by Angie Arland
“Terudithan fighters inbound, sir,” Harper said.
Reece rushed forward, palms up in a pleading gesture. “We can’t engage their fighters! It could kill my grandfather!”
“Fighters?” Aiden stared down Kellanie. “Eve reported there were no fighters. Just an escort.”
Behind her, Reece balled his hands into fists. He started to speak, but Aiden shot him a warning look. The co-pilot huffed and, red-faced, marched over to join Harper and Flea at the tactical table.
“How many fighters?” Aiden asked.
“There appear to be six,” Harper looked up. “The AEV Mark-I has no offensive capabilities. Sir, we need to go.”
“No!” Reece said. “We can’t leave him!”
“Shit,” Aiden swore. “We have no armaments onboard?”
Kellanie cleared her throat. “Let’s remember who the C.O. is on this ship…”
Aiden speared her with an impatient glare. “Are there weapons or not?”
“The prototype wasn’t equipped with offensive armaments for the field test. Defensive, yes.”
Karson shook his head. “Wait, wait, wait. Come again? We’re sitting in an advance piece of Dinnarei technology that is capable of…what exactly?”
Kellanie’s expression darkened further. “You’re Weapons Officer is being insubordinate…”
“I’m just saying maybe we’re better off getting back out, and onto the cruiser,” Karson said, spreading his arms wide.
“The enemy’s ship is not built for combat either,” said Flea with some disdain directed at the Weapons Officer. “It is merely an escort vessel.”
“Yeah, with a half-dozen fighters!”
“And a lot more squid onboard than we have here,” Harper added.
Karson nodded. “Exactly. I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Harper, but he’s right. We need to get the hell out of here. This ship’s fast at least, right? They did make it fast?”
Flea kept her head lowered to the console as she spoke, “We also have your Mister Finnegan.”
“Finnegan?” Karson blinked. “He’s an old ma…look, no offense, Reece, but how much damage can he do on his own in an alien fighter?”
Ryder entered the Command Hub. “Spero’s sedated, sir, but Doctor Mc…” She stopped talking upon feeling the tension in the room.
Reece’s face was red. His anger-filled eyes flashed at Aiden. “If anyone is to blame, it’s me. Grandpa is doing this stupid shit to protect me.” He walked toward Aiden. “Please, sir, I’ll strap into an enemy fighter myself. Let me go help him.”
When Aiden hesitated, Reece spun to Kellanie. “Permission to leave this ship, captain? Please? Let me do this. I can do it! I have to do this!”
“Reece.” Aiden put up a hand. “I understand what you’re feeling, trust me, son—”
“How can you? How can any of you?”
“Sir?” Ryder looked at Aiden. “Should I accompany Mister Reece to the mess hall?”
“No!” Reece shouted. “I’m going to him. Nobody’s going to stan—”
Flea rose from her seat, standing behind Reece. Using her fingertips, she pressed at the base of his skull. The co-pilot buckled and fell to the floor.
“Now,” Flea said, “how do we fight our common enemy?”
Harper hopped from his seat to check Reece’s pulse. He nodded to Aiden—the co-pilot was alive. Harper peered up at the dinnarei. “What did you do to him?”
“I accessed his cranio-vertebral junction, placing him into deep slumber. He will experience minor tissue discomfort when he awakens, nothing more.”
Aiden looked down at Reece crumpled on the floor. Drool dripped from the corner of his mouth. “That was hardly necessary.”
“Mister Reece distracted us from our objective. He was taking up precious time we cannot afford to squander.”
“She has a point,” Kellanie agreed.
Aiden wiped his hand across his forehead, then said, “Karson, Harper, take Reece to the medical bay and make sure he’s secured. Quickly, then hurry back.”
“Sir,” Harper said, then he and Karson hefted Reece up by his underarms and the backs of his knees.
“Why is he so heavy?” Karson muttered.
“Maybe you’re just not that strong,” Harper said.
“Stronger than you,” Karson retorted as they left the hub.
At the same time, Aiden walked over to the volumetric display where small red triangles were in formation and on a trajectory to their position.
“I can message your Mister Finnegan,” Flea announced.
Ryder looked up from where she was hunched over the comms console. “I’ve been trying to hail him. He isn’t responding.”
“It is possible to speak with the engineer,” Flea looked at Ryder, then at Aiden.
“How?” Ryder asked, eyes narrowing.
“He will have unified with the ship’s core processor by now.”
“What does that mean?”
The dinnarei sighed in an exasperated way, then replied, “They are one.”
“Okay, then…” Aiden said, looking at Flea. “Open a channel.”
Flea laid her hand, palm-flat, on her console and closed her eyes. That was something slightly different. Usually her fingers danced through the holographs and sliders on the display. After half an em, she opened her eyes and said, “You may speak.”
