A Line in the Sand

by Ryk Brown

  “Thirty meters,” Dylan updated over the intercom. “Two meters per second closure.”

  Marcus grabbed the control handles on the back of the weapon, pulling the entire weapon back through the pressure shield and pressing the retract button on the side of the weapon’s mounting bracket.

  Kit kept his eyes on Talisha’s tumbling cockpit rescue module as he braced himself at the center of the ramp. Suddenly, a blinding flash of blue-white light appeared just beyond the module, revealing a Dusahn gunship. The moment it appeared, its nearside gun turrets rotated and took aim on the aft end of the Voss. “Oh shit!”

  Red bolts of energy slammed into the aft shields of the Voss, lighting them up in brilliant, red flashes.

  Talisha instinctively ducked as red bolts of energy streaked past her on all sides, the interior of her cockpit bathed in red flashes as they passed.

  Something struck the right side of her module, causing the entire unit to shift suddenly.

  “What the…” Her entire cockpit unexpectedly shifted right, throwing her body against the left side. “What’s happening?”

  “A grappling system has attached itself to us,” Leta reported. “We are now tethered to the Dusahn gunship.”

  “The gunship is moving away from us!” Dylan reported as the ship was rocked with incoming fire. “But so is the rescue module!”

  “They’ve attached something to me!” Talisha reported. “They’re pulling me in!”

  “Josh! Move us in, quickly!” Nathan ordered.

  “This isn’t going to work!” Josh warned. “We need to force that gunship to cut her loose!”

  “Gunners!” Nathan called out over the intercom. “Pound that gunship!”

  “Two more gunships jumped in!” Dylan reported over comms. “They’re moving into position to attack!”

  The ramp heaved under Kit’s feet, as the ship rocked from incoming fire.

  “Shield strength is falling fast!” Dylan warned.

  “I gotta break off!” Josh declared.

  “Marcus!” Kit yelled. “Give me half gravity on the ramp!”

  Marcus didn’t ask any questions, just ran over to the control panel next to the forward hatch and activated the artificial gravity on the ramp, setting it at fifty percent normal gravity.

  “Capsi, turn off mag boots and calculate range and rate of departure from the Voss of the rescue module. Update continuously and prepare a micro-jump.”

  “Calculating,” his suit AI acknowledged. “Range, fifty meters and increasing at a rate of ten meters per second.”

  His feet now free, Kit ran back through the pressure shield into the utility bay, stopping around the middle of the bay.

  “Departure rate increasing,” his AI reported. “Twenty meters per second and climbing rapidly. Forty meters per second; fifty, sixty, one hundred, one fifty…”

  “Josh!” Kit called over comms. “Line us up with Talisha and hold her steady for a few seconds!”

  “Three hundred meters per second,” his AI continued to report. “Range one point three kilometers and increasing rapidly.”

  “A few seconds is all you’re gonna get!” Josh replied.

  “What are you doing, Kit?” Jessica asked, already knowing the answer.

  The ship rocked as more bolts struck their shields.

  “Wish me luck,” Kit replied.

  “We’re lined up!” Josh announced.

  “Kit?” Nathan called over comms. “If you’re about to do what I think you’re about to do…”

  Kit winked at Jessica, then charged out the back through the pressure shield, covering the length of the ramp in a few seconds, finally jumping off the end into space. “Capsi! Track the target! Am I lined up?”

  “Affirmative,” his AI replied. “Range to target is three kilometers and climbing.”

  “Jump me to the target!” Kit ordered.

  “Due to the target’s speed, you will have one point five seconds to grab hold after coming out of the jump,” his AI warned. “After that, the target will have accelerated beyond your reach.”

  “Just do it!” Kit instructed.

  “Jumping in three……two……one……”

  “Holy crap!” Marcus exclaimed over the intercom. “He fuckin’ jumped!”

  “What?” Nathan exclaimed in disbelief.

  “Go Vasya, go!” Mori yelled in encouragement of his comrade.

  “FINALLY!” Josh yelled. “Someone crazier than me!”

  The ship rocked as more bolts of energy slammed into their shields.

  “Shields are down to forty percent!” Dylan warned. “This is not good!”

  “Go after her!” Nathan instructed.

  “Go after who?” Josh wondered. “Oh, her,” he added, realizing what Nathan meant. “I’m on it.”

  “Gunners! Stop that gunship!” Nathan ordered. “But check your aim! We don’t want to hit Talisha!”

  “Or Kit!” Jokay added.

  Suddenly, Talisha’s tumbling rescue pod was right in front of him. He reached out with both hands, barely managing to grab a piece of its exposed frame with one hand. He squeezed tight, feeling the strength of his built-in micro-exoskeleton clamping his fingers down tightly.

  Kit felt as if his arm was about to be ripped from his shoulder, but he held on tight. Finally, he managed to get his other hand around and grab the frame, then pulled himself in close.

  A helmeted man suddenly appeared to her left only centimeters beyond her canopy, startling Talisha.

  “What’s a nice girl like you doing all the way out here?” Kit joked, smiling at her.

  “Are you insane!” Talisha exclaimed.

  “Yes!” Kit replied. “Voss! I’ve got her!” The pod suddenly shifted sharply, as the gunship began reeling them in. Kit nearly lost his grip, his body swinging free. “Sort of!”

  “This is not going to work!” Mori warned over the intercom. “There’s no way I can get a shot at that gunship unless you can get us on another angle!”

  “I can barely keep them off our back!” Josh exclaimed.

  The ship rocked violently, lurching to one side and nearly knocking Nathan off his feet. “You call that keeping them off our back?!” The ship rocked again as more incoming fire slammed into their shields.

  “Shields down to thirty percent!” Dylan warned.

  “Stay with that gunship, Josh!” Nathan ordered.

  Kit managed to brace himself again, pulling his body back in tight to the side of Talisha’s canopy. “They’re pulling us in,” he realized, moving carefully around the outside of the pod as it was reeled in closer and closer to the gunship that had captured it.

  “What are you doing?” Talisha wondered.

  “I’m going to cut the tether!” Kit explained.

  “They’ll just use another!” Talisha warned.

  “Maybe! Maybe not!” Kit replied.

  “That’s a lot of maybes.”

  “They have to drop shields to reel them in, right?” Nathan asked.

  Dylan looked back over his shoulder. “You’re asking me?”

  “Jess!” Nathan called. “Can you get a shot past Talisha and Kit with the tail gun?”

  “It won’t make a dent in their shields!” Jessica warned.

  “Hopefully it won’t have to!” Nathan replied.

  “You can’t do this!” Talisha insisted. “When we cross the shield barrier, you’ll be killed!”

  “They have to drop their shields to pull you in, right?” Kit surmised. When she didn’t respond, he turned to look at her through the canopy. “Right?”

  Talisha shrugged.

  “Well, I guess we’re about to find out,” Kit decided.

  Jessica reached up and pulled the tail gun back down from its overhead storage position, allowing it to swing it
s barrels aft through the pressure shield once again. The targeting screen lit up and began searching for a target, just as a small blue-white flash of light appeared in the distance. “Shit!”

  Dylan stared at the sensor display in disbelief. “They’re gone,” he finally announced.

  “They’ve jumped,” Jessica reported over the intercom.

  The threat warning light began flashing again, and the threat alarm sounded. “Incoming missiles! Six of them!”

  “We can’t outrun them,” Josh warned.

  “Our shields aren’t going to hold!” Dylan added.

  “Can you get us back down into the atmosphere?” Nathan asked. “There are only three or four octos left, right? We can probably defend against that.”

  “Believe me, I’m trying,” Josh assured him as he began maneuvering like a madman.

  “They’ve gotta be coming from the frigate,” Nathan decided.

  “Those missiles can’t reach us down in the atmosphere, right?” Dylan asked.

  “They can,” Nathan replied, “and they will.”

  The jump flash subsided, and Kit opened his eyes and looked around. The Voss, the Dusahn octos and gunships attacking it, even the planet, were gone. “Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.”

  Kit turned to face the gunship that was reeling them in, then jumped toward it, pushing off of Talisha’s rescue module.

  “What are you doing?” she yelled.

  “Plan B!” Kit replied as he drifted toward the gunship. He reached out and grabbed the tether, gaining hold about halfway between the gunship and Talisha’s rescue module.

  Talisha’s module swayed abruptly, being pulled by Kit’s momentum. “You’re insane!”

  “No, I’m Kit,” he replied. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “Are all Ghatazhak this crazy?”

  “Actually, I’m sort of a special case,” Kit replied as he pulled himself along the tether toward the gunship.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m cutting you free,” Kit replied as he grabbed hold of the side of the gunship. He turned and pointed his wrist cannon toward the tether behind him and fired, severing the line.

  “They’ll just fire another one,” Talisha told him.

  “Not if I can help it.”

  “You should save yourself and let them take me.”

  “And where would I go?” Kit asked as he climbed inside the open bay on the underside of the gunship where the tether winch was located. With a push of his legs, he propelled himself across the bay, landing on the opposite side, next to the airlock hatch. A few taps on the control pad to the right of the hatch revealed that it was not locked. “Well, that’s just dumb.”

  “They’re blocking us in,” Josh warned as the Voss continued to shake violently with incoming weapons impacts.

  “Shields are down to eighteen percent!” Dylan announced. “Missile impacts in forty seconds!”

  “Why didn’t they use jump missiles on us?” Josh wondered.

  “They’re afraid they’d take out friendlies,” Nathan replied. “Dylan, find that frigate!”

  “It’s not on my screen!” Dylan replied.

  “They must be firing from over the horizon, using targeting data from one of the octos,” Nathan surmised.

  The Voss suddenly lurched to port, struck hard on her starboard side.

  “We’ve lost starboard shields!” Dylan reported. “Grav-lift failure in the starboard nacelle!”

  “That means we can’t land!” Josh realized.

  “I guess we stand and fight then,” Nathan decided. “Gunners! Target the incoming missiles!”

  The outer hatch of the gunship’s recovery bay airlock slid open, and Kit used the edge of the hatch to pull himself inside. Once he passed through the hatch, the artificial gravity inside the airlock pulled his feet to the deck, and he found himself standing upright again. He quickly turned around and activated the outer hatch, causing it to close, then turned back to face the inner hatch.

  “Kit!” Talisha called as she watched the gunship pull away from her. “I can’t see you! Kit!”

  She watched in horror as the gunship began a slow turn to come about and reacquire her. As she suspected, they were not about to let her escape.

  With the airlock now repressurized, the inner hatch slid open, revealing four armed Dusahn officers, all taking aim on Kit.

  “Hello there!” Kit greeted, waving. “Can you direct me to your command deck?”

  All four officers fired, their beams of energy ricocheting off Kit’s personal shield, slamming into the walls, and luckily, into one of the Dusahn officers. “Well, that was stupid,” Kit said as he sprang into action.

  “I got one!” Mori exclaimed over the intercom.

  “That’s three down!” Dylan reported.

  “Keep our starboard side away from them, Josh!” Nathan barked.

  “I’m trying!”

  “Four down!” Dylan updated. “Ten seconds!”

  “Got it!” Jokay yelled “I got that fucker!”

  “Five down!” Dylan cried out.

  “Brace for impact!” Nathan yelled.

  Red-orange bolts of plasma streaked past them on all sides like a rain of fire. One of them struck the last missile a split second before it impacted their shields. Still, the explosion rocked the ship from side to side, tossing her crew about wildly.

  “Sensors are offline!” Dylan reported.

  “What the hell just…” Nathan began to say.

  “Voss, Aurora!” a voice called over comms. “Hold course while we assist!”

  “YES!” Nathan exclaimed.

  “Gunyoki are away!” Ensign Keller reported from the Aurora’s communications console.

  “Lieutenant Yuati, disengage our attack on the octos and gunship,” Cameron directed. “Let the Gunyoki deal with them.”

  “Aye, sir,” the tactical officer replied.

  “Multiple contacts!” Kaylah reported from the sensor station. “Eight missiles just came over the horizon. They’re targeting the Voss.”

  “Helm, put us between those missiles and the Voss. Tactical, point-defenses!”

  “Maneuvering into the missile path,” the helmsman acknowledged.

  “Engaging point-defenses,” the tactical officer announced.

  “Kaylah, launch a recon drone over the horizon to find the ship launching those missiles,” Cameron ordered as the Aurora’s point-defenses opened fire on the incoming missiles. “Lieutenant, put four missiles on the cats. Two busters and two nukes. I want that ship out of our space.”

  “Busters and nukes, aye,” the tactical officer replied.

  “The Aurora is acting as a shield against the incoming missiles!” Dylan reported excitedly. “There are Gunyoki all over the place!” he added, watching out the starboard window as the Gunyoki chased away the remaining octos and gunships.

  “They’re jumping away!” Mori exclaimed from the dorsal gun turret.

  “I thought the Dusahn fought to the death,” Dylan said.

  “Not when they don’t have much left to fight with,” Nathan corrected, a wave of relief washing over him.

  “Voss, Aurora Actual,” Cameron called over comms.

  Nathan reached up to the overhead comms panel. “It’s about time!”

  “Sorry about the delay,” Cameron replied. “I thought it prudent to bring some extra muscle to the party. Sensors show you’ve taken some damage yet again. Is everyone all right?”

  “We’ve lost track of Kit,” Nathan replied.

  “Vasya?”

  “Who else?” Nathan replied. “He was captured trying to rescue Talisha. A gunship nabbed them both and jumped away before we could get to them.”

  “I take it your jump drive is down,” Cameron
surmised. “I suggest you set down on our pressure deck to effect repairs while you take a Reaper down to complete your mission on Volon.”

  “What about Kit and Talisha?” Nathan asked. “I doubt that gunship jumped far, probably just enough to get away from us so that they could complete the capture.”

  “We’ll start a search,” Cameron promised. “If they’re still in the system, we’ll find them. Aurora Actual, out.”

  Nathan sighed, his head hanging down as the post-action fatigue began to hit. “Josh, do you think you can put us on deck safely?”

  Josh let his head fall against the headrest. “I think I’ll let the AI handle this one,” he decided, turning to look at Dylan.

  Talisha’s eyes widened as the Dusahn gunship moved into position over her, much closer than before. As she had feared, another grappler slammed into the side of her rescue module, and the gunship began reeling her in again.

  “Hey!” Kit called over comms. “What do you think we should name this thing?”

  “Kit?”

  “You want to name it Kit?”

  “Where are you?”

  “In the pilot’s seat of this gunship,” Kit replied. “The entire crew suddenly became unable to perform their duties……ever.”

  Talisha breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I’ll have you in the bay in a minute,” Kit assured her.

  “I take back everything bad I ever said about the Ghatazhak,” Talisha told him.

  “No need,” Kit assured her, laughing. “It was probably true.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  General Pellot stormed into SilTek Security’s Defense Command Center. Additional officers and technicians scrambled to their stations as alert klaxons sounded in the distance and threat condition lights flashed.