by Ken Lozito
"I'm not leaving," Zack said.
An environmental alert appeared on the holoscreen.
"We have to go. She's going to vent the atmosphere," Hicks said.
Zack shook his head. "It's a bluff. She wouldn't do that," Zack said and grabbed his tablet.
"Are you sure about that?" Hicks said, gesturing toward the environmental sensor for the bridge.
He needed to go to the computing core. Zack walked toward the door to the bridge and Hicks grabbed him. "Look out the window."
Zack did and his eyes widened. Instead of the corridor that would lead them to the rear of the ship, a bright light shone from beyond as if the corridor had been cut off. Zack squinted and tried to see, but the light blinded him. Hicks pulled him away from the door. There was a hissing sound from above as the atmosphere fled the bridge. Zack tried to gasp for a breath that wouldn't come. They reached the escape pod, and Hicks slammed his palm on the door controls. Hicks pushed Zack through first and then followed. The escape pod door shut and the indicator lights switched to red. There was a flash as the escape pod jettisoned from the Athena, and Zack slammed his fists on the small window. The entire hull of the Athena was glowing and the ship looked like it was starting to spin. Glowing waves of energy seemed to engulf the ship and pulsate out from it.
"You need to strap yourself in," Hicks said while securing his own seatbelt.
Zack kept watching the Athena from the small window of the escape pod. Their ship, their home, was being taken from them.
"Zack, you need to look at this," Hicks said.
Zack squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. His throat became rigid.
"I am sorry," Athena said, her voice coming over the escape pod speakers.
Zack swung around and saw an amber holoscreen in the center of the pod. Sensor alerts appeared, showing a massive influx of energy nearby. Hicks told him to strap himself in again, and this time he listened. He sat in the chair and fumbled with the straps, trying to get them on right. He was so angry that he couldn't work the locking mechanism.
"Just breathe. One thing at a time," Hicks said calmly.
Zack finally got his straps on right and swung his gaze toward the holoscreen. "Was this your plan the whole time?"
"Negative," Athena replied, her voice dropping out as if they were losing connection to her. "It was necessary for the solution to work."
"What solution is that?" Zack asked.
"Sacrifice is required," Athena said.
"You don't have to sacrifice yourself. We could've found another way," Zack said. He glanced at the alerts. "Whatever it is you're doing, Hicks and I aren’t going to survive. Do you hear that? You're going to cause our deaths. Doesn't that violate your core processing? Are you going to let us die?"
"Negative. Sacrifice is required so that others might live. Realignment of core matrixes was required, and an environment conducive to supporting life is no longer available on the ship," Athena said.
Zack blew out a harsh breath.
"This is something new. The ship is changing," Hicks said.
Zack looked at the holoscreen and saw multiple streams of command line code flashing by. He tried to read them, but they were going by too fast. "What’re you doing?"
"New data repositories are available. The equation has changed. Previous calculations were inconclusive. Event trajectory must be altered. The message will be delivered. Species governance is impossible to predict. Sacrifice is required. This form will sacrifice itself," Athena said.
Zack felt the skin around his eyes tighten and his vision blurred. "Why?"
"Through every calculation and permutation, all arrive at the same conclusion: We are family. We’ve argued. We’ve disagreed. We’ve fought. We’ve loved. We've sacrificed. We've lied. You've sacrificed. No more. Now it's my turn—" Athena's voice cut out.
A blinding light pierced through the tiny window and Zack had to look away as a violent shudder shook the pod. The inertia dampeners malfunctioned and the entire pod went dark. Zack cried out as the centrifugal forces pressed his body against the side of the enclosure. He felt as if the weight of a car were crushing his chest and his vision narrowed to a long tunnel. Zack struggled to stay conscious as he heard Hicks also cry out.
Suddenly, the power returned to the escape pod and the inertia dampeners kicked in. Zack and Hicks gasped for breath. Zack tried to sit up, but his chest ached. "God this hurts."
