“What do you have, Casey?” Captain Cross asked.
“A rune-cannon. It’s all ready to go inside the maintenance room. I only need some Alpha Dust to finalize the rune circle.”
“I’m afraid we’re out of Alpha Dust,” the captain said. “Any substitutes that’ll get the rune-cannon up and running?”
“No, sir,” she said. “It’s a prototype, and I wasn’t expecting to use it so soon. It’ll only take high quality particles.”
I remembered the ears I’d truncated from the Ogre and pulled them out of my belt pouch. Neville had said they could be distilled for Alpha Dust in minutes, and I hoped the enchantress would be able to use them to finish the rune on her cannon.
“Will this work?” I asked as I held the severed body parts in my open palm.
Casey’s mouth dropped as she peered at my hand and then picked the ears up with two fingers. “Ogre ears?”
I nodded. “Can you use them?”
“I can break them down using the distiller we moved to the armory,” she said with some excitement. “Then I can go over the rune I’ve primed on the cannon.”
“Excellent,” Captain Cross said. “Let the commander know when you have the cannon prepared.”
“Yes, sir.” Casey went to leave, but the captain stopped her.
“One last thing. Are you certain this cannon can destroy the RTF Bulwark?”
“Almost certainly,” the enchantress said.
“If we take out an RTF vessel,” Commander Reynolds said, “we will become rebels.”
“It was only a matter of time, Commander. It seems Silvester Polgar and Duke Barnes have played their hands,” Captain Cross said. “I don’t wish to murder my fellow countrymen, but should they fire at us, I will have no choice. I will communicate as much to them from the bridge and hope they withdraw. I doubt they will agree since they are commanded by that serpentine sorcerer.”
A still silence rippled over the crew as each member realized they were moments away from either dying at the hands of their own military or becoming rebels of the Caledonian Kingdom.
“Moses and Flanagan, I need you to free the rest of the crew,” the captain said, breaking the silence. “Does anyone know where they are?”
“In the galley, Captain,” I said. Olav and Leith snarled at me, a united front of fury. Their expressions carried a promise of retribution for imprisoning the crew. “Uh, Matthias told me they were in the galley.”
The addendum didn’t change the way Leith and Olav were looking at me. I figured the rest of the crew would share their hatred for traitors. If we ever survived this space battle, I would have to work hard to earn their trust back.
“You heard the squire,” Cross said to Moses and Flanagan.
“Keep yourself out of trouble until we get this resolved,” Moses said to me before departing. I was thankful for the man’s continued friendship since I’d done nothing to earn it. His kindness even after my actions increased my sense of guilt, which made me even more determined to make things right.
“Olav and Leith, I need you to take as many men as you can to the shield stations and gunner terminals. It’ll be tight navigating the ship through those short-range portals the mages generate, so I’ll need the shields to absorb enemy fire. Gunners will focus on harrowing the Bulwark. Locate any weak points in their shields and exploit them.”
“Yes, sir,” the two knights chorused before leaving.
“Now, you’ll both need to accompany the commander and me to the bridge,” Cross said to Elle and me. “It’s time to show you just what the Stalwart can do in single combat.”
The starship bustled with life as the knights freed the artillerymen and enchanters so they could attend to the Assault Deck, while the liberated yeoman ran to the bridge. Servitors milled about the passageways, readying themselves for the inevitable repair tasks they would have to complete after the enemy warship hit us.
Once we arrived at Deck 4, Elle and I marched behind Captain Cross and Commander Reynolds into the bridge. All the pods were empty, the yeoman and the rest of the Command Team absent.
“Commander,” I said.
Commander Reynolds snapped her head toward me.
“I can help the crew in the gunnery,” I said. “I have experience firing plasma quarrels.”
“The only reason you’re here and not there, Lyons, is because Olav and Leith will stick a dirk in your back. Normally Leith would be present in the bridge since he is our navigator, but the captain has decided it better for your welfare that he remain at the gunnery. If you continue to irk me, I will reconsider, and we can see how good you are at dodging a knife in your back.”
She glanced from me to Elle before pointing at a pair of the pod chairs on the far side of the bridge. “You’re both to sit there for the duration of the battle,” she said. “We haven’t yet determined your culpability in this mess, Miss McGrath, and I’m having trouble understanding your sudden shift in allegiances, Mr. Lyons.”
I wasn’t surprised the commander was no longer referring to me as a squire, but I didn’t want to remain helpless on the bridge while I could be somewhere useful.
Elle gave Reynolds’ back a death stare as she sat in the pod. I took my own seat and watched the commander move to a high-backed chair that shifted from the center of the room and stopped to rest beside Captain Cross in his pod.
“Polgar’s fleet has summoned six LR portals,” Commander Reynolds said as she scanned the readout from a console. “Two of the vessels have already left. Four more ships, and then it’s only the Bulwark.”
As warning sirens blared from the overhead, yeomen filtered into the bridge, frantically jumping into their pods and assuming their positions at the various stations around the bridge’s perimeter.
“Ensure the engine room is prepared to fire the thrusters by the time the sixth Cachalot leaves the vicinity,” Cross said to a yeoman.
“Yes, sir.” The yeoman saluted and left.
“Activate battle arrangement,” the captain said, and the pods and consoles shifted along the ground to form three neat rows of five, all facing the primary viewscreen. The remaining fleet of Cachalots surrounded our ship, dwarfing it. Their gray bows were painted with royal blue stripes, and weapons covered every portion of the warships.
The captain and the commander studied the viewscreen as a third Cachalot left the galaxy via an LR portal.
We were linked with the general comms channel so we could hear all communications between the crew. Olav and Leith reported that the shield stations were completely full, and a man was inside almost all the gunner terminals. Matthias was still trying to determine a means of circumnavigating the enemy warship’s firewalls so he could summon an LR portal, but he’d had no luck so far. It seemed even the machina was incapable of manipulating that particular technology.
Our only option was to shoot an RTF warship with Casey’s cannon, an action which would brand every one of the crew members a rebel. Previously, Polgar might not have possessed sufficient evidence to prove the Stalwart was a vessel filled with insurrectionists, but he certainly would if the cannon worked. Hopefully, he would be too dead to report anything, and his ship would be too mangled to provide any visual history of our defense.
There were only three vessels in Polgar’s fleet remaining now, and I wondered how long it would be before Casey would tell us her cannon was ready. When there was only the RTF Bulwark remaining, the warship would fire at us. That was Polgar’s command, and I couldn’t imagine the warship not completing it successfully.
We were running out of time.
“Those ships are getting away, Captain,” Olav spoke over the comms. “Why aren’t we attacking them?”
“My firing arm is getting tense,” Leith added. “I want to kill some assholes.”
“No,” Captain Cross said. “We wait until there’s only one left.”
“I love this strategy,” Leith said with a giggle. “The possum wolverine strategy.”
; “The possum wolverine strategy?” Commander Reynolds asked the slayer.
“Play the possum and then play the wolverine,” Leith answered. “My favorite game to play when I was a kid.”
“You’re weird,” Flanagan said over the comms.
“I’m amazing,” Leith said. “People love me.”
Flanagan snorted. “Sure, buddy.” It sounded like the herald was trying hard not to laugh at the slayer.
“Captain,” Casey’s voice joined the debate on the comms channel before Leith could respond. “I’ve almost finished distilling the Alpha Dust. I’ll head to the arcane chamber as soon as I have the required amount.”
“The cannon is inside the arcane chamber?” Commander Reynolds asked.
“Yes, in the maintenance room adjacent to the spheres. It’s the only place on the starship with enough negators to allow for such powerful magic.”
“Alright, looks like we have one more ship to leave before we get fired upon,” Cross said. “Mages, is the short-range portal ready for travel yet?”
“The requisite energy is prepared. We’ll summon the SR portal as soon as you give the go ahead,” Matthias said.
