We'd left two ships behind, Intrepid and Fleet Afoot. I frantically searched the debris for signs of either ship but couldn't find anything. That said, the destruction was so complete it would be difficult to pick out any recognizable pieces.
"When did this happen?" I asked.
"No way to tell," Nick said. "Unless Jonathan has some ideas."
"We're running a number of simulations," Jonathan answered. "Our current, best estimate is that Petersburg Station was destroyed three days after the Kroerak fleet arrived over Zuri. We will continue to refine our data."
"Ada, Tabbs, you need to come back," I called, my AI routing comms so they could hear me.
"What happened, Liam?" Tabby's voice sounded like she'd been crying, something I rarely saw from her. We knew each other well enough that she trusted me to give her space when she needed it. My calling at one of those times communicated urgency.
"We just got a data-stream of Petersburg," I said, trying to hold back my own anguish and keep it professional. I was apparently only moderately successful. A moment later, Tabby re-entered the wardroom and I held my arm out to her after flicking the data-stream across the open space.
"Never again," she said, pulling me close. "If I have to spend my entire life hunting them, I'll kill every Kroerak in existence."
"Liam, we have discovered additional information," Jonathan said. "It will not be pleasant."
"Please, tell me," I said.
My HUD showed a ten-meter strip of armor slowly tumbling through the data-stream. The armor had been caught at long range and could have been anything – that is, until Jonathan further highlighted part of the surface as it turned over. One side of the armor had been coated in the stealth pattern we'd taken from one of our original ships, Hotspur. It was clearly armor we'd placed on Intrepid.
"Nick, what is our fuel situation?" I asked.
"Five percent," he answered.
"This station was a fuel depot," Tabby said, her mind skipping to the obvious next step.
"Still is," Nick said. "Along with ordnance. It's why Mshindi Prime wants us to guard it. Its strategic value to Abasi is impossible to underestimate. We can't take Hornblower out of here."
I looked at Nick as Tabby grabbed my hand, squeezing it hard in frustration, acknowledging the truth Nick spoke. Hornblower was one of a handful of fully operational warships around Abasi Prime. Our presence alone was a stabilizing force. Nick was right.
"Ada …" I started.
"No. I said never again," she replied, pre-empting me.
"I don't see any other way. I need you."
"Jupiter-piss. This is wrong," Ada complained. But after searching my face, she reluctantly gave in. "Fine."
"Ada will take command of Hornblower and finish our mission here in Tamu," I said. "Sendrei, I need you to step up as Number Two."
"Copy that, Captain," he answered.
"Marny, I want you to commandeer two of those three sloops we saw when we arrived. Roby, figure out what we need to do to retrofit them for human operation. Nick, I want Iskstar crystals loaded into each of those sloops."
"What about little Pete?" Tabby asked. "You can't take him into a war zone."
Marny smiled tightly. "Specifically, which war-zone would you have me avoid?"
The two had always gotten along well. Tabby saw Marny as more of a teacher than friend, and the reprimand, while not sharp, caught Tabby's attention. "Right. You've thought this through already. My bad. It just felt like Liam was signing you and Peter up for danger without really thinking about it."
"I appreciate the consideration," Marny said, her voice still carrying an edge. "How about you let me or Nick call uncle first?"
"Consider me sufficiently chastised," Tabby answered.
Marny's face softened. "Look, I don't mean to come on so hard. I've just been getting a lot of advice where Peter is concerned."
Tabby nodded her head and grinned wryly but didn't say anything further. It was about as much apology as either woman could stand and I took it as my responsibility to move the conversation along.
"Good. We'll put Tabby in command of the first sloop with Roby, Semper, and Jonathan. I'll take command of the second with Marny and Nick. We'll need to get the Popeyes, supplies …"
Marny held up her hand interrupting me.
"I've got this, Cap," she said. "The sloops are already being refueled and we're taking on O2 and rations. Sorry to say, there hasn't been any fresh food available for at least a ten-day. Semper, I need you to get those Popeyes loaded on the right vessels. Roby, Semper, since you're not wearing grav-suits, make sure you get armored vac-suits checked out. We could run into the shite when we get there. I want to be ready to roll in ninety minutes."
