He gave a look back at the viewscreen—and turned, striding purposefully toward an equipment cabinet. “We’re going to use the thrusters to keep moving—make this difficult for them. We’ve got to buy Una time to get things sorted out.”
Looking back at him, Raden nodded. “Aye, sir. Anything else?”
“Yes. Stand by to repel boarders.”
Troop Module Aloga-One
“Now!” Goldsub shouted. One by one, the doors over the heads of the troopers in the depressurized chamber blew open. The panels they were standing on shot upward, catapulting Spock and his squadmates into space.
Spock hurtled wildly for several moments before the jets affixed to the mass on his back fired, stabilizing his orientation.
“Just look at the target. Once it’s in your reticule, toggle your booster,” Goldsub called out over Spock’s comm system. “You’ll home in automatically.”
All Spock saw was the gas giant and debris—and dozens of other warriors, soaring on back-mounted rockets of their own. But then something else entered his view. The deployment area of the Boundless troop modules had no ports to look from, in part to keep soldiers calm about what they were heading toward. Enterprise had existed for him only as a memory and a goal—but now it rose into his field of view.
It didn’t look normal. Several of its brilliant lights had been extinguished. Was it Pike’s plan to hide in the nebula? If so, it had not worked.
“What are you waiting for, Gold-Five? Set your course!”
Spock focused on a section directly astern from the bridge dome. There was an airlock there. He oriented toward it and triggered his jets. A surge went through his armor to his body as he shot forward, leaving his companions behind. Moments later, they were alongside.
“That’s it!” his subaltern said. “Lead the way, Gold-Five.”
“We’re with you too,” announced another voice. It was Opmaster Sperrin, still aboard the troop module, which was now following the warriors through space. “We’ll cover your approach.” Spock knew there was another reason Sperrin was monitoring: to keep an eye on him.
In fact, it was becoming hard to know where to look, especially as Enterprise opened up on the troop modules, battering their shielding with phaser fire. It was not particularly effective, Spock saw; each shot seemed to vary with intensity. Some Boundless modules fired back, attempting to target the weapon emplacements—with the floating warriors soaring in the territory between.
And now the carriers approached, strafing the space nearby in an attempt to make Enterprise’s attempts to evade costly. The unshielded starship’s response had been far more limited than Spock had expected; it was using its thrusters only to escape the tightening net.
Something must be very wrong.
He couldn’t think about that now—not with the dorsal hull of the saucer section filling his view. Enterprise dipped abruptly, heading away from him; he could see other Boundless warriors overcorrecting, sailing right on past. As the ship lurched again, others slammed off the hull, hurtling back into space.
Spock adjusted his jets to bring himself into contact with the hull—and then magnetized the palms of his gloves. He cut his engines the second his fingers made contact with the smooth surface. Then it was a matter of hanging on until he affixed his boots to the ship’s skin as well.
He looked back to see several other warriors on the hull. Some nearby, others farther away at the other objective points. Goldsub, standing, saw Spock and gestured to the bridge dome.
Trying to keep his balance, Spock looked at it. There was no channel he could access on which he could open communications with anyone aboard Enterprise: to it, he resembled just another boarder. “Call the shot,” Goldsub said.
“Their standard procedure will be to block all manual airlock overrides,” Spock said. “The mechanism cannot be defeated. It must be removed.”
“Affirm.” Goldsub nodded and patted his utility casing. That was where the laser torches Spock had requested resided. He turned to wave his arriving squadmates in.
Spock began the plodding magnetic walk up the sloping hull toward the bulge of the bridge assembly. The destination had been inevitable since Spock learned of Kormagan’s plan. She had figured that by having him with the troops assailing the bridge, he might forestall a costly fight. He had theorized there was no rescuing his comrades unless Enterprise learned the full story of where they were, and how they were being held. They just had very different ideas about what he would do when he got there.
It was time to act. Seeing Goldsub’s back turned, Spock began to reach for his own laser torch.