“I’ll feed you the coordinates. We need that portal now,” he said.
“Prepare to initiate thrusters,” Commander Reynolds ordered the yeomen in the various pods on the bridge.
“We have detected a large-scale shift in power usage on the Bulwark, Captain,” a yeoman said. “We have ten seconds until the enemy ship fires its missiles.”
“Nine seconds until we reach the coordinates to the projected SR portal,” another yeoman said.
The sixth Cachalot vanished through a portal, leaving the final ship: Polgar’s RTF Bulwark. Its bow was pointed toward our bow, and the viewscreen overlay pinpointed the exact missile array that would strike us in just a few seconds.
“One ship remaining!” Captain Cross yelled. “Mages, open the portal! Yeomen, thrusters full speed. Gunners, prepare to fire! For the Queen!”
“For the Queen!” the Stalwart’s crew echoed the captain’s shout.
My voice was among them.
The area in front of our starship sparked, and a tiny star seemed to appear and unfold like a sapphire flower until it was a massive rift. As soon as our ship penetrated the portal’s barrier, the bridge rattled and lurched.
I steadied myself on the pod, and the viewscreen showed a new location. Rather than looking at the Bulwark dead-on, we were facing the enemy warship’s starboard side. Red balls of plasma shot from the Stalwart, but they dissipated into pink flares as the Cachalot’s shields absorbed the fire.
I had a first-row seat for the battle, but I would have rather been on the inside of a gunner terminal where I could have helped. Unfortunately, right now, I couldn’t do a thing except sit here and watch the events play out. I’d been completely hamstrung.
“Mages, how soon can we have another short range portal?” Captain Cross asked.
Our ship rocked as the enemy warship fired at us with its plasma quarrels, and our lights flickered in the overhead. I heard a beeping sound, and then the lights seemed to steady. After the emergency generators kicked in, I guessed the enemy ship had struck us somewhere vital.
“Ten seconds, Captain,” Ronan reported. “The yeomen have already patched in the coordinates.”
“Forcefields are depleting quickly,” the captain said matter-of-factly as he surveyed his holo console depicting a hundred different statistics of the Stalwart’s current status. Normally yeomen would summarize logistics for a captain, so I was impressed Captain Cross could determine a course of action with a glance. “Shielders, can you hold up for eight seconds?”
“Yes, sir,” Moses said over the general comms as our starship rocked violently again.
I wanted more than anything to help the crew, but I couldn’t disobey the commander’s orders.
“Isn’t there anything we can do to help?” I asked Elle.
She shook her head. “You heard the commander.”
The starship was hit again a second before we vanished into another SR portal and materialized port-side of the Bulwark. This time, the enemy warship detected our movement, and we were in the direct trajectory of an enemy rune lance. The weapon’s frequency was undetectable by the naked eye, but the overlay on the viewscreen showed a purple beam striking the Stalwart’s hull.
“That lance just scrambled five of our plasma quarrels, Captain,” Olav reported. “I knew we should have killed the squire traitor.”
“I can kill him now,” Leith said. “Give me the word, sir, and I’ll go to the bridge immediately and slit his throat.”
Olav barked a laugh into the general channel.
Elle looked at me from her pod. “Those guys are insane,” she said.
“Can you assholes focus on the task at hand?” Commander Reynolds said. “Any news on the cannon, Casey? Your weapon would be pretty damned good right about now.”
We hadn’t heard from the enchantress for some time, and I wondered what the holdup was. After a few seconds with no reply, the commander repeated the question.
“I’m trapped beneath a collapsed overhead, Commander,” Casey’s voice came over the channel, and I was filled with relief. “I only finished distilling the Alpha Dust a second ago, so the cannon isn’t online yet.”
“Mages, can any of you two get to the enchantress?” Captain cross asked.
“Impossible, sir,” Ronan responded. “We have suffered a lot of damage. The lesser spheres are out of action, and Matthias needs our help preparing the LR portal for when you take out the enemy warship with the cannon.”