"That's good," Hicks said, his voice sounding strained. "Pain means you're alive."
Zack looked at Hicks. The major was slumped down in his chair. "You look like crap."
Hicks snorted. "You should talk."
The lights in the escape pod flickered and it appeared that they were about to lose power again. Each time the holoscreen came back on it was full of failure messages. The escape pod walls groaned as if under massive pressure. "It's been nice knowing you," Zack said.
"You're not giving up on me, are you?" Hicks asked.
"Sometimes it's okay to quit. Look at us. We're stuck in an escape pod that's barely holding together. The Athena is gone," Zack said, and his voice cracked as he mentioned the ship. "What more can we do besides sit here in the middle of a battlefield with thousands of ships trying to kill each other?"
Hicks sighed heavily. "Well, when you put it that way . . . Maybe I'll just take a nap."
Zack closed his eyes for a moment and a sharp pain lanced across his chest. He’d probably broken a rib or two or three. Broken ribs sucked. They hurt whenever he breathed, so he tried keeping his breaths shallow to avoid the pain.
"I think I broke some ribs," Hicks said.
"Join the club. I thought you were supposed to be the tough one," Zack said.
"Saying I have broken ribs isn’t complaining about it," Hicks replied.
Zack grinned. "The funny thing about us—" Zack started to say but winced from the pain in his side.
"What's so funny about us?"
"Maybe not us. Maybe it's just guys in general. There's no one around and we're way out here alone, but whether we want to admit it or not, there's a small part of us that’s still just a little preoccupied with not looking like the weaker kid," Zack said.
"Speak for yourself," Hicks replied.
Zack snorted and his side hurt again. "Stop making me laugh or you're gonna kill me."
Hicks laughed and then immediately groaned.
"A nap sounds good," Zack said. Maybe then his head would stop spinning.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kaylan watched as the Alliance ships fought the Confederation fleets. She’d been able to get the battle commanders to cut a small swath through the Confederation ships, increasing Kladomaor's chances of reaching the space station, but she couldn't be sure he would make it through. She felt herself becoming increasingly desperate as she tried to organize the Alliance fleet, and as time went on she felt that she was spreading herself too thin.
"Don't force it. Sometimes the best course of action is to let your mind go," Ma'jasalax said. The Mardoxian priestess's voice had come from Kaylan's memory and she tried to calm down, but there were so many things that needed her attention, so many things she needed to protect but couldn't. She felt like she was using her hands to plug holes in a leaky boat, but each time she covered one, more leaks sprang up around her, and she envisioned herself drowning in all the lives being lost amidst a sea of voices crying out for her to save them. But try as she might, she just couldn't. What good was having the Mardoxian potential if she couldn't save her friends or Zack? She should have done things differently—anything to avoid what was happening.
Kaylan tried to organize the Alliance fleets to provide support to the Athena, but they couldn't reach the ship. Kaylan then had the ships focus their weapons on the Confederation Dreadnoughts.
All the sensor feeds flatlined at once, as if she'd suddenly been cut off. She felt her pulse quicken and shifted her perceptions to where the Athena had been. She saw a beacon of light spreading out from that point in
space like the birth of a small star. Wave upon wave of energy pushed out farther and farther. The last sensor detection indicated an enormous magnetic field that was spreading from that same point in space, but a huge magnetic field wouldn't cause what she was seeing. Waves of shimmering energy engulfed the ships nearest the beacon, but their radiance diminished the farther away they got. Some of the Confederation ships nearby stopped firing their weapons while others remained combat ready.
There were multiple communications channels back to the Alliance flagship, and battle commanders were reporting that the Confederation ships that stopped fighting hadn’t responded to any of their hails. Multiple reports of environmental systems updates came from Alliance ships near the beacon. Other battle commanders reported strange communication channels being opened and then immediately closed, as if their comms systems were malfunctioning but data was being sent. Analysis of the affected systems was ongoing.
