Cavalry

by Thorby Rudbek

  Steele, still motionless just feet away from the two Narlavs, noted the black shapes on the viewscreens – there were clearly no craft out there like his shiny, silvery EDEM One – and he recalled his second-hand knowledge of a certain ebony-like Scout Craft that had departed so dramatically from Earth – when was it? How long have I been incarcerated here? And he wondered if, somehow, there was a connection. He started taking ever deeper breaths, trying to prepare himself for action – though he had no idea what that action would be, or what he could do to impact the Narlav forces. Nevertheless, he was determined that soon, very soon, he would make his last stand.

  Kirrina, connected still with Beckie, sent further fleet movement commands, allowing Citadel and its attendant ships to target the lead Narlav ship. PC Fifteen had dropped back further, and, teaming up at last with PC Fourteen, headed for the lead ship of the five bunched nearest to their location.

  Citadel’s significant Moonward motion slowed abruptly on the reversed course. Bathan’s Warrnam continued to advance, but its relative speed diminished rapidly, as the defenders accelerated – now heading back towards Earth – to match the invaders on their approach trajectories.

  Kirrina grinned as she prepared to open fire, one hand poised over an N-beam control sphere. She had become aware at this point that Amber had achieved the culmination of her aspirations regarding the battle and that her presence was now accepted by Captain Attenburgh and the crew of the ship that she had been able to stowaway on – Patrol Craft Thirteen. Kirrina was grimly amused at this ‘choice’, made possible, as it had been, by the invasion alarm and the mad scramble as the meticulously prepared attack plan was trashed and the Patrol Craft crews wildly improvised – based on their first priority, that of preventing any Warrnam from getting to Earth. Despite their carefully thought-out strategy, Amber’s desperate urge to grab ‘mister luck’ by the suit collars and shake him had unexpectedly put her right in the thick of the action!

  Amber must realise now that her ship will be in combat within moments and that she will be compelled to share the fate of all such crews!

  Richard looked at the huge Warrnam advancing slowly on his side scanner, the distance between them reducing as their courses converged, and was reminded of the old-time battles fought by wooden sailing ships-of-the-line. Time for a broadside!

  Green globules crawled towards them as the Narlav ship opened fire first. Kirrina twisted her Navigation Sphere and Citadel moved nimbly into a sideways posture, nose-first towards the opponent, minimising their ship’s exposure to the enemy weapons in a way no sailing vessel could ever have hoped to have duplicated. A couple of quick ‘vertical’ movements allowed their craft to dodge the incoming N-beams.

  “All ships, fire when ready!” Kirrina directed verbally as she sent this electronically, so the GAF personnel and supporters in New Leeds would know that the battle had been joined.

  Purple strands reached out from Citadel, followed quickly by similar filaments from PC Eight and PC Thirteen, striking Bathan’s Warrnam along the side, splashing and fluorescing on the Shell energy fields and moving up and down the long lines of the massive vessel.

  Bathan checked his displays, seeing his Shells starting to collapse under the combined attack.

  “Full reverse!” he shouted at his old Pilot, seeing that, unbelievably, his N-beam attacks were all missing their small and incredibly nimble target, and that contrarily, his ship was being rapidly stripped of the energy fields that were the only barrier between the continued existence of the ‘First’ Rhaal Warrnam and disassociation of the material of which it was composed – and of the waiting warriors within it.

  Despite this unexpected and worrying development, he calmly initiated the next phase of the ‘Third’ plan, contacting his second-in-command, who was leading one of the groups of four with his Warrnam, just behind Bathan’s, and his third, Vortok, leading the other group. “Karnad, Vortok, split force now!”

  “First! The closer two Patrol Craft have Drive signatures twice that of the other ships!” Uthaner admitted, as he belatedly discovered this crucial fact. “See the extra Drive sphere at their tails?”

  My son, how could you miss such an important factor? Bathan could not see the spheres, as the Earth vessels were now end-on from their viewpoint, but he immediately redirected his N-beams at the third ship, and his Control Room team followed suit. PC Thirteen tried to dodge, but the widely splayed Negatruction energy bolts meant that there was nowhere to go.