“There’s no cannon without the enchantress, jump mage,” Captain Cross spat into the channel.
“I can get there, Captain!” I shouted as I jumped up from my pod seat. I eagerly crossed the bridge on foot to try and explain what I could do to help. Commander Reynolds looked like she was about to blow a fuse.
“What do you mean you can get there?” Captain Cross asked me. The viewscreen behind him showed the enemy weapons streaking across space to our prot-fields, and the man’s face was bathed in the pinks, blues, and red-oranges of the space battle.
“I’m a mutant,” I said. “I can teleport, instantly. I don’t use a portal. That’s how I escaped Tyranus. I was wrong about this crew and this ship. I want to make amends. Please let me help you, sir.”
“Captain, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Commander Reynolds begun. “How do we--”
Cross silenced her with a raised hand. “Okay. Let’s see you make this right, Lad. The whole ship is relying on you. Prove whether you’re with us or against us, Squire Lyons.”
No sooner had Captain Cross said my name than I’d teleported into the arcane chamber. I’d never visited the maintenance room Casey referred to earlier, so this was the closest I could teleport to her location.
Matthias was strapped to the primary jump sphere, his entire body glowing as arcane energy ran along the internal piping constituting his circulatory system and siphoned into giant runic batteries. The lesser spheres sparked with open circuits, and the distress systems were dousing red flames in chemicals.
“Where did Casey go?” I called out to the two jump mages who were standing beside the main jump sphere, their palms producing arcane energy to join with the machina’s.
“Down the passageway,” Patrick said through gritted teeth.
I activated my visor and breathed clean air as I sprinted in the direction the mage indicated. The overhead had collapsed at the entrance to the maintenance room, and I could see a freckled arm lying on the floor. I rushed over and tried to shift the crumpled metal away from Casey. She groaned as I moved it a bit, but the injury on my bicep screamed when I tried to lift too much, and I knew I couldn’t lift it off of her.
“How bad are you hurt?” I asked her.
“My right leg is crushed, but the rest of me is fine. I can’t get out of here, though.”
Even with my armor
empowering my muscles to peak performance, I couldn’t get the collapsed overhead to budge. I looked above me and saw someone on the shield stations had sealed the breach in the hull remotely. The atmosphere and pressure returned to normal in the passageway, but we were going to keep getting hit unless I could get Casey to the cannon.
I considered using my longsword to launch a forcewave at the rubble, but any movement to the fallen overhead would probably result in the enchantress being crushed completely.
“Casey, can you tell me what I need to do to finish the rune?” I asked.
Our starship shuddered again, and her distress systems bathed the passageway in a fire-squelching agent. There weren’t any fires in here, so I guessed our ship’s systems were so overworked they couldn’t determine where to apply assistance. The rubble atop Casey slid, and she cried out.
“Casey!” I yelled.
“I’m . . . I’m alright. I’ve primed the rune. It just requires tracing with the Alpha Dust. Can you reach in here? I’ll give you a drill.”
I inserted my arm into the precarious web of metal scraps, trying not to dislodge anything lest I affect the integrity of the rubble. My hand found Casey’s, and her skin felt icy cold. I prayed she wasn’t suffering from intense blood loss as I took the drill from her grasp.
“Wait,” she said, and she pressed another small object into my hand along with the drill. “Here’s a vial of Alpha Dust. You should only need a little bit.”
I used my prot-belt to show a map of the Stalwart on my visor. I could see the maintenance room running off this passageway, but the starship’s status was offline, so I didn’t know if it was still intact.
I hoped the enemy gunfire hadn’t blown the whole thing apart. Otherwise, I’d be teleporting into open space.
The memory of Casey’s painful cries when the rubble had moved empowered my mutation, and I was pulled apart and put back together again inside the maintenance room.
Besides the fallen overhead sealing off the room’s entrance, this part of the starship had thankfully remained unmolested by the Bulwark. The body of Casey’s cannon took up most of the space, and its nose protruded from the ship’s hull about a meter, but its body was inside the room.
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