“All squads, stand by!”
Spock stopped in midmotion. The call had come not from his squad leader or Sperrin—but from Kormagan.
“Over there!” Goldsub cried out. “It’s the Rengru!”
Spock turned—looking to the sky above his squad to see what they were pointing at. Hundreds of Rengru fighters swarmed through space, a torrent of raindrop-shaped propulsion shells. Something was protruding from them; his telescopic sights showed them to be the Rengru’s limbs, evidently invulnerable to the hostile environment of space. The fighters served as a vanguard for larger pyramidal ships of a kind Spock had never seen before—all headed his way.
He and Kormagan had envisioned quite different fates for Enterprise. Spock realized now that the Rengru had ideas of their own.
35
* * *
Combat Module Carrier 539-Aloga
Little Hope
Not here! Not now!
Kormagan had thought most of the nearby Rengru forces were bottled up in the endless engagement at Varadah. Somehow, they had discovered that Enterprise existed—and that the Boundless wanted it.
“ Enterprise chasing us must have tipped them off,” Dreston said. “Their sensors aren’t perfect, but even they can see an arsenal like that blundering about.”
She cursed herself for a fool. Shivane had been one of the planets along the trail Enterprise had followed; surely the Rengru would have sent a scout to check on the outpost Kormagan had destroyed. Odds were that was where the Rengru had stumbled across Enterprise—and noticed the ship. They would have naturally assumed the Boundless’s interest in it.
Interest, of course, that had to be thwarted. Everything in the nebula was a zero-sum game between the Boundless and the Rengru.
“Looks like we have between three and four hundred Stingers, leading eight Hiveships,” Dreston said. “That’s a lot.”
It surely was. More than enough to take on three Boundless waves—and she could see that several of her carriers were still out of action from Enterprise’s surprise attack.
“Orders, Wavemaster?”
Kormagan had to think. This was a new phase. It wasn’t the first time the Rengru had tried to interfere with one of their boarding attempts; the intelligent creatures knew very well how the Boundless improved their numbers and technology. They’d destroyed many a find before it could be exploited.
The new element was that Enterprise was a victim capable of fighting back. It was still actively doing so, even though many of its phaser shots had been underpowered and ineffective. How could she fight to take the Starfleet vessel and keep it from the Rengru at the same time?
Hemmick called in, sounding shaken. “Should we withdraw our boarders?”
“Negative. This could be our only shot. We’ve got to protect Enterprise from them. Give our people time to board!”
U.S.S. Enterprise
“What the hell are those?” Standing in the pried-open doorway to the turbolift, Pike stared at the main viewscreen, stunned.
“More inbounds, Captain,” Nhan said. Enterprise’s malfunctioning systems had reduced the security chief to the role of observer. “Lots more.”
Pike’s eyes goggled at the swarm of newcomers. Unwilling to have Nhan leave her station, he’d popped down the ladder of the turbolift shaft for just a minute to retrieve some heavy weaponry from a security loc
ker. In the Hellmouth, apparently, it was impossible to step away for a second without everything changing.
“We’ve got small fry and large out there,” Pike said. “Hail them. No—a distress call.”
Nicola sent it. “No response.”
“Look there!” Amin said, pointing. On screen, three of the big pyramidal newcomers simultaneously fired orange disruptor blasts into one of the Boundless troop modules. The white flash of overloaded shields was replaced an instant later with a spectacular explosion.
“Whoa!” Nhan blurted. “I guess they’re friends!”
“This is bizarre,” Amin said. “Does this nebula have antibodies or something?”
“It’s a big galaxy,” Pike said. “Who knows?”
“I think I saw these guys in the probe’s dictionary,” Nicola said, checking his database. He nodded when he found the image. “They’re called the Rengru.”
“Go, Rengru!” Nhan said.
As the arrivals assaulted the Boundless ships, Pike walked the bridge distributing weapons. “We’ve got our own problems. Which boarding team is closest?”
