had a chance to fire his weapon again, she drove her shoulder into his chest, throwing him back against the wall. The impact to his head stunned him, and he slid toward the floor. Jas grabbed his weapon as he fell and turned it upon him. His eyes widened briefly before she burned a hole through his skull.
Fights had broken out all over the bridge as the Shadows attacked the non-Shadow officers. Jas focused on the comm officer who had relayed the Command message. The alien was a large quadruped, and he was sitting frozen, watching the battle around him. Jas killed a Shadow who was aiming at him.
“You,” she shouted. “Ship wide alert. Shadows aboard. Shadows aboard. Got it?”
The comm officer withdrew his gaze from the dying Shadow who had been about to kill him. He fumbled at his interface.
“Wait,” said the dark-haired officer as he took out another Shadow who was targeting the quadruped. “Implement Operation Penumbra,” he barked at the alien.
The comm officer’s mouth quivered.
“Implement Operation Penumbra,” the dark-haired officer repeated.
He spun and fired at Jas. She ducked, too late, but the energy bolt passed to her left. As she turned, a Shadow crumpled to the ground behind her. He’d saved her life.
“Implement Operation Penumbra,” the comm officer said into his mic and immediately slid under his console. The alien’s words were repeated through the bridge intercom and no doubt throughout the ship. Jas threw herself under another desk and found herself sharing a cramped space with the dark-haired officer.
Operation Penumbra. In spite of appearances, the Council’s warning had gotten through and the Unity had put some kind of plan in place to respond to a Shadow attack from the inside, though Jas couldn’t figure out what it was.
Bolts were still flying around the bridge. When they hit Torben’s remains, they hissed through the foam. The white mound was a substantial impediment to straight shooting on the bridge. The surviving combatants had all found shelter and were taking random pot shots at each other. The hologram of the Infineon and the Shadow ship in space still hung suspended in midair. From her place of temporary safety, Jas had a good view of the image. The red dot had begun to move swiftly toward the Infineon.
“Krat,” she muttered.
“What’s wrong?” asked the dark-haired officer squashed in with her. He pushed her to one side as he reached out to take a shot.
“That Shadow ship we hit is heading right for us,” said Jas.
The man glanced at the hologram before taking another shot. “Krat indeed. We need to get out of here.”
“You said it.” Jas elbowed him out of the way to lean out. She’d timed it just right. A Shadow’s head appeared. She shot and hit it. The Shadow had fired at the same time, but its bolt went slightly wide and hit the wall of the console they were hiding behind.
“Ahhh,” the man yelped as the metal that he was squashed against grew hot. He tried to move away, but there was too little room. They were jammed shoulder to shoulder. Jas tried to give him a few centimeters of space.
“The problem is,” he said, wincing, “we don’t know who’s a Shadow and who isn’t.”
“I’m pretty sure the ones shooting at us are Shadows,” said Jas. “We were protecting the comm officer so he could get the message out, and they were trying to kill him.”
“Good point. So how do we kill them?”
“We call for reinforcements,” said Jas. She lifted her comm button to her lips. “Units to the bridge. We could do with a little help here.”
It was Pint-Size who replied. “Affirmative, Corporal Harrington. We’re on our way.”
“Now we just need to survive the next few minutes,” Jas said.
Another energy bolt must have hit the metal panel her shelter companion was crushed against because his face became a mask of pain.
“Here,” Jas said, “swap places.”
His eyes and lips pressed tightly closed, the man shook his head. He opened his eyes and reached out to take another shot. “They’re on the move,” he muttered as he drew himself inside.
Jas took a peek and saw a Shadow run across open space toward the comm officer’s station. The Shadow disappeared behind Torben’s remains, but Jas had her muzzle trained on the figure, and she shot at where the Shadow was about to be. A heavy thud confirmed the hit.
“Good shot,” said the man. His face shone with sweat.
A cry of fear and pain sounded. The man looked out and drew quickly back. “Another one to the Shadows,” he said. “And we’ve lost the hologram.”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Jas. “We know what’s happening. We just need to do something about it.”
“When we get out of this kratting hole,” the officer said. “I just hope we have a live pilot.” The ship’s pilot had been the first officer the Shadows shot after Torben.
From outside the bridge came shouting and thuds. Shouldn’t be long. The doors blocked the soft hiss of laser guns, but Jas had little doubt what was happening outside. Her eyes met the officer’s as they awaited the outcome of her units’ fight with the Shadows.