  Steele saw green glints and recalled what he had been told about the Negatruction weapon. He strained to make sense out of the distant image, then felt the blood pound in his head as one of the blobs grew suddenly longer, and resolved into an elongated oval, with a bulge at one end. That is not a Space Hammer! Purple glinted, and he swayed as the unfounded but emotional realisation struck him with illogical certitude: This ship is not a Narlav one! Did Latt and Isaac somehow build this?

  “Thirteen, turbo!” Richard called as he saw the fearless tactics of their intended victim presenting a real danger to their squadron’s ‘third leg’.

  Hank Saxon moved PC Thirteen, backing the ship away rapidly as directed, but a further green bead of blended negative energy and anti-matter struck as it retreated. The interior of the Command Centre was filled with flashes and crackles as systems overloaded. From outside the only sign of the destruction within was that the previously nimble defensive movement seemed to become sluggish and then non-existent.

  Amber felt the N-beam spheres which she was working from the main Assembly Chamber of PC Thirteen fade away into nothingness and she called up the Command crew, without response. She dashed towards the wall, thinking of the Control Centre, and found herself shimmering into a smoke-filled room. Captain Frank Attenburgh, his Pilot Hank Saxon and Navigator ‘Sox’ Sochaigh were all slumped over and most of the controls were red-tinted or blank.

  Paranak played his N-beam along the side of the lead Warrnam, letting it connect with other beams from PC Eight, his remaining squadron member, and the innermost Shell failed. He caught a brief glimpse of the purple power bonding with the Narlav ship’s Hybralloy hull and then the viewscreen overloaded, incandescent brightness illuminating Citadel’s Control Room interior. Bathan, his Warrnam, his son and his contingent of warriors were gone forever.

  Richard watched as Kirrina performed a pre-planned defensive move – blind – but in coordination with PC Eight, and then the forward image was restored, to show four more Warrnam rapidly closing on their position. He looked at the side views hastily, without success. Wasn’t there another one in this formation?

  Two of the quartet of Space Hammers targeted Citadel and PC Eight, but the other two concentrated on PC Thirteen.

  Amber scrambled up from beneath the Control Room panels, dropping several old Macral from the Shell field circuits and one from the N-beam generator. She grabbed the purple control sphere from badly burned, semi-conscious Navigator Sox, who was still trying to manipulate it. Oh! Burnt skin… The smell wafted over to her. She was glad the Navigator’s face was mostly covered by her long black hair. Don’t want to see … can’t fix it now… Smoke tendrils drifted across the chamber from damaged or destroyed equipment. Only one viewscreen still functioned; it was on the far side of the Control Room, in front of the other unconscious or dead crewmembers and it showed a partial view of the attackers. She was surprised to see not one but two Warrnam, having been incommunicado for the whole episode of the destruction of Bathan and his crew, but plied her weapon towards them, being rewarded with a direct hit on the one furthest from her support squadron members.

  Beckie whooped out loud and sent a powerful message to the damaged GAF ship, impacting with such strength that Amber received it clearly, despite her almost total lack of such mental powers.

  Ignoring the closer pair of Warrnam, Richard had their ship and Brad’s target the further one of the second pair, the ones that were concentrating on the damaged PC Thirteen. Strikes from Citadel and P
C Eight impacted on both Warrnam as the vacuum of space became super-charged, deflecting the anti-matter and negative energy in unpredictable ways, and finally the one already targeted by Amber exploded under the intense variations in Negatruction impacts. The remaining Warrnam, rocketing past PC Thirteen, made several long contacts with its ghoulishly green, wriggling N-beams, destroying her last couple of Shells but fortunately not staying on target long enough to breach the weaker SPF[44] beneath. The other two Space Hammers continued through the formation after making brief but ineffective contacts with the double-Drive Patrol Crafts’ Shells; they were heading for Earth, and soon all were out of range for the troubled trio.

  Kirrina made her mental connection once again to Beckie after a brief interruption and together they checked on the status of the fleet. Back towards Earth, several battles were in progress and ship-to-ship data connections regarding Drive, Shells and weaponry status in the three Patrol Craft involved showed that they, at least, were fully functional, though the space dog-fight had resulted in the squadron pairings being severed.