Nhan found the right feed. “Docking port two, stardrive section.”
“On-screen.”
Pike saw Boundless warriors clustering on the hull near the deflector dish that had caused so much trouble. The view was coming from surveillance sensors on the underside of the saucer section. They clearly still worked, but a lot of the subsystems that could have helped him defeat the intruders were unavailable. “Pike to engineering.”
Colt answered this time. On hearing that boarders were at an airlock, she responded with what Pike almost thought was a laugh. “They’re going to get a face full of smoke. It’s spreading through the Jefferies tubes—and the systems aren’t cycling it out.”
“Can you post more security?” He saw one of the boarders ignite a laser torch. “They could be in at any time.”
“If they know how to fix a warp drive, we’ll give them oxygen masks and a place to sit.” More noise in the background. “I’ll try. Colt out.”
Pike looked around, frustrated. “We’ve got to do something from up here. Raden, intensify evasive action.”
“I don’t think we’ll knock them loose,” Raden said, shaking his head. “But aye.”
Enterprise changed directions abruptly again, but it barely budged the break-in artists. Pike was nearly out of options. “I suppose we should quickly go over our self-destruct protocols, in case they—”
Before he could finish, a white blur raced across the screen. One of the tiny Rengru ships swooped in, ripping the Boundless warrior at the airlock cleanly off the side of the hull. Another did the same—and another, until the entire boarding party was gone.
Astounded, Pike pointed to the receding Rengru attackers. “Close-up on that!”
The nearer view brought into focus two figures of similar size—the Boundless warrior and the Rengru fighter—wrestling as they rocketed through the dust. The Rengru seemed as much living being as vehicle, clutching at the armored soldier with powerful limbs that extended outside its shell.
That’s something you don’t see every day, Pike thought. But before he could make a remark, both figures vanished in a blinding blaze of disruptor fire.
“That came from one of the big Boundless warships,” Nhan said. “They killed their own guy!”
Pike didn’t like any of it. And he liked it even less when the viewscreen switched back to a view of the saucer section. The Rengru fighters were in running disruptor battles with several Boundless boarding parties on the surface of his ship.
All was madness. It was time to chance the impulse drive. “Raden, I think we need to—”
A sudden blast quaked Enterprise, throwing Pike against a console. His heart nearly stopped. “Was that the warp core?”
“No,” Nhan shouted as another explosion hit. “The big Rengru ships are shooting at us!”
The Boundless capital ships had treated Enterprise with kid gloves, unwilling to risk their prize. The Rengru, whoever and whatever they were, didn’t seem to care. He saw the little fighters lighting on the skin of the Enterprise, pincers clawing at the hull. “Okay, they are definitely not friends!”
“Maybe they’re firing at the boarders?” Galadjian asked, nearly overwhelmed.
“No, they don’t like anybody.” Some of the little Rengru were firing their disruptors point-blank at Enterprise. Their guns were no larger than rifles, but they were firing them nonstop—and without apparent care. Pike’s worries had gone from precision lasers against the airlocks to brute force against everything.
Nothing had prepared him for the moment. And nothing could have prepared him for the next.
“This is Una.” She, who never sounded stressed, did not hide her alarm. “We have a possible warp core breach. That last impact was bad.”
“Can you control it?”
“I can try. But you have maybe a minute to get the saucer section separated and clear!”
It was the capper. Pike had never seriously considered splitting up the ship before; he barely remembered the procedure. But Number One would never exaggerate the danger. “Forget staying down there. Get everyone back up here!”
Galadjian was on his feet. “I must go down! I will take care of—”
“It’s too late for that,” Una said, having overheard. “Turbolifts are down—and the smoke’s still thick in the Jefferies tubes. Not even sure the escape pods will deploy. Captain, I need to get back to work if I want a chance!”
Pike closed the channel. There was no other way. He returned to his seat and looked around the bridge. “Emergency saucer separation.”
36
* * *
Outside U.S.S. Enterprise
Little Hope
Connolly had gone through so many emotions in the last hour he could barely process them. Commanded to board Enterprise as part of Baladon’s squad, he’d been filled with anger and expectation. Outrage at being ordered to take his own ship; happiness at the thought of seeing it again. Before he could object, Enterprise had struck at the Boundless ships. He’d wanted to cheer then, and had not objected to the mission in the expectation that it was safer to be standing outside Enterprise than to spend another day inside a Boundless battlesuit.
Seeing the wretched defense Enterprise was mounting had given him pause, however—and finally, he had been standing on the lip of the saucer section when the Rengru had attacked.
There hadn’t been time to breathe since.
“This is insane! We’ve got to get out of here!”
With a newly traded-for disruptor cannon in his gloved hands, Baladon laughed. “They don’t frighten me,” he said over his battlesuit comm, unleashing hell on every Rengru that flew past. “I could barely get within torpedo range of this ship before. Now, I’m standing on the hull. I am not going anywhere!”
It wasn’t as if there was anywhere to go—not with Enterprise lurching to and fro and fire coming in from the Rengru warships. The blasts seemed to be targeting the stardrive section; that was the only reason Blue Squad hadn’t been vaporized. As it was, only Baladon, Connolly, and one other trooper remained—
—and that number immediately went down by one as Blue-5 was ripped from the surface by a Rengru fighter. “Help!”
“Becko!” Connolly called out. He hadn’t known his newest teammate long at all—but reflexively he prepared to deactivate his magnetic boots and ignite his jetpack.
Before he could, however, Baladon adjusted his weapon and fired at the struggling pair in the sky, annihilating both the soldier and his abductor.
Connolly shoved at Baladon. “You killed Becko! What did you do that for?”
“That’s what we’re supposed to do!” Baladon shouted, turning to fire in a different direction. “Like we always do!”
“We didn’t hear a breach warning. He still had a chance!”
“Rengies don’t breach armor in a vacuum. They wait until they get you home.”
>
At the word home, Connolly boiled over. “I’m done!”
“They’re hearing your chatter,” Baladon said. “Stick to the program. Get down there and sabotage the impulse engine.”
“No!” Connolly pointed at the airlock behind the bridge. Several Boundless had arrived there earlier—and were waging a defensive war against the swooping Rengru. “Baladon, forget this! Come with me. Enterprise—she’ll save us, take you wherever you want to go. Home, or—”
“The Boundless are taking me where I wanted to go! My home was nothing. I led an army of fools. Now I’m part of something!”
“Forget it.” Connolly released the charge he’d been ordered to set, allowing it to float away. He started a mad dash across the rear of the saucer section, heading for the bridge airlock.
“Little ingrate. They’re watching you! Get back here before—”
Connolly didn’t hear the rest of Baladon’s sentence, because the audio in his armor cut out, along with everything else on his interface. Blind in the dark, he felt his magnetic boots disengage from Enterprise’s hull—and his jetpack activate.
“No, no, no!” He wanted to flail in anger as he rocketed away. Away, surely, to the troop module that had launched him, where he would be disciplined for his attempt at desertion. But his battlesuit would not let him move. His part of the battle was over.
Combat Module Carrier 539-Aloga
“We’ve got runners,” Dreston said. “We’re bringing them back.”
Kormagan didn’t care a whit about deserters, not now. She was trying to save her wave—three waves—from destruction. She had never before known the Rengru to hit so hard over a spoil of war.
“We’re going to recall everyone and get out of here,” Quadeo transmitted. “I’ve just lost a carrier!”
Kormagan knew. 552-Urdoh had been caught in crossfire between the Hiveships. Three hundred hands would have been lost, minus whatever warriors were out in the modules or in space. “Don’t go yet,” she implored, “or this will all have been for nothing.”
The Enterprise War Page 18