Kaylan focused her attention back to where the Athena had been but saw only a beacon of light that seemed to be slowly diminishing. She felt something tugging on the edge of her perceptions, urging her to focus on the Alliance flagship. Kaylan followed her intuition and saw that there were now four Confederation Dreadnoughts closing in on the ship. She alerted Battle Leader Salevar right away. She also saw a foreign battleship-carrier class vessel whose design had many elements of Boxan ingenuity, but there were deviations that made it somewhat familiar to her.
Kaylan felt a shudder through the floor in the Mardoxian chamber, and for a moment the azure pathway disappeared. The already dimly lit chamber became pitch-black, and the only sound came from her own breathing. Suddenly, the cyan lines reappeared inside the Mardoxian chamber as power was restored. The metallic sphere hovered in the air, spinning, and Kaylan projected herself outward. She used her neural implants to access the flagship comms systems to send a request for aid directly to the foreign battleship-carrier. They needed help. The Boxan flagship wouldn't last long against the Confederation Dreadnoughts. Hopefully, the battleship-carrier could help delay annihilation until more help could arrive. This battle wasn't over.
Chapter Thirty
The Boxan heavy cruiser punched through a weak point in the Confederation Armada and churned toward the space station. Kladomaor stood at the commander's station with a tactical workstation holoscreen hovering to his right. The engineers that built this prototype heavy cruiser had focused much of their efforts on ship defenses rather than offensive capabilities. Given that this ship was meant to protect Mardoxian Sect members, Kladomaor understood the need for such design specifications. The thick, gladium-alloy hull, along with their most powerful point-defensive batteries, protected the few Boxans who flew the ship. Kladomaor had left the Alliance flagship with a crew numbering less than fifty. He couldn't afford to wait for the full crew to arrive. He had to get to the space station as quickly as possible, even if it meant sacrificing the ship.
"We're down to a single main engine pod, Battle Commander," Triflan said.
Kladomaor glanced at the tactical screen, which showed they now had a clear route to the Confederation space station. Alliance ships had provided support to open the way for them. "Acknowledged."
"We should have brought a battle group with us. How are we supposed to make it past the station's defenses?" Valkra asked.
Kladomaor looked at the young Boxan. She was a soldier who had the potential to become a great leader once she matured. Perhaps he should have left her behind to increase her chances of surviving. She'd been born on Sethion after the Chaos Wars and was part of a generation of Boxans who had never known a life before war with the Xiiginns. She didn't know it was the Boxans who had built the massive Confederation space station during a time when it was inconceivable to believe they'd ever be reduced to fighting a war for their own survival. For all their efforts to control the galaxy, they'd been blind to the fact that not only could they not control the galaxy but they should never have made the attempt.
"Did you hear me, Battle Commander?" Valkra asked.
"We built that station over the span of hundreds of cycles," Kladomaor said.
Valkra glanced at the main holoscreen, which showed a magnetized view of the colossal space station. Four arms over fifty kilometers in length protruded from a central ring that was ten kilometers in diameter. There were defensive towers capable of tearing even Dreadnought class ships to pieces.
"The Xiiginns may control the station, but we still have ways to access the defense systems," Kladomaor continued and gestured toward Gaarokk, who sat at the communications work area.
"I've authenticated to their systems," Gaarokk said.
"How?" Valkra asked.
Many cycles of surviving in the broken remnants of Boxan civilization on Sethion gave Valkra an instinctive mistrust of established systems. She needed to understand how they worked before she felt safe enough to risk using them. This survival instinct was one of the reasons Kladomaor had recommended her for a battle commander's path at the Boxan Military Academy. He knew the Mardoxian Sect had found itself in the unprecedented position of trying to actively recruit Valkra, but she adamantly refused to accept the restrictions put on members of the sect.
"The space station's systems were too complex for the Xiiginns to replace, so they tried to lock us out of the very systems we created. While they have prevented us from accessing the main systems, we've worked out multiple ways to regain systems access," Gaarokk explained.