  Paranak reported that PC Thirteen was still ‘simmering’ after the attacks that had almost destroyed it and most of its systems were down. He keyed reminder messages to the five other ships showing on his scanner, two of which had significant damage: ‘Stay close to your ‘wingman’. Squadron half – reform with nearest complete squadron.’

  “Bring me close to PC Thirteen,” Richard glanced over at his wife, his face ashen. “I’m going over.”

  “Sir.” Paranak slipped off his incliner with his surprisingly fluid motion and stood before his Captain. “I can restore their systems much faster than you could!”

  Richard hesitated fractionally, then nodded, knowing that, despite his incredibly high opinion of himself, this time Paranak was absolutely right, and the Narlav acknowledged his nod by walking towards the rear of the Control Room as Kirrina brought their craft nose to nose with the damaged Patrol Craft. Another backward glance revealed that the ‘master-repair’ Narlav engineer was already gone.

  Amber banged on a recalcitrant panel and was startled as a muscled, double-thumbed, vaguely green-tinted hand appeared next to hers and pulled the cover free.

  “Take the con,” he said, his communication minimalistic. “I’ll have Star Drive available shortly.” His supremely arrogant declaration, based on essentially zero knowledge, illogically helped her breathe more easily. “Let me know if any more Warrnam get near.”

  Amber slapped him on the side of the head and jumped onto the edge of the seat on the right, gingerly pushing the injured Pilot Saxon over to make room. The blackish-brown head of hair shifted as the rather skinny ex-crop-duster groaned, but his eyes remained closed. She faced ahead and checked the display in front of her. “There’s no Medic function. These guys need attention – at least Hank does, the others already look dead to me.” She shivered as she tore her eyes away from the burnt flesh and fixed her gaze on the remaining viewscreen, perching herself on the small space she had freed up by shifting the pilot so that he was slumped against the still-smouldering Captain Attenburgh. A long groan from the now more distant Sox made her realise that at least two of the command team were still alive. But for how long?

  Paranak’s arms snaked around the console, fixing two things at once. “First priority, ship’s safety. Then crew.” His voice sounded even deeper than usual, but Amber could see the sense in his ‘tough love’ approach, though the scorched, mutilated bodies of people she had chatted with many times brought floods of tears which she had to dash from her eyes with one shaking hand. Anguish threatened to freeze her in ironic contrast to the heat damage she could smell; her mind was still racing and her heart pounded after her close call with eternity.

  Amber turned away from the injuries and observed her one remaining viewscreen again, pivoting the ship around on the minimal manoeuvring power available to check out the ‘neighbourhood’. She discovered, with mixed, contrary feelings of both relief and disappointment, that there were no ships nearby, even Citadel and PC Eight were gone.

  Kirrina accelerated rapidly towards the battle scenes ahead. She confirmed, by a simple count of Star Drive emissions, that three Patrol Craft had already been vaporised, and felt a coldness inside as she realised that – whoever had been in them, whichever craft they crewed, she would never see them again. At least, in this life. She determined that, in addition to the two Warrnam their squadron had eliminated, another three could no longer be detected. Kirrina pushed her yellow and black Drive control sphere further forward as she picked out a lone Patrol Craft some distance in front of them, attempting to join up with a squadron ahead of it. However, this squadron was already’ busy’ – it was under N-beam attacks by two other Warrnam, and two Warrnam were closing in behind the lone Patrol Craft. Beyond that scene, flashes in the distance testified of further battles ongoing.

  Richard played impatiently with his N-beam control spheres, waiting for the moment that these ships would be in range.

  Kirrina contemplated using the ‘turbo’ boost to close the gap more quickly, but groaned as the nearest PC flared up and vanished.

  “That was Captain Brodeur and the rest of the crew of PC Eleven,” Richard determined, his voice grimly flat. “Take us to the support of PCs Nine and Sixteen – they are in trouble!”

  Kirrina was already diverting to that clash, now that the Canadian crew in Eleven was beyond their help. “Beckie, make sure you target the nearest Warrnam, we’ll take the other one!”