As the group filtered out, Ada stopped and stared me down. "Don't think those glowy blue eyes are getting you off the hook, Hoffen. I said I wasn't getting left behind again and the first thing you do is leave me behind."
"It's important, Ada," I said.
"It always is. You better not make it a habit or we're going to have an adjustment," she said. Her glare was steely. This was no longer the same, timid girl we'd rescued. The memory seemed only months old but, in actuality, was closer to four standard years.
"Message received, Ada," I said, turning to look straight into her eyes. "You're crew, Ada. The only reason I need to leave you behind is because there are only three other people in the entire universe that I trust as much as you. If we're going to put an end to the Kroerak, we need Hornblower. I know you'll keep her safe."
"And that's the only reason you're getting by with this," she said. "I'm not blind. I see the need. I just don't like being the B Team."
"If there's anything you're not," I chuckled nervously. "It's B Team material."
"She's spritely," I said. The difference between Hornblower and the sloop Shimmering Leaves was considerable. Both Shimmering Leaves and Ice Touched Field had been upgraded with human-inspired gravity and inertial systems. I think, at heart, I'd always been a small ship guy.
"Has claws, too," Nick said. "These are long-range patrol sloops. Abasi apparently don't like being outgunned."
I'd spent the better part of twenty minutes rearranging the virtual displays on the simple vid-screen that sat forward of the single pilot's chair. A blinking light was accompanied by a chime, alerting me of an incoming priority comm.
"Shimmering Leaves, Bold Prime, go ahead," I said, not bothering to see who it was.
"Bold Prime, it is unexpected that you leave Abasi Prime," Mshindi Prime's face appeared on the vid-screen. "We struggle to regain control of our populous even as residual Kroerak are hunted."
"Copy that," I answered. My position was to be on par with Mshindi and it was time to figure out just where I stood. "We received disturbing images from Zuri and have set sail."
For a moment, she simply stared at the screen. "Mzuzi will use this to gain advantage upon House of the Bold," she said simply.
"My family is on Zuri," I said. "Hornblower remains behind with Bold Tertiary. Ada Chen will make good decisions. You should trust her as you do me."
"Trust not the Pogona," she said. "Now that Abasi are weakened, they will come for Zuri. I ask that you visit my home and ask whomever remains to prepare to return to Abasi Prime."
"Your family will be as my own, Adahy," I said, bringing my clenched fist to just below my solar plexus.
"Keep the breeze in your whiskers and the sun on your shoulders so your quarry smells not your approach and is blinded," she answered, closing comms.
"Easy to forget that her family is on Zuri," Nick said.
"Her duty is to Abasi first," Marny said. "That's a hard choice to make."
"She's had a lot of those, lately," I said.
"House Kifeda will likely try to get us tossed from House of Koman because we're not on Abasi Prime," Nick said.
"Bring it," I said. "I've chewed up and spit out bigger asshats than him."
Marny snorted a laugh, which woke
little Pete who lay on her lap. "You make it look so easy, Cap."
"What's that?"
"Leading. How are you always so sure what the right move is?" she asked.
"Mind if I hold him?" I asked, pushing back from the forward bulkhead, allowing Shimmering Leaves' AI to take over navigation duties.
"Sure, he might be a little fussy. He's starting to get hungry," she said, handing him to me. I was struck by his warmth as I pulled him in close.
"He smells so good," I said.
"Breast milk," Nick said, as if it were the most natural thing in the universe to blurt out while sailing into the deep dark.
I looked to Marny then to Nick. "Pardon?"
"He smells good because of breast milk," he said. "We can replicate nutritional supplements that are exactly the same, but nothing is as good as milk delivered straight from the breast. It's amazing. Like from the first minute he saw 'em, that's all he wanted. I think the sweet smell is because he's happy."