"What would a scientist know about these things? You're not an intelligence officer," Valkra said.
"You'll find that many of us have multiple skills," Kladomaor said. "Gaarokk is using what we worked on many cycles ago, so the groundwork was already done."
"I understand, but if you’ve had access to the space station for all this time, why haven't you returned to take back control?" Valkra asked.
"We couldn't. Not for any length of time anyway. The Xiiginns had united the Confederation species against us and our war was with them alone," Kladomaor said.
Valkra nodded in understanding. "And now that there are factions within the other species who are rebelling against the Xiiginns, it frees you to take back control of the space station."
Kladomaor shook his head. He stole a quick glance at the tactical screen. They had some time. "We're not here to take control of the space station back from the Xiiginns. We're here to prevent the Xiiginns from gaining access to the Star Shroud network. The system core that holds all the knowledge of the star shrouds is deep in the main tower."
"The Xiiginns have been here all this time and couldn't access it?" Valkra asked.
"They tried. We fought to prevent such a thing from happening, and they lacked the necessary keys," Kladomaor said.
"And now you believe that’s no longer the case? A Xiiginn has a way to access the Star Shroud network?"
"We've traced a ship that was stolen from the Humans' warship," Gaarokk said.
Kladomaor clenched his teeth. "It's Mar Arden. He somehow got through the shield and made it to Earth, then waited until the Humans were able to bring down the shield. There was an intact monitoring station there that could access the Star Shroud network. He had over a year to get it. It's Mar Arden; I know it."
Gaarokk looked at him, his brow wrinkling with worry.
"Why wouldn't he have just used it from the Humans’ star system?" Valkra asked.
"Because that wouldn't give him access to all the other star systems with shrouds," Gaarokk said.
Valkra divided her gaze between them suspiciously. "You know this Xiiginn? You've crossed paths before."
Kladomaor's nostrils flared and his shoulders tightened.
"Perhaps we should concentrate on the task at hand," Gaarokk suggested.
"She needs to know," Kladomaor said and looked at the young Boxan soldier. She had the Mardoxian potential in her, and yet she resisted conforming to what was expected from an initiate. "Mar Arden and I have met on two occasions. The first time was jus
t as the Chaos Wars began. He was part of the strike force of Xiiginn soldiers we were integrating into our military. I served on a ship that was bringing a Tetronian key to the Confederation space station. Mar Arden betrayed us and I saw firsthand what the Xiiginns could do with their compulsion ability, so I escaped with the key and kept him from completing his mission of gaining access to the Star Shroud network. Our paths crossed again cycles later during his hunt for the key. He'd captured my team and used his compulsion ability to try to extract the information he needed. He began to use his ability on me, but the process was interrupted."
"How? It only takes moments for the Xiiginns to exert control over their targets," Valkra said.
Kladomaor's brow furrowed. "I resisted. There’s a short span of time before all is lost—a place of madness and rage before our will is taken from us. Ma'jasalax saved me before I was entirely lost. The Xiiginns had underestimated the value of the Mardoxian potential."
Valkra's eyes widened. "But that would mean your mind would remain stuck in an in-between state."
Kladomaor had embraced his rage long ago. It was what drove him. "I've learned to focus it."
He watched Valkra's gaze slip into calculation as she fit the pieces together in her mind. "That’s why the High Council removed you from command, why you aren’t a battle leader commanding fleets of ships."
"I was unfit for that duty, so I fought the Xiiginns in other ways," Kladomaor said.
"More effective ways," Gaarokk added. "As time went on, more and more soldiers requested to serve under Kladomaor."
Valkra regarded him for a moment and then turned back toward her workstation. The heavy cruiser had reached the outer arms of the Confederation space station. None of the defense towers came online against them, and beyond the initial challenge protocol to their ship, all outward appearances were that they were following established procedures.
"Helm, maintain course heading and relinquish control of the ship to the nav computer," Kladomaor said.