  “This is PC Seven calling – ship to ship.” Richard signalled the fleet as Citadel’s range was still too great for engaging the enemy. “Condition report from PCs near Earth.”

  “PC Fourteen reporting.” Captain Wodder’s gruff voice came through clearly. “PC Ten has lost communications, but otherwise seems fully functional. Am dodging three Warrnam, as my weapons are temporarily down.”

  “That leaves one Warrnam unaccounted for,” Richard sent, his mind unable or unwilling to picture the faces of the crews already lost.

  “We couldn’t stop it. It’s already in the atmosphere.”

  Kirrina felt a blackness threaten to fill her mind as she thought of seemingly numberless Narlavs – at least, in comparison with the small force of defenders in New Leeds – soon to be marching on the once-secret GAF base. She tried to reassure herself about the fairly well-trained fighters defending it, but the thought that they were mostly inexperienced civilians would not leave her mind. She knew that now they were the last hope for the families with young children; she pictured them, hunkered down in the underground construction facility and carefully selected houses, scattered at what was hoped to be safe distance from the hangar. They will be spared initially… but for only a little while, if the hangar falls to the enemy.

  Chapter Thirty

  Above and beyond, below and nearby

  Richard powered up his N-beams again as the two best-powered ships in the fleet closed on the next battle, grimly aware that New Leeds was going to get visitors and wishing he were free to return and help with the ground defence. Once the distance was reduced enough, his violet energy streams impacted on the Warrnam marginally further from Citadel and the touch, light though it seemed, serendipitously combined with the efforts of the nearer of the arbitrarily paired Patrol Craft, sending the hefty ship into oblivion and obliterating all data from the viewscreens, and fortuitously relieving PC Sixteen and the slightly more distant PC Nine of one massive adversary.

  Kirrina touched Latt’s mind, though that Patrol Craft was slightly beyond her usual reach, her mental abilities being suddenly boosted by an emotional feedback in conjunction with Beckie. He says PC Nine just lost its Drive. Should have it back in a few minutes… Of course, Latt’s name was inherent in this thought, though not directly iterated.

  They have only moments – they’re dead in the water! Richard swung his weapons onto the remaining Warrnam, already in trouble due to Kirrina’s single N-beam, Paranak’s scything attac
k and PC Eight’s multiple attentions, and it too, flashed into atoms and energy. A sense of relief flooded from Karen to Becky and back as the viewscreens cleared and showed that the obliteration was complete.

  “PC Seven to PC Fourteen. Status report.” Captain Fletcher refocused on the next objective.

  “PC Fourteen – weapons still down, but we’re working on them and dodging like crazy! PC Ten is still engaging the enemy.”

  “Let’s go!” Richard sent the course details as he spoke, but the targets were obvious to his wife: the three Warrnam engaged with PC Fourteen and the ironically and uncharacteristically communication-less Leroy in PC Ten. Ed’s professional piloting was keeping their vessel away from most of the green bolts as he continued to close on the three massive Space Hammers, and with both Leroy and Eric firing paired N-beams, they were clearly doing all they could do to distract the enemy and thus protect the weapon-less PC Fourteen.

  Kirrina connected with Beckie as they shot past the incapacitated PC Nine and headed back towards Earth, PC Sixteen joining them, accelerating to fall in behind them, still working on restoring its Shells to the full complement of six as it did so. The two overlapped minds sent this to PC Nine: No Warrnam left in this area, you should be ok ‘til you get your Drive back up.

  Latt seemed to understand, and his last thought as they moved out of range was about getting together with PC Thirteen, for added security.

  ***

  Ruth watched her viewscreen, huddled down as low as she could get in the old barn from which they had been assigned to work. Her heart thudded loudly in her ears and her skin seemed to tingle as she thought about the laser weapons that would soon be ripping through the air, the buildings, and perhaps her flesh. The viewscreen displayed a view of the street towards the edge of town – the direction from which they now knew that the Narlavs would approach. She turned to her husband, watched silently as he checked their stash of weapons one more time for energy status.