I opened my eyes wide and shook my head. Someone had stolen my best friend and swapped him out with a crazy person. "For the love of everything I hold dear, can you stop talking about Marny's boobs?"
Nick grinned. "You just said, 'hold dear' and 'Marny's boobs' in the same sentence. Tell me, ever hear of a man named Freud?"
"Nick," Marny giggled in a girly manner I rarely heard from her. "Go easy on him."
"With your name, you've got some big shoes to fill, little man," I said, purposefully changing the subject.
The normally busy run from Abasi Prime to the Tamu-Santaloo wormhole entrance was almost entirely devoid of other ships. The two groups we did run into refused to drop their hard-burn to allow for communications exchange. Arriving in the Santaloo star system, we discovered several shipwrecks within forty thousand kilometers of the gate. According to Jonathan's analysis, the wrecks were the result of ship-to-ship combat with blasters and not directly related to the Kroerak invasion.
It was a five-day trip from the Tamu-Santaloo gate to Zuri. In each of our periodic halts from hard-burn, we'd intercepted small snippets of communication from the planet. The news wasn't good. Much of the planet had devolved into chaos. While the Kroerak had focused on the area near York, the cities that had been left untouched had seen rioting. Terrified citizens had turned first on their local governments and finally on each other as they anticipated invasion.
"We'll drop from hard-burn in ten … nine …" I set the countdown on the sloop's bridge address system and prepared for hard maneuvering if it was called for. Our short-range sensors hadn't picked up any nearby ships, but we were coming in next to the debris field that had been Petersburg station and it might be possible for a ship to be lurking nearby, hidden in the junk.
"Holy frak," Tabby's voice floated over comms.
There were so many small chunks of debris deflecting off our ship's armor that it sounded like rain.
Nick's navigation path had dropped us out further from the station than I'd have liked, but I was immediately grateful for his forethought in considering the debris cloud. For unarmored transports, the area around Petersburg station wouldn’t be safe for many years to come without a concerted cleanup effort.
From the data-streams we'd already viewed, I thought I'd gained a good feeling for the damage to Petersburg. Breath caught in my throat as I grew overwhelmed at the loss. Virtually no part of Petersburg remained. The damage felt like more than a tactical strike. It felt very personal, like the Kroerak had made a specific point of grinding the station into dust.
When we'd last left, there'd been more than a hundred residents on the station, which was surrounded by extremely heavy defensive weapons. A lightning bolt of anguish coursed through me as I considered that someone would have remained behind to man those weapons. The loss was incomprehensible. For the first time, I understood how the citizens of Earth and those of Abasi Prime felt after discovering they'd survived but had lost so much. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I did nothing to hide my grief.
"Nick, are you picking up anything?" I asked, my voice sounded foreign to my own ears as I took a shuddering breath.
"Nothing, Liam," he answered reverently. "The debris has scattered tens of thousands of kilometers since the event. This isn’t even Petersburg's original position, it's just the largest mass of what remains."
Marny handed me a cloth and I wiped at my eyes and blew my nose. I was so overwhelmed I didn't know what to do next. I'd seen enough death and destruction by the Kroerak that my resolve to hunt them down hadn't changed. But today, I desperately needed another objective. Marny wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me to her, holding me close against her chest. The act took me off guard and I cried.
"I'm sorry, Liam," Tabby said over comms. "We'll find her. No matter what. Don't count your mother out. She knew they were coming."
"York," I managed to say. There was nothing left for us in the debris that was once a proud and thriving station. I pushed my feelings down into the rage that burned within my soul. Like many, I hated the Kroerak for what they had taken from me. Like none before me, however, I had the means to carry out judgment. I grabbed that rage and held it close.
"Course laid in," Nick answered. "Are you okay, Liam?"
"Not really. But I've got this."
Wordlessly, I piloted Shimmering Leaves into Zuri's atmosphere.
Zuri was a beautiful planet, more arid on average than Earth, but not as much as Mars. There were only a few, moderately-sized oceans and the planet's primary foliage was a dense scrub that rarely grew taller than twenty or thirty meters. From space, the planet was a mixture of red-browns and deep greens. On this approach, however, the planet’s beauty was lost on me.
