Cavalry

by Thorby Rudbek

  A third Pakak, having prepared itself with a generous relative velocity, slipped quickly past, dropping a few green globules towards their craft, of which only a couple made contact.

  “We can’t get that one!” The Captain reminded his crew, his comments particularly aimed at the still vengeful Anietal, who had just jumped back up from first her repairs. “Keep slogging at this one!”

  “Argh!” Anietal channelled her anger at the nearer vessel, adding further purple energy to the confusing mass of rippling and flickering interwoven shots, trying to get a beam through to the target now ironically protected, to some extent, by the potentially deadly dissipating plasma and the intermittent explosions of energy caused by the interactions of the Mark One and Mark Two N-beams.

  Patrol Cruiser Wuvant intercepted the second Pakak, commencing a battle similar to the initial one and providing a very real distraction from the old transport vessel.

  “Where is Ship One?” Captain Barthdulon called out, concerned that he had received no feedback from Kuson.

  “They are out of my range,” Kuson replied hesitantly, aware only that Batamon was not ‘audible’ in her mind.

  Anietal dropped her N-beam control spheres again as she concentrated on locating their charge. “Still ahead, but at about a hundred and twenty times Mark One N-beam range from our duellist.”

  “Take us around the Pakak, Hinndurat, and we’ll keep hammering it as we go by.” The Captain looked around, seeing Kuson selecting an N-beam pairing to allow her to continue to contribute, now her coordination role was temporarily ‘off-line’. He nodded his approval and got a brief wink from the green-eyed, red-headed Scout.

  The hammering continued, with more N-beams getting through as the two ships moved out of the region of space saturated with excess energy, the Patrol Cruiser’s additional acceleration – an attempt to get past – being matched by the Pakak’s efforts to close on the old, Warrnam-sized transport which in turn was dodging other potential threats as it pulled away from Fepnine. Anietal found herself diving to the floor again to get lost Shells back up and Kuson dropped her aggressor role in favour of a defensive, assistive one, helping to keep their great vessel from being vaporised by bringing more Macral from the storage panel behind her extra chair.

  Lonna had been watching the battle, impressed that a far distant Karalk had distracted a Pakak, reducing the numbers focused on the now approaching departure.

  Mizza gasped as a distant glint resolved into a fast-approaching Pakak. There were no more Patrol Cruisers in the immediate area; she could see the irreplaceable Ship One and quickly determined its trajectory with her deep understanding of vectors. She’s heading almost straight towards the incoming vessel!

  “Attack team, target approaching!” Mizza’s hasty breath had alerted her sister, who immediately applied the most acceleration she had ever attempted, causing a slight variance in the Karalk’s internal gravity field as it grappled with thirty-plus gravities for a few seconds. Even the few stars visible in the system seemed to blur as the needle-nosed vessel leapt ahead, the space between it and the incoming Pakak vanishing rapidly.

  At about 20 kilometres, Mizza looked at her piloting sister and then at the weapon confirmation signal button, over which she had suspended her hand in anticipation. Thumping that gloved appendage down, she looked ahead again as she shouted out: “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! SHOOT!”

  Fiery red balls of energy volleyed forwards, moving so fast that the incoming Pakak had no time to dodge. As they impacted on the Shells of this vessel, the entire ship was enveloped with a shadowy red glow.

  Lonna continued their approach, beginning to slow now, aware that, if this new phenomenon did not do its job, the next thing they could expect to see would be green globules of death heading their way. The attack team continued to fire for a few more seconds, then ceased.

  “Keep going! Keep it up!” Mizza urged over the intercom, watching the Shells on the enemy vessel shimmer closer and closer to the dark Hybralloy structure as the outer layers failed. “I think it is working.”

  “Sorry.” The voice of Rochtim quavered a little, not from his impressive age but rather from rabid regret. “We are out-of-action.” Sounds of crackling came over the intercom, followed by other voices, shouting: ‘shut it down!’ ‘engage fire suppressant!’ and ‘keep your hand back from that!’

  “Confirmed: system inactive.” This last comment was delivered by Rochtim with a more obvious tone of regret.

  Lonna and Mizza looked at each other, then at the oncoming Pakak. It was twisting about its flight axis, its path tentative, almost as if it were unguided, perhaps because its controls – or Controllers – had also been disoriented by the powerful new energy blend that had impacted and attenuated its Shells.

  We may need to fly! Lonna figured she could move away quickly enough to avoid being hit. And we were so close!

  A solitary red ball flew abruptly into the still-closing Arrowhead craft, impacting almost perfectly on the arrowhead point, and the twins could see it writhe across the Shells, down both flanks of the angular ship, causing further shrinkage in the depleted energy barrier.

  Something strange… Mizza mused, recklessly confident her sister could dodge any incoming N-beams, especially as Lonna had applied extreme reverse thrust, slowing the apparent (relative) approach to almost nothing.

  The red glow on the Shell of the enemy started to fade, then the final Shell flickered and vanished!

  “Woah!” Lonna breathed. “We knocked their Shells right away!”

  The tip of the Pakak moved, like a pointer-dog, seeking and finding the strangely slender enemy. Green globules appeared, apparently immobile, until Lonna applied a hasty starboard thrust to dodge the deadly N-beams. Then the globules’ movement was clear, each one drifting past a few hundred metres to port.

  “What happened, Attack Team?” Mizza transmitted.

  There was no response.

  Mizza repeated her interrogation.

  “We used an old trick.” The voice of Roonalta came through, raspy but clear. “It got us one more shot.” He broke into coughing.

  “And blew up half the control panel!” Vennieby added, a touch of humour in his tone. “Rochtim is out cold.”

  “You’re sure he’s alright?” Lonna frowned, twisting in her chair, though she could see nothing through the flight deck door – she swung abruptly back, ready to anticipate the unpredictable energy bundles.

  “Expect he’ll start snoring soon to prove it!” Vennieby ventured cheerily.

  “Well done!” Mizza almost purred. “Somehow, we’ve knocked out all their Shells!”

  Lonna continued her dodging as they now backed away, or tried to – but the Pakak was still accelerating, clearly determined to finish what must have seemed an easy battle – until their Shells had vanished, leaving their Arrowhead craft inexplicably still functional, no, more than functional, still fully lethal. “Unfortunately, they are still armed and very dangerous – especially to us. They must have figured our new weapon is dead.” Or else – maybe – they don’t care if they live or die…

  “And they’ll soon be close enough to target Ship One, too!” Mizza observed, checking out her navigation displays in alarm. “The big transport must have been delayed by some other enemy interaction, perhaps even having to double-back, and we are closing on them quite fast and bringing this Pakak along with us.

  “Just a word of warning.” Roonalta’s voice came through the intercom, his tone almost reluctant. “They will get their Shells back up soon, I hope you realise that.”

  “Gotcha.” Lonna repeated the word she had heard Richard use in her ‘after presentation’ discussion with him, so many gile ago, savouring its succinctness. “There’s only one thing we can do. We are going in – and fast. We’re going to ram that ship!”

  Mizza nodded as she gulped, hastily working various controls to prepare for a timed shutdown of their Drive – after the impact!

  Watching the forward v
iew through the transparent Polyivorium, Lonna manually operated her helmet, shutting the visor and feeling the air flow begin.

  “Prepare for vacuum – and collision!” Mizza activated the intercom one last time. “We may lose our gravity field, too.”

  “We are ready.” Vennieby spoke calmly, clearly proud to have fought with the fiery Mizza – Lonna Twins, no matter what was to come next.

  “Rochtim will be mad he’s missing this!” Roonalta added.

  Lonna’s hands moved the flight controls faster than ever before as she restored their forward motion, dodging green globules that continued to flow forth from the rapidly nearing arrowhead tip of the Pakak. Somehow she managed to avoid more than a dozen deadly energy packets, then, in a stunning move which seemed to set the whole Karalk on fire as the directional flames burst forth from their twisted-space vortexes, their ship slipped sideways, twisting and turning, until the needle-sharp point of their vessel was just tens of metres from the port side of the Pakak, behind the weapon pod at the tip – and getting closer every second.

  Grabbing Lonna by the hand, Mizza dragged her from her seat as the impact became imminent, managing to get them both through the bulkhead into the passenger compartment. They just had time to notice the haze in the air from the partly melted equipment still being attended by Roonalta and to see that Vennieby was on the deck, cradling the still unconscious form of his old friend, Rochtim, against his suit.

  SLAM!

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ramming speed!

  The gravity field wavered, then smoothed, stabilised and continued as the tough Polyivorium tip of Karalk broke through the mere Hybralloy wall of the Pakak. Air rushed under the door – the bulkhead had not been intended to be airtight – and then the door crumpled into the flight deck and the rush became a tornado.

  Mizza and Lonna held on to each other and the nearest handholds until the airflow faded away. They turned to the door, finding it was still – barely – in place, and Lonna delivered a sharp kick, freeing it from the frame. Its twisted, reduced shape swung the wrong way, into the flight deck area.

  “Good hinges!” Mizza remarked as they stepped back into their ‘office’.

  “Wow!” Lonna breathed the word into her helmet and her short-range radio as they looked at the rubble. Strips of Hybralloy and chunks of Polyivorium were scattered around the interior, blown or thrown there by the destruction of the Pakak’s Structural Protection Field – something their Polyivorium casing had brought down by good, old-fashioned impact. Shaped energy had met one of the toughest substances known to man, with unpredictable and fortuitous results!

  Mizza bent down, finding the back of her co-pilot chair to be pierced by one large sliver of Hybralloy. “Good move!” This comment was in reference to her decision to evacuate the area just before the impact.

  Lonna got her message – the benefits of thirty four (combined) years of ‘twinship’ – and reached past the sliver to locate the Quantum Laser pistols, a smile of satisfaction on her lovely face. She picked them up, one with each hand, and passed one to her sister.

  Mizza stepped towards the gaping hole in the Pakak, noting the faint green illumination coming from the vessel and the chunks of Polyivorium scattered across the otherwise dark floor within it. They clambered over the interlocking, twisted wreckage, jumping down into the gloomy Pakak, finding the gravity field within it to be very weak. Immediately, Mizza turned to the forward section and Lonna turned to the rear.

  “Take the command centre.” Lonna reversed into Mizza, keeping this back-to-back contact which allowed the two to move in sync towards the front tip of the vessel, where they assumed the pilot and captain, or whoever commanded this type of craft, would be located.

  A movement further back in the Pakak caught Lonna’s attention and she fired at it, swinging the laser beam from side to side, knowing there could be nothing friendly in the enemy’s attack ship. A Narlav form, blurred by the fuzzy spacesuit, collapsed into view, his arms severed and his body split open. Lonna shuddered, but she continued to move in reverse, sustaining the close contact with her twin by the simple expedient of keeping her back pressed against Mizza’s.

  The whine of a laser powering up – unheard by either human in the rough vacuum, but accompanied by a brief flash of laser light as the Narlav inadvertently ‘tested’ his weapon on the buckled Hybralloy flooring – was enough to alert Mizza to the next Narlav. She brought her laser pistol to bear, drilling a neat circle in the chest of this hapless enemy. By the brief glow of the laser she saw the door to another compartment swinging a few feet ahead. She grabbed her sister with her left hand and moved forwards rapidly. Each of them kept in a crouch, knees deeply bent, in a successful attempt to maintain contact with the flooring in the low gravity field.

  Lonna, trusting her twin’s judgment completely, spun around at another signal and together they kicked the door aside, stumbling in and finding only two Narlav bodies, still on their respective incliners, dead from asphyxiation – neither had been able to get their masks on before succumbing, though both had clearly tried.

  Mizza stood guard, looking back into the depths of the ship, as Lonna pushed one body easily aside, sat on the incliner and examined the controls. Once seated, Lonna found she could see the stars drifting slowly across the Transplyous through the small forward portholes. Looking down, she found a visual display still online, locked and focused on their original target – and there, rapidly receding now within the selected viewpoint, was Ship One. To one side of this ancient and massive vessel there was a familiar black, curved form.