“Just talk out loud?” Aiden asked.
The cendent nodded.
“Mister Finnegan, can you hear me?”
“Aiden? Well, I didn’t expect to hear your voice again. Not sure how I feel about that.” It sounded like Eamon Finnegan, yet there was an odd, mechanical resonance to his vocalization as well.
“Mister Finnegan, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but a half-dozen enemy fighters are inbound. So, you need to get back here asap and onboard, so we can get the hell out of here.”
“Can’t do that, Aiden. Sorry,” Finnegan responded. “Before you get all snippy, you know bloody well I’m nothing but a useless relic now, just like the TC-32. If I’d fixed the ion engine on her, maybe then none of this would have happened. At least this way, I can help everybody one last time.”
“We can discuss that later. Right now, you need to get your ass onboard the AEV. There are other ways out of this.”
“It’s too late. They’re coming, Aiden. Time to kill some squid bastards. You just keep my grandson safe, you hear me? And get that insufferable crew of yours home.”
Aiden hadn’t realized Doctor McNeill had entered the hub until he appeared beside them at the tactical table. “Eamon, wait! I have an idea. I’ve scanned Harper’s readings from the hydrogen power source in the cruiser. I believe an overload of the system will set off a chain reaction which will render—”
“Look, William, I enjoyed your company,” Finnegan interrupted, “but truth be told, I only understood maybe a tenth of the shite you said. Spit it out in plain words for me.”
McNeill shook his head. “You faked it well enough, Eamon. I’ve always enjoyed your company as well, good sir.”
“All right, all right, I hear you. So, talk to me. Not much time, ya wordy prat.”
“I believe direct kinetic pulses from the fighter should do the trick. You will, of course, need to penetrate the outer hull first. I would suggest continuous rounds.”
“That, I understand. I must admit, I’m looking forward to seeing what this blasted thing can do.”
“We’ll assist,” Aiden said. He looked back to see Harper and Karson nearby, having returned from the medical bay. “Karson, grab some charges from the armory. You, me, and Harper can set them around the hydrogen ball.” Aiden snatched up an EVA disc. “Mister Finnegan, it’s going to take a few ems for us to get to the alien nest.”
Kellanie placed her hand on his arm. “There’s no time, Aiden.”
“Listen to the lass, Aiden. I know you like to lead from the front. I always did respect that about you, but with all due respect, piss off. Give
an old man his last bloody hurrah, eh? Just get that fancy ship as far away from here as possible. Tell Davin…tell the lad I’m sorry. And all you sons of bitches, ‘Keep Fighting Forward.’ Eamon Finnegan, out.”
Aiden joined Kellanie at the tactical table. “He never could follow an order without giving me grief.”
“Like the man said, give him his moment of glory.”
She was right. Eamon Finnegan had lived near on eighty cycles and Aiden guessed that he’d seen his fair share of the galactic war. Billy Mason had only been twenty-eight. Aiden placed the EVA disc on the tactical table. With a grim smile, he nodded agreement.
“Eve, take us out,” she ordered, walking toward her Command chair. “Once we clear the debris field, proceed to zero-point-nine max speed.”
A low hum vibrated beneath their feet. The ship lifted off the deck.
“Everyone, strap in.” Aiden sat in an empty console chair and pulled the security belts across his torso.
Mere moments after the AEV Mark-I emerged from the cruiser’s hangar bay, a series of impacts struck the hull. The prototype ship bucked slightly to the side, then righted.
“Hull integrity at seventy-five percent.”
Harper looked around. “What was that?”
“We’re being fired upon,” Eve responded.
“Maybe it’s time for those defensive capabilities?” uttered Karson.
Kellanie snapped at him with an irritated sneer. “How do you think we’re sustaining direct hits?”
“Evasive maneuvers then?” Karson came back at her. “That’s a thing, right?”
“Let Eve get us out of the hangar first!”
“Your Mister Finnegan has engaged the Terudithan fighters.” Flea tossed the image from the volumetric display to a twelve-foot-wide screen at the front of the hub, which could be seen by everyone from their seats. A green triangle on the display arced in a semicircle and came amidst six red triangles. Within seconds, two of the red triangles disappeared from the display.
“Did he just take a couple out?” Harper asked.
“It appears so,” Flea said with a hint of disbelief.
“Freck yeah, granddad!” Karson shouted, banging the side of his fist on the console. “Get ‘em, you old bastard!”
A third red triangle vanished.
“Yes!”
“He just got another one,” Harper announced.
Aiden squeezed his hands together. His pulse raced. Finnegan’s ploy was working. The squids were confused, thinking they were being attacked by one of their own. They’d gone from six to three in the span of a couple breaths. Oh, how Aiden wished he could hear their comms.