Taking us down toward the small frontier town of York, Tabby stayed close on my wing. We'd flown together in plenty of combat situations and old habits came back quickly.
As we cruised downward, I recalled that it had been the people of York who had originally drawn us to the Dwingeloo galaxy. At the time, we'd been tracking down an abandoned Belirand colony mission. Belirand, an evil intragalactic company, had sent its people – those who would later found York – on a one-way trip to the Mhina system. Only through the kindness of the Abasi had the explorers been allowed to settle on the planet Zuri where they scraped out a life in the wilderness.
"We'll fly over the homestead and Nick's manufactory," I said, adjusting our descent.
We'd arrived in Dwingeloo almost two years previous and the citizens of York, under attack from Kroerak and dealing with failing technology, had received us with open arms. In that time, we’d been able to help fortify and resupply the city. Indeed, it appeared that in the year since I'd been gone, even more had changed. Specifically, Nick's industrial complex had grown to ten-times what I recalled and covered the better part of a square kilometer.
From a few kilometers away, the buildings looked like they hadn't been hit too hard. As we closed the distance, however, we learned that nothing could have been further from the truth. As we slowly passed over, I caught movement from below and my HUD outlined at least ten Kroerak warriors skittering through the ruins of Nick's enterprise.
"Frak, they're still down there," Nick observed, picking up on the Kroerak.
"What would stop them?" Marny asked. "They were abandoned by their fleet. I'm picking up even more in the surrounding scrub."
"What are they doing in your shop?" I asked. "It's not like there's any food in there."
"No idea," Nick said.
We'd yet to get a good look at York, as it was on the other side of Quail Hill. Accelerating, we flew over the hill and looked into the valley where York sat – or at least, used to sit. The devastation of the small city was complete. The twenty-meter-high steel walls that had stood for a century and a half were collapsed outwards and not a building still stood. The terrain had been so trampled as to be unrecognizable. It was as if the wrath of the entire Kroerak army had visited and delivered their judgment.
"In
trepid!" Tabby exclaimed. For the second time in its hard life, the once beautiful Intrepid lay crash-landed upon Zuri. My eyes searched for damage that would explain the armor we'd seen tumbling in the data-stream. Flying to the other side of the ship we located where an entire section of forward hull had been removed almost surgically. I knew of only one weapon that could do that — the Kroerak's lance wave.
Iskstar-tuned fire erupted from Ice Touched Field's forward, lower turret. A group of Kroerak warriors, having heard our approach, had emerged from the scrub near Intrepid. The ship's weapon splattered the bugs into the dirt.
"That was a controlled descent!" Nick said, his voice carrying excitement.
"What?" I asked.
"If you were in the forward section it would have been bad, but someone piloted that ship and landed it. Liam, those Kroerak aren't in the warehouse looking for machines," he said. "I think I know where the people of York went."
Chapter 5
I Choose Life
"Nick, take the helm," I said, setting the ship on auto. "Marny, Tabbs – Popeyes."
It was one of the joys of working with life-long friends. We didn't require a lot of conversation to communicate big ideas, especially where combat was concerned. Jumping from my chair, I ran from the sloop's bridge and back to the relatively empty cargo hold.
"Right behind you, Cap. I've got to put Peter into his bassinette," Marny said.
"Roby, we're slaving our controls onto Ice Touched Field," Nick said. "Take us back to the warehouse."
"Copy that. Tabby explained what we're doing. Do you really think they're alive?" Roby asked, his voice filled with emotion. Everyone he'd known and loved had been in York.
"I'm counting on it!" I said, allowing an ember of hope to grow.
Having spent the better part of the last few months living in my mechanized infantry suit, I wasted little time as I jumped in and fired it up. Marny, a few steps behind for having handed Peter over to Nick, fell even further behind as lack of familiarity slowed her. I breathed deep as I gripped the controls and ran through status, first on my Popeye and then on Marny's.
Judgment of the Bold Page 5