“Keep tryin’—” Multiple proximity warning alerts flared. The Kepler was taking weapons fire. “What is it now?”
Chang flicked through several holo screens, keeping his eyes on its contents, and his racing fingers on the helm’s terminal. “Oh shit,” he said. “I’m tracking multiple hostile targets, Captain.”
He updated the view screen. A swarm of robotic-looking objects with twin guns blazing at their front was closing in on the Kepler. “What in the hell are those?” Foster asked.
“Defense drones,” Jainuzei replied, drawing a number of stares when he spoke.
Including Chang, as he spun his chair around and asked. “What’s he doing here?”
“Jainuzei is Saressea’s replacement the council failed to give us a heads-up about,” Foster said.
Jainuzei placed his hand behind his back. “Will my presence be an issue, Captain?”
The Kepler rocked suddenly. The holographic overlay on the view screen showed the estimated strength of the overshields slowly decreased.
“Damn, those things pack a punch,” Chang said as he returned to face the helm. “We’re sitting ducks here, Cap, we gotta go!”
‘Gotta go’ meant leaving Rivera behind if she was even alive. Not many people were when Foster last checked. Rivera not replying to Odelea’s attempts to reach her only fueled that idea. She was either dead, dying, or too busy fleeing. Something she and the Kepler’s crew would be if they remained.
The overshields continued to get weaker as the swarming drones released their rapidly discharged rail gun fire. The primary shields of the Kepler, according to the overlay on the view screen, were listed at 0 percent. Primary shields had to be disengaged in order to latch the airlock into the spaceport safely.
Tolukei and Nereid’s combined psionic powers were their first and last line of defense.
“Chang,” Foster said. “Get us out of here.”
“Yeah about that, Cap,” Chang said, his frantic face eying a flashing holo screen. “Docking clamps still got us.”
“So, unclamp it?”
“It’s gotta be done by Radiance,” he said, throwing his hands up in defeat. “If I force the ship loose, I might rip off half the starboard side.”
“Tolukei and Nereid, overshields to the max, give it all ya got,” Foster said, facing them. “If we lose them, we’re dead, can’t use primary shields until we’re free.”
Tolukei’s cloaked lizard head nodded, focusing his four eyes on Foster. The design of the cloak bore a scary resemblance to the ones the gunmen and women used. “Shall I attempt to rip it with my thoughts?” Tolukei offered.
“I guess that means you ain’t gonna be able to combine your powers with Nereid for the overshield?”
“No, Captain,” Tolukei said. “That will be the sacrifice.”
Foster was ready to shake her head no. The proposal was way too risky.
“Unless someone can get a hold of the spaceport’s staff,” Chang cut in. “Then that might be the only way to break free.”
Foster’s face was back looking at the communication station. “Odelea?”
“I’m trying!” Odelea said, frantically using her terminal. “I’m also trying to contact Union command. These are Radiance drones. They shouldn’t be attacking us.”
“None of the Radiance ships in the sector are under fire,” Chang reported from his computer’s holo screens. “Guess someone programmed them to attack anything that didn’t transmit a Radiance IFF during a crisis.”
The rate of fire the Kepler continued to receive didn’t let up. They were an idle target with thousands of drones buzzing around them like raging hornets that got their nest caved in by a swift kick.
“Chang, target anything that gets too close,” Foster said. “They’s just drones, ain’t nobody living flyin’ em.”
“On it.”
The Johannes Kepler’s forward weapons came online. Streaks of rail gun tracer light propelled away from the ship, turning any drone that happened to swerve into its path into bits of orange glowing slag and mangled electronics. Not enough drones were dropping. They needed to leave the action zone.
After ten minutes of horror and waiting, the giant mechanical hand holding the Kepler in place to dock with the spaceport released its firm grip on the ship. The Kepler began to drift free when its maneuvering thrusters fired.
“We’re free!” Chang said gleefully as his hands took control of various sticks, levers, and whatever else a pilot needed to use to make a ship fly.
Foster smiled facing the psionic work station. “Good job Tolukei and Nereid!”
“That was not me, Captain,” Tolukei said.
“Captain, it was Rivera,” Odelea said, her face beaming with hope. “She got the clamps released.”
“Thank God.” Foster exhaled deeply as she saw the sights on the view screen move. “Tell her to sit tight, we’s coming back!”
“She wants us to leave her,” Odelea reported.
“Why?”
Odelea went to speak with Rivera who was on the line. “I don’t know,” Odelea said, facing away from her screen. “That’s the last transmission I got. I’m getting nothing but static now. She sounded ill, however . . .”
Did she sacrifice her life to get them free? It was a thought Foster didn’t want to fancy for the time being. The lunatic gunmen and women were still on the spaceport turning it into a shooting range. Rivera staying behind wasn’t good for her life expectancy.
The second wave of drones approached the Kepler from all angles as it continued to slowly maneuver away from the station. Its overshields flashed purple colors with each magnetically accelerated round hitting it.
“How are those primary shields?” Foster asked.
“Got ‘em raised,” Chang said. “Keep in mind, Captain; we’re flying into a combat situation with no engineering team.”
“If you wish, Captain,” EVE said. “I could attend engineering for the time being.”
She nodded to the humanoid android standing with her hands behind her back. “Do it, EVE.”
EVE left the bridge and made her way to the empty engineering room. Once again, the android was living up to the V in her name, versatile. Sending EVE came at a cost, however; her processors were going to be tasked with operating multiple stations in engineering, making her a one android engineering team. The lag would be noticeable for any other ship-wide function, including the weapons assisted targeting or firing. Flying and gunning was up to Chang entirely. Tolukei and Nereid were too occupied with keeping the overshields active during the onslaught.
The luscious green garden planet of Eiri took up more than half of the view screen. Hundreds of larger circular-shaped objects were ahead of the planet, growing larger and sending red lines of light that collided with the overshields. The drones did not want them going anywhere.
Facing the helm, Foster asked. “How soon for an FTL jump?”
“Not soon enough,” Chang said. “Way too much shit out here, the drones, Radiance ships, satellites, and transports. We make a jump; we might end up flying into one of them.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she said.
“I don’t have much space to move around, Cap!”
“That’s the thing, Chang, space is called space for a reason, we got lots of it.”
“Captain, we got Eiri ahead, the spaceport behind, fleeing Radiance ferries, incoming Radiance battlecruisers, and a metric fuck ton of drones swarming us. Everything is way too close.”
Foster snorted. “Rock and a hard place, huh?”
Chang grimaced, keeping his focus on maneuvering the ship the best he could. “More like rock and a hard place, that’s in the middle of a giant ball of fuck. If you really want us out of here, I could chance it.”
“I don’t recommend that,” Pierce spoke up. “We’ll be hitting them at seven billion meters per second.”
“Seven billion, one hundred and ninety-five million, eighteen thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-t
wo meters per second,” EVE’s voice replied on the bridge’s speakers. She was the ship’s computer too. “To be exact, Doctor Pierce.”
Pierce snickered. “Thank you . . . EVE.”
“Let’s not crash into a large object at those speeds, shall we?” Foster said to Chang. “Even with the primary shields up and the overshields, I doubt they could take a blow like that.”
“Unless Radiance can shut those drones down, we’re gonna have to blast our way free.”
At the rate the overshields were dropping, not likely. The drones were built to defend the system in case the Draconians arrived since the replacement Union fleet was still en route.
“Get us free best you can, Chang,” Foster said. “Punch a hole through the drone’s web if you gotta.”
“Aye, Cap.”
“Belay that order.” It was Jainuzei.
His firm voice drew stares from Foster and Chang. He stepped behind Chang as if he were in charge.
It made Foster rage internally. “’Scuse me?”
“Lower the shields,” Jainuzei said.
Chang spun his chair around, looking up at Jainuzei. “What?”
“The drones were also designed for breaching and boarding a ship,” Jainuzei said to him. “Let’s give them what they want. Lower the shields.”
Chang looked at Foster, gesturing his head to Jainuzei. “I think this here bootleg Rambo has a death wish, Cap.”
“Captain,” Jainuzei said to Foster. “Where is your first officer?”
“He’s in sickbay—”
“Therefore, I am his replacement for the time being,” Jainuzei cut in. “As second-in-command, it’s my duty to inform you of alternative options, and ensure the crew carries out your orders. At least, that’s how it works in the Union.”
This was no time for bickering, it was time for punching a hole and escaping via a slick FTL jump, and Foster’s orders weren’t being carried out. She clenched her fists, raising the tone of her voice at Jainuzei. “Hey! Listen—”
“Your orders are to get us free, best you can, as you put it,” Jainuzei cut her off again. “I’m ensuring those orders are being carried out.” Jainuzei stood behind Chang, placing his armored hand over his shoulder. “Now, unless Foster goes back on her request, Chang, please carry out your orders.”
“Captain?” Chang asked her.
Foster rubbed her face, sighing deeply. “He seems to know more about the drones than us . . .” she moaned and prepared herself for a leap of faith. “Just do it . . .”
“Understood.”
“If this were a Union ship I’d have you removed from your post for hesitation,” Jainuzei said to Chang.
Foster couldn’t see the expression on Chang’s face. Though she imagined him silently making mocking gestures with face and lips at Jainuzei’s tone.
“The overshields too,” Jainuzei added when he stood ahead of the psionic duo.
Tolukei and Nereid both looked to Foster for approval, she gave it with a nod. Jainuzei showed disapproval with a frown, especially at Tolukei who was part of Radiance. Jainuzei was the new third-in-command that nobody was going to get along with.
With both the primary and overshields down, violent tremors shook the Kepler. Chang tried to keep the bridge out from the line of sight of the drones’ weapons. One round carried enough firepower to put a massive hole through it, killing those that got hit instantly, and blowing the rest out into space. One round passing through the reactor would result in another set of very bad things happening that would kill them all.
Jainuzei’s plan was like playing a knife game with your fingers.
The last tremor forced a number of critical alert alarms to blast.
“Got a hull breach!” Pierce reported.
“Jainuzei?” Foster said, looking at him.
Jainuzei’s face was still and unfazed at the alarms and devastation the Kepler was taking. That’s when Foster remembered Karklosea’s concern about Jainuzei and her distrust for him. He might have just doomed the ship, tricking them into thinking this was the best way to escape.
“Just wait.” Was all Jainuzei had to say.
“I’m sealing off affected areas,” Pierce said, tapping his computer terminal.
“Intruder alert,” Odelea reported. “The drones are ripping an entry point through the hull.”
Jainuzei grinned, rearmed himself with his rifle and went for the bridge’s exit. “Anyone with combat experience, please assist me,” he said. “We need to dispatch the drones before they do the same to us. Also, Captain,” Jainuzei added, facing Foster. “You were an impressive shot, I’d be honored if you watched my back.”
Foster, Jainuzei, Maxwell, LeBoeuf, and Miles passed through a self-irising force field, separating a corridor within the Kepler that was now exposed to space thanks to a gaping hole in the wall. The holographic HUD in Foster’s EVA suit confirmed that her personal shield had been activated as she followed Jainuzei and the rest through the affected areas on a search and destroy mission for the invading drones.
A cluster of drones was found near the cryo chambers. When not flying through space, they looked like bipedal headless robots with machine guns for hands after they transformed. Both sides needed no introductions before the weapons exchange commenced. The drones had no shields, making them easier to deal with. It was a huge boon when taking into account the safety settings on everyone’s rifles, forcing rounds to move slow enough to not breach the hull, any more than it already had been. In other words, their rifles inflicted less damage when they did hit their targets.
No shields also meant Maxwell and LeBoeuf were able to dish out the good stuff with their psionic powers. Telekinetic throws when a drone got close and pulls when a drone tried to hide in the corner, pulling them out of it. The drones didn’t hit hard either, they were in breaching mode after all, most likely a program executed to capture the crew if needed. It’d explain why they stopped firing at the Kepler when the breach was large enough for them to climb into.
One downed drone’s leg was still twitching and sparking. It was still active, just too badly damaged to be a threat. Jainuzei’s eyes seen from his helmet’s visor zeroed in on it. He looked back at Foster, asking her to, “Cover me!”
Before she could give a reply, he ran into the fray, dodging flying bullets. His armor’s shields flashed blue when he failed to evade. The downed twitching drone was all that mattered to Jainuzei.
“What was Chang’s name for him?” Maxwell asked Foster amidst the weapons fire.
She grinned, while peeking around the corner she covered at, taking aim at a drone down the corridor. “Bootleg Rambo.”
“Yeah,” Maxwell said, his psionic rifle rising to cover Jainuzei. “That he is . . .”
Jainuzei slid across the floor with his weapon still blazing, clearing the area around the downed drone. Dropping his weapon to the floor, he knelt and reached for the downed drone, pulling apart its exposed wires and circuit boards. A new wave of drones entered via the breach, transforming into the bipedal attackers. Jainuzei stood closest to them. Whatever he was doing, he had to hurry it up. Foster and the rest couldn’t take aim with him in the way.
Jainuzei pulled a data crystal out from the drone and inserted into a terminal mounted into the side of his Radiance combat armor. A small holo screen flashed ahead of him as did a Radiance keyboard that he typed into.
The drones ceased their movement and weapons fire. The flashing lights on their frame stopped as well.
Jainuzei’s helmeted face looked back at the group. “We should be clear,” his voice transmitted over the comms.
“Bridge, status of the drones?” Foster asked.
Chang’s voice replied inside her helmet’s speakers. “A bunch just went dormant.”
“My manual command override codes worked then,” Jainuzei transmitted. “Excellent, instruct your pilot to get us out.”
“Ya think?” Foster looked away from Jainuzei. “Chang, you hear that?”
“Loud and clear, Captain. Destination?”
“You really gotta ask? Just get us outta here!—”
“Captain!” LeBoeuf shouted.
Foster turned around just in time to see the drone Jainuzei tampered with come to life. It shoved him aside and ran down the corridors.
“Jainuzei,” Foster called out to him. “What in the hell did you do?”
Jainuzei looked shocked. “I didn’t instruct it to act further! I have no idea what is going on.”
Nobody’s aim was fast enough to put it down. By the time Foster and the rest caught up with the marathon-running drone, it was in engineering and plugged itself into one of the computer terminals.
EVE curiously looked at the intrusive drone, and then politely asked it to discontinue its actions. When it didn’t, she introduced it to her android strength. There wasn’t much of a functioning drone afterward.
“What was it doing?” Foster asked EVE as she approached.
EVE blinked her eyes as she processed and collected the data. “The drone had accessed the Kepler’s FTL drive, helm, and navigational controls.”
“Great—”
“Furthermore, Captain,” EVE continued. “It has temporarily locked out all bridge functions.”
“Can you fix it?”
“Attempting to do so now, please standby.”
“Bridge to Foster,” Chang’s voice said over her helmet’s speakers.
“Go ahead, Chang,” Foster said. “And yes, I know y’all lost bridge computers, EVE is getting them back up now.”
“Sweet, so you’re also aware that the Kepler just laid in a course on its own, then jumped into FTL without me doing so?”
“That . . . I didn’t know. EVE?”
“Flight Lieutenant Chang is correct, Captain,” EVE said. “The drone forced the Kepler on a direct collision course with a Radiance ethereal refinery.”
“You can stop it though, right?”
“The drone infected us with a trojan,” EVE said. “I will have to reboot our system in order to remove it.”
“That sounds like she won’t be able to do it in time,” Chang’s voice said. “Please tell me I’m wrong?”
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