  “They are going,” Lonna remarked. As she watched, she saw the old transport shimmer and a moment later the shadowy form of the Patrol Cruiser did the same.

  “Good; they’re safe, then! Do you think there’s any more alive back there?” Mizza murmured softly.

  “Let me shut this Drive down and check to make sure no one is about to vaporise us, then we’ll go back there and find out!” Lonna found the weapon master control and shut that down first. “I just made sure no one can fire – there’s a number of Patrol Cruisers circling our location.” She tried to figure out how to lock the Drive into a non-accelerating setting, wishing she could spare some time to send a message, but the Narlav communications system was so different from ones with which she had past experience that it made no sense to her.

  Her choice to shut down the weapons system first was a most fortunate decision – two gunners (the only other crew that had got into their masks and then their spacesuits in time) were getting ready to target whatever vessel came into range, which would surely have guaranteed retribution and swift annihilation for the twins and their experimental N-beam attack team.

  When the gunners discovered their weapons had been taken off line remotely by a command directive, they immediately grabbed their laser rifles and rushed forwards, neither of them considering the option of entering the Fepnine needle ship to be a priority as they passed the intruding, spike-like tip of Karalk Prime, and thus the three weapons technicians, defenceless now their experimental N-beam was out-of-action and not having prepared themselves with hand armaments, were spared from what would have been certain slaughter.

  Mizza saw the approaching Narlavs just after Lonna had figured out how to shut down the multiple Drive system. Together the twins crouched low in the gloom by the partly open door, waiting for the enemy gunners to move closer and for their silhouettes to resolve out of the particle-filled rough vacuum.

  A hand on a knee was enough to coordinate and synchronise their shots; the result was undeniable death for the advancing two troops, though one still managed to fire his rifle, creating a huge gouge in the instruments over Mizza’s head and adding yet more particulates to the partial vacuum.

  “That was close!” Mizza exclaimed, her emotions running high at the thought that she had taken another’s life – no, lives.

  “It had to be done. Now, we must make certain there are no more lurking ba
ck there!” Lonna murmured softly into her comlink, her feelings mirroring her sister’s.

  Together the twins worked their way through the vessel, confirming that all the Narlavs were well and truly dead. Once they had found all sixteen crew bodies, they came back to the point – quite literally – where their Karalk had penetrated the Pakak and found that the same kind of green sealant that had plugged the holes in a certain boarding craft when it attached itself to Citadel during Richard and Karen’s trip to Outpost 27, had sealed the two craft together and that the atmospheric pressure was slowly being restored, whether by the automated actions of one vessel or the other, or a combination of both, they did not know or waste time determining. In any case, they were soon able to raise their Transplyous visors and save their limited, shoulder-mounted air supply vessels.

  They clambered back into Karalk and checked on their own gunners, finding that Rochtim had woken up from the effects of his close shave.

  “Great work!” Lonna congratulated the inventors of the latest, highly experimental and rather atypical version of the Negatruction weapon. “You’ve enabled the capture of the first Pakak!”

  “A pleasure flying with you young ladies!” Rochtim murmured from his prone position, propped up now against the still smouldering ruin of the device. “I think I’ve finally got my breath back.” He climbed to his feet, helped by both Lonna and Mizza, who were unitedly desiring – more than anything else at this point – to convince themselves that he was unharmed.

  “You missed the twins’ reconfiguring of this noise machine into an incredible weapon,” Vennieby teasingly chided his friend.

  “What did they do, burn a hole in the Pakak with those hand lasers?”

  “No, they renamed this Karalk Hiffanty[35]!” Roonalta joked.

  “I like that!” Lonna grinned, imagining their new ‘call-sign’: KH.

  “Great name!” Mizza hugged her sister in triumph and then they did a little dance, both waving their hands around like fleshint flower blossoms, as they celebrated in ‘twin-ly’ close coordination, their slightly more circumspect collaborators watching in bemused contentment.