She peeked out from their hiding place once more and saw the muzzle of a weapon poking out from behind a console, aiming at the bridge door. The Shadow was planning on blasting whoever came through it. Jas ducked back under cover. It would be a difficult shot, but she thought she could do it.
“Cover me,” she said to the man, and she leapt out from behind the desk.
He immediately began laying down defensive fire around the room. Jas used the extra second she needed to take careful aim and fired at the weapon muzzle that was targeting the door. The muzzle melted and flamed just as the doors shuddered and gave a metallic groan. A gap appeared between the two halves. The defense units were physically forcing the doors open. The mechanism whined as they pulled them apart.
More Shadows leapt out from their shelters to fire at the defense units. Jas and the dark-haired officer took some of them out, and the units also came through the doors firing.
In less than a minute, the Shadow rebellion on the bridge was finally quelled. Less than a fifth of the officers had been Shadows, but they’d acted immediately when the Unity had seemed on the verge of victory. It had been the same aboard the Galathea, Jas reflected. The Shadows had concentrated on replacing those in charge, and those they hadn’t managed to replace were the first to die.
The remaining non-Shadow officers emerged from their hiding places, holding up their hands. The comm officer was one of those who had survived the battle, though the quadruped was trembling with shock.
“Back to your stations,” said the dark-haired officer. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”
“The pilots,” Jas said to him. “They’ll go after the pilots next.” She swung around to the units on the bridge. “Go straight to the pilots’ quarters and protect them from attack. And bring one here.”
Chapter Fourteen
It was carnage on the bridge. The bodies of Shadows and officers sprawled everywhere, and Torben’s remains were slowly collapsing. Several officers had been wounded.
The dark-haired man was talking to the comm officer. As he finished, he turned to Jas and said, “The pilots suffered some casualties too, but they’ve got the situation under control. One of them is on her way.”
“We need to get that holo working,” Jas said. The words had hardly left her mouth before the ship shook with a series of explosions. Her ears rang.
“The Shadow ship’s firing on us,” exclaimed the dark-haired officer. “What’s our force field status?”
“Still down, sir,” came the reply. “Decks five through seven caught the worst of it again.”
“Krat. Where’s that holo? Never mind. There’s no time. Pulse response, on the double. Evasive maneuv— Krat. Where’s that pilot?”
He lean
ed over the back of another officer to focus on the interface she was looking at. An impact on the ship threw Jas to the floor, along with everyone else still standing.
“Damage to decks one and two, sir. Hull breech.”
The dark-haired officer didn’t reply. He glanced at the door, which had buckled where the defense units had forced it open. They needed a pilot. Without the ability to fly, they were sitting ducks.
“Pulses incoming,” exclaimed a voice.
“LK29, what’s the ETA on that pilot?” she said into her comm, but at the same time the female pilot Jas had spoken to earlier ran through the door. Without missing a beat she jumped into the vacant pilot seat. She paused, her hands above the screens on the console. “Hmmm...never flown a destroyer before.” She scanned the screens intently. “Let’s try...” She swiped a screen and pressed another. “Okay, got it. I see unwelcome visitors. Oh no you don’t.” She pressed decisively and Jas was crushed to the floor as the ship swept upward incredibly fast.
“More pulses on their way.”
“Pilot, emergency jump,” said the dark-haired officer from his new position on the floor.
“As quick as I can, sir,” the pilot replied.
A deep vibration rose through Jas as the engines began to build power. She started to get up, but another hit buffeted the ship, and she was flung to one side.
“Hull breech deck five.” The air was growing hazy with smoke from the damaged areas of the ship. Jas blinked and coughed as the acrid air stung her eyes and throat.
“We scored a hit, sir,” said the weapons officer, “but they’re still coming.”
“Fire with everything we’ve got,” said the dark-haired officer. “Fire at will.”
The vibrations grew stronger. Jas had given up trying to stand, deciding that she was safest staying where she was.
“Hold on, everyone,” shouted the pilot. The ship rolled and pitched. Jas grabbed the leg of a console. Suddenly the artificial gravity went haywire, and she was hanging suspended in midair, holding on with one arm. The side of the bridge was fifteen meters or so below her. Torben’s remains and bodies of dead Shadows and officers had slid and rolled to the bottom. Some of the living were among them, struggling to get away from the corpses.