This is your last hurrah, Eamon. Give ‘em hell.
The chase was on. The remaining three fighters split formation, one leading the chase, the other two turning about in wide arcs to come around and pursue Finnegan. The display showed his evasive maneuvers through the debris and coming up alongside the destroyed cruiser using it as a shield on his right side. He used debris to his advantage, weaving in, out, up, down, and, somehow, he out-piloted the pursuer. Its glowing red presence blinked out on the display as the fighter corkscrewed into a separated segment of the Terudithan cruiser, adding to the detritus of space.
“Maybe Mister Finnegan should have been a fighter pilot,” Harper said.
Karson, entranced like a fan at some VR sports contest, lowered his brows. He turned his head from the display and toward Harper. “He was a fighter pilot, you numbskull. Don’t you know anything?”
The ship thumped beneath them.
“Hull integrity at sixty-eight percent,” Eve reported.
“Who’s firing at us now?” Kellanie yelled.
Flea turned to her display. “The debris is heavy, it’s impacting the hull. We will be clear shortly.”
At the same time, Finnegan had outmaneuvered another squid fighter, causing it to slam into the cruiser’s hull, leaving just one other ship against him.
Eve had the AEV Mark-I on numerous course corrections to avoid debris and more weapons fire, the stabilizers keeping the ship steady.
“The escort appears to have launched four more fighters, captain,” Flea said.
“Well, that’s no fair,” Karson muttered.
Aiden felt helpless. There was absolutely nothing they could do to help the old man. Their ship passed through the last of the debris field and into open space.
“Clear to accelerate to zero-point-nine max speed. Proceed?”
Every pair of eyes in the Command Hub looked at Aiden.
Thirty-Eight
Eamon Finnegan activated the fighter’s comms with a thought. He sent a direct message to his grandson with a thirty em delay:
Davin, my boy, forgive me. This is the only way I know how to protect you and the crew. I’ll hold the bastards off and destroy that cruiser if I can. The blast should take care of the escort vessel. You won’t get this message until after the fact but know I am proud of the man you have become. Love you forever, my boy. Grandpa.
Keep fighting forward.
He added it to the end of his message to Reece as he swerved to avoid enemy fire. The fighter’s weapons array glowed red as his anger rose. Squid fighters converged on him like a swarm of hornets, and Eamon veered to greet the new wave of ships in his own special Irish way.
Once he ploughed through the alien scum, he’d strike that bloody hulk of a ship and go out with a bang.
Eamon dove beneath a squid fighter, missing it by an arm’s length, then cycled his thrusters to turn on a dime, pointing upward as his ship remained in a rearward trajectory. The nearly-missed fighter tried a similar maneuver but lacked Eamon’s experience. It was a lame duck, as they say.
Eamon Finnegan snickered at the alien’s bungled move and unleashed hell from below.
Thirty-Nine
Flea’s thin lips upturned at one corner. Aiden assumed the dinnarei was smiling, but he wasn’t sure—he’d never seen her do so. “Mister Finnegan has destroyed all enemy fighters,” she said. The dinnarei looked at Kellanie. “He is proceeding toward the Terudithan cruiser’s active hydrogen sphere.”
Eve repeated, “Clear to accelerate to zero-point-nine max speed. Proceed?”
“That crazy son of a bitch,” Karson said with an incredulous smile. “Ten! Ten squid fighters. Maybe we should call him back and let him fight the rest of the war for us.”
“The Terudithan escort has altered course from the cruiser…” Harper said, looking at his display, “…to intercept.” He looked over at Aiden.
Kellanie, too, was watching him. “Eve…” she began, her gaze on Aiden, waiting for him to acknowledge her.
“Yes, Captain Leigh?”
Gaze still locked with Aiden’s, she said, “Divert all plasmatic supply except life support systems to reinforce shields.”
“Captain, may I suggest conserving fifteen percent plasmatic fuel for quantum drive reserve?”
“Fine. Do it.”
“Mister Finnegan has proceeded with hull ablation,” Flea reported.
Aiden swallowed. Inside his heart, he thanked Kellanie for her decision. Something stopped him from giving the order to leave Mister Finnegan behind, even though the odds of his survival were hopeless. He hoped the odds of their survival were just increased.
The ship’s lighting dimmed to perhaps twenty percent. Vents cut off. The tactical table and volumetric display blinked off. The holographic overlay on the reinforced smart screen vanished, making it merely a front window to open space. Various hums and noises their minds had become used to overlooking faded, leaving them in utter silence.
“Plasmatic ionized screen augmented to one-hundred-eighty percent,” reported Eve.
“Does this feