And god help anything that got in her way.
Captain Hutchinson twisted in agony before the tentacled things that had invaded his bridge. He cried out again as his mind was assaulted by waves of unbearable pain. He was aware of screaming all around him, but he couldn't focus his mind or even see. All of his body was in agony; it was worse than being burned alive. He knew, somehow, that whatever was attacking him was using pain he had felt in the past as a weapon against him. He fought against the ragged screams being forced out of him, even as he fell to his knees.
As the redness momentarily cleared from his vision, he saw three tentacled things floating near the navigation console. Master Chief Katungi appeared unconscious or dead; Hutchinson couldn't tell. The bridge crew was entirely incapacitated.
"What do you want?" he cried out.
That was a mistake, as it refocused the attacks on him again. This time the agony was too much for him, and he slipped into merciful unconsciousness.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Tebrey and Hunter were twin engines of destruction.
The mindlink between Tebrey and Hunter integrated them, and they fought as one, sharing thoughts and perceptions without effort. The synchronization of their partnership had reached a new level, and they took full advantage of it as they raced for the bridge. Tebrey was a bright sigil of rage before which the enemy fell back in fear and confusion. The Jaernalith had never encountered a human who could stand up to their mental attacks. Not that Tebrey was entirely human, but they didn't know that, and it threw them into a panic.
They had all felt the dark one die, as well. They hadn't even known that those could be killed. A few of the Jaernalith fled the battle to take news to the others. Their race had been under the dominion of the dark ones for millennia. If they could be killed, that could end.
Two more of the enemy were torn apart by antimatter blasts, and a distant part of Tebrey's mind was surprised to realize the shots had come from him. He had finally given himself fully to his innate abilities, and the results were spectacular. He was reacting faster than he ever had before, dodging projected monofilament and never missing with his own antimatter shots.
It actually frightened him a little.
"Commander!" a voice shouted.
Tebrey slid to a halt and looked around. Lieutenant Christopher led a battered squad of marines toward him. A dark thought arose within him, that he could kill all of them before they even had a chance to respond. He closed his eyes and fought down the impulse. The rage within him was threatening to overwhelm him.
"Lieutenant," he said raggedly. "How did you get here?"
"We came around outside the hull. The amidships hatches were all sealed. How did you get here?"
"I came straight forward," said Tebrey. "I didn't have any trouble with the hatches."
"They wanted you to get through, Tebrey," Lyra said, panting. She'd had to run to keep up with the pace he had set. "Although I must admit to being both amazed and disturbed by the carnage you have wrought getting us here."
"Not very smart of them to let me get through," Tebrey replied, "not that they could have stopped me."
"Are you okay, Commander?" asked Christopher. "You're covered in blood."
"Am I?" Tebrey glanced down at his spacesuit. It was filthy and matted with drying blood. "I don't think much of it is mine," he said. "I was burned, but not cut."
"Have you had any contact with the bridge?" she asked. She was trying not to look too closely at the burned shapes on his suit; they were in the shape of large, clawed hands. She didn’t want to think about that.
She shivered.
"No, we're headed there now."
"I've been thinking about what to do if the bridge has been taken," Christopher said.
"We take it back."
"Not with those, you don't," she said, gesturing at his pistols. "Sorry, sir, but the blasts from antimatter pistols would do catastrophic damage to the bridge controls if you were to miss your targets."
"I don't miss, Lieutenant."
"Well, even the backwash of radiation from direct hits could cause damage, or kill those crewmembers still alive, sir, not to mention the electro-magnetic pulse."
Tebrey grimaced. She has a point, he thought.
Let me go in, Hunter replied. Follow me with that knife of yours. We can take them.
You’d be hampered in there, and you know it. You won’t even fit between some of the couches. I’ll go. You keep these people safe.
I don’t like it.
You don’t have to like, you just have to do it.
"I’ll take care of it, Christopher. Just be ready to back me up," said Tebrey. He holstered the pistols and drew his thirty-centimeter combat knife.
Christopher hesitated, and then swallowed nervously. She nodded agreement. "You would do something crazy like that, wouldn't you?"
Tebrey tensed as the door to the bridge opened.
Hunter was braced by the door and swatted the first Jaernalith that showed itself. It flew back from the door in an explosion of blood, and Tebrey darted in after it. He was hampered by not being able to use his pistols, but so were they. They couldn’t use their monofilament guns without hitting each other, although they could still use them like clubs.
Tebrey darted under one and sank his knife into an eye socket even as a rifle smashed painfully across back. His knife stuck in the skull of the next one and his hands instinctively reached for his pistols, but he checked himself before he drew them. He grabbed at a tentacle and was surprised at how easy it was to slam the creature into a support beam with bone-crushing force.
The Jaernalith were too close to each other to use their weapons effectively, and Tebrey killed them where they floated. His martial arts training was effective in smashing tentacles and skulls. He was hitting them so hard that he broke all of the bones in both of his hands – not that he noticed it till later. They tried to run, but Lyra was keeping them from apporting away, and Tebrey wasn’t in the mood to take prisoners.
"The ship?" Hutchinson gasped.
Tebrey had helped him into his acceleration couch. Most of the bridge crew were dead, and the remainder were barely holding themselves together. Several were sobbing in fetal positions. Unlike the captain, most of the other survivors had broken under the mental torture; only the XO seemed to keep it together. He was helping the others.
"We control most of it, Captain. Lieutenant Christopher secured Engineering before bringing a team forward."
"What is happening to us, Commander?"
"The enemy has found us, sir. They must have apported over from the Thrush."
"Apported?"
"Teleported psionically."
"I’ll take your word for it. You’re the expert. Is this what happened to you on the Kirov?"
Tebrey grimaced at the memory. "Not exactly, sir, but close."
"I don't know how you survived it."
Tebrey shrugged. "I've faced worse since then."
Captain Hutchinson studied the blood-covered commando who had just saved his ship, and was sorry he’d ever doubted him. "Yes, I can believe you have."
"We seem to be getting the upper hand here, sir. We still need to do something about the Thrush."
"Do you have a recommendation?"
"Let me take a team over and clean out the ship. There can't be too many left there."
"I need you to stay here on the bridge, Commander. We can’t let them retake this ship. Is Lieutenant Christopher here?"
"Yes, sir. She's coordinating the sweep teams."
"Get her in here."
"Yes, Captain." Tebrey gestured to one of the marines to get the lieutenant.
"Do you have any idea what these things are?" asked Hutchinson.
"Not really," Tebrey replied. "The Concord called them Jaernalith. I saw some bodies on Cedeforthy that looked like these things. The scientists there speculated that they may have been worshiping the Andhakaara."
"Andhakaara?" said Hutchinson.
; Tebrey frowned. "Sorry. That was the name Dr. Bauval gave to the Theta entities. It means demon of darkness or something."
"Not inappropriate, from what you've told me." The captain gestured at the bodies. "So these aren't Thetas?"
"Oh no," Tebrey replied. "Thetas are much worse."
"How are things over there, Lieutenant?" Captain Hutchinson asked the haggard face on his display.
Lieutenant Christopher frowned. "It's as bad you might think, sir," she replied. "They hadn't finished killing all of the original crew." She turned her head away from the pickup. "It had them for three months. I... They... It’s very bad, sir."
Captain Hutchinson waited for her to get her emotions back under control.
"I don't think anything can be done for them, sir," she said at last.
He'd seen the transmissions. "Do what you can, Lieutenant. We'll send what aid we can."
"Acknowledged, sir."
The captain turned to the others in the briefing room with him. He didn't have many officers left, and the empty chairs pained him. "Thoughts?" he asked.
Lieutenant Ginger Francis spoke up. She was acting chief engineer, since she was the only member of that department still alive. "Structurally, the ship is fine. We don't have the crew to maintain that, though. Little breakdowns are going to become serious if we aren't reinforced."
"Thank you, Lieutenant. I doubt we are going to get any reinforcements."
"Captain?" Tebrey said into the silence. "If I may?" He had bulky medical nano-tech packages on both hands and over his ribs where he'd been burned.
"Certainly, Commander. What do you have to add?"
"If you'll forgive me for saying so, I think you should transfer your worst wounded over to the Thrush and then make best speed for the Sentient Concord." Tebrey ignored the mutters from the other officers. "The Thrush was just the first ship the enemy could throw at us. I doubt if it will be the last."
"You think we are in imminent danger of another attack?" asked the captain.
"I think it's inevitable, sir. DEP communications are down. They may be down across the whole Fleet. We don't know. How many other ships have been hit? Even if the rest of the Fleet hasn't been affected, it indicates a heretofore unthinkable level of influence at Fleet Command by the enemy. What if the enemy has had us branded as rogues or traitors? Every ship we encountered would attack us before answering any hails. It would be Prism all over again."
"The commander makes a valid point," Lieutenant Fowler said. "Captain, I've been trying to raise Fleet Command as ordered, but we get nothing back. There's a lot of chatter in system, but they don’t know anything. Given the timing on the arrival of the Thrush, it does seem to suggest that the enemy somehow intercepted our original communication."
"Which, as you know, C-C-Captain, should be impossible. They've intercepted our messages, or they've infiltrated Fleet Command as Tebrey s-s-suggested," said Graham. The XO was still recovering from his ordeal on the bridge and stuttering
"Both of those are very unpleasant thoughts, XO."
"I'm s-s-sorry, Captain. I have to agree with T-T-Tebrey's recommendation. Consider it a tactical withdrawal to a s-s-safe haven. We don't have to throw our lot in with the Concord; we just ask for sanctuary until we can c-c-communicate with Fleet Command again."
"I think we should broadcast a recording of the events here to the merchant ships in orbit. They may be able to get the word out through other channels," said Tebrey.
"Agreed," Captain Hutchinson replied. "See to it, Fowler. In the meantime, I suggest we make preparations to depart."
"How do we avoid accusations of abandoning our post, sir?"
"Let me worry about that, Lieutenant," the captain replied. "I'll note in the log that it was my decision alone."
"I'd back you up, s-s-sir," said Graham.
"I appreciate that, Michio. I really do. But it isn't necessary. Lieutenant Christopher? What are your thoughts?"
"I agree that we should head for the Concord, sir. I've had some experience with them. They know how to handle these things. If I were you, sir, I'd tell the crew before we pull out and let them transfer over here to the Thrush if they don't like it. No sense in causing more problems. I, personally, would like to come back to the Descubierta before that."
Captain Hutchinson smiled. "I'm sure that can be arranged, Lieutenant."
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Lyra sat in quiet reflection.
Emerald had contacted her with a troubling update from Aurora. The dissention among the Mo'Ceri was growing stronger. Brennen's actions in going against the will of the Circle, and then her actions in fleeing Aurora with Tebrey, had led many of the Mo'Ceri to doubt if humans were as ready for their aid as they'd thought.
Many things had changed in the last few weeks. People she had known for years were acting different. She had to wonder if she had really known them that well at all. It pained her, but she didn't regret her actions. She knew it was important that Tebrey not fall into the enemy's hands. After seeing him fight, she knew he had to be kept alive at all costs. He’d make one hell of an ally. Brennen was fool for having tried to kill him. She wasn’t even sure if he’d have been able to.
Leander had told her what he hadn't been willing to talk about in front of Tebrey. The man's genetic sequence wasn't exactly unique. Leander had seen something like it before, but it had been a long time ago. There were legends so old that even the oldest of the Mo'Ceri could barely remember them, legends of those who came first. Not just first in her own universe – first anywhere. The Mo'Ceri had seen evidence of them over the years. Some of the oldest and most powerful species shared some genetic material, and then there were the most powerful of the dark ones. They had only managed to get genetic material from one of those once, but it had genetic complexity unseen before. It had also carried every gene for psionic ability from every species. The Mo'Ceri had called those who came first, the Forerunners. They suspected they had found one in the dark being they had sampled
Tebrey shared more of that genetic material with the Forerunners, than anyone else the Mo'Ceri had ever met.
Whatever else his father had been, he might have actually been one of the Forerunners. The thought of that kind of power frightened Lyra in a way that a dark one never could. If he really was one of them, then it meant that they were still active and manipulating things.
That worried her almost as much as the troubles back home, for she knew that it meant Tebrey was far more important to them than they had guessed. It also meant that there were other enemies out there that were more powerful than anything her people were prepared for.
And worse yet, that enemy must be organized. The attacks upon Tebrey had not been random. She could see a pattern emerging. An ancient evil was awaking. The Circle needed to pull itself together, now more than ever.
Was that why Aurora had been attacked? To cause this dissention?
Captain Joseph Jin Rai closed his air screens and stretched. His shoulders and back were cramped and stiff. He'd been in conference with Commodore Ffoulkes for hours. The commodore had finally deigned to inform the task force of their orders, and Jin Rai was less than happy with them.
The task force was more of an armada, actually. Jin Rai hadn't seen so many ships together in one system since the Nurgg War. Over two hundred ships comprised the force, the collected might of almost the entire Second Fleet. Ffoulkes has pulled in every ship he could find in the sector.
The door chimed.
"Come in," the captain said.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" said Lt. Commander George Dorian as he entered.
"Yes, George, I do. Come in and sit down."
The XO came in, and the captain locked the door and enabled the security system.
Dorian raised an eyebrow at that. "What's going on, sir?"
"We have a big problem," Jin Rai said. "The commodore says that he has received orders and has passed them on to us."
"I assumed that was happening whe
n you were called into conference. You don't think he really received orders?"
"I don't know. A courier did dock with his ship, but DEP communication have been down for days. I can't confirm the orders, and I don't like them."
"Dare I ask?"
"Our task force is spearheading what is to be an all-out offensive into the Sentient Concord." The captain nodded at his XO's sudden intake of breath. "We are ordered to take GL 570 at all costs. We've been even been authorized to bomb non-military targets if necessary to suppress local rebellion."
"Jesus Christ!" Dorian shook his head in denial. "No wonder Ffoulkes has us rendezvousing here. We're only a few light-years from GL 570. Has there been an official declaration of war yet?"
"How should I know?" Jin Rai said bitterly. "I doubt it, though. I asked Ffoulkes, and he said it was felt that we couldn't afford to give up the element of surprise. We know that Concord technology is better than ours, but our task force vastly outnumbers their entire fleet. We're to attack in a week, when the rest of our ships arrive with the troop carriers."
"Troop carriers?"
"He's sending ships out to gather everything he can for this. They're recommissioned ships left over from the last war with the Homndruu. We are to land troops and occupy Dawn."
"Where did they get enough troops? No, let me guess: he called up the planetary militias."
"You got it."
"That's going to leave a lot of planets effectively defenseless. Not to mention that it's illegal as hell."
"I know."
"Fleet Command is using Prism to instigate the war?"
"I don't think so."
"Captain?"
"I think this is all Ffoulkes' idea. I don't think he received orders at all. He won't let any of the other ships travel to Sol for confirmation."
"Did you mention to the commodore what really happened?"
"I did. He told me I was being seditious and threatened to have me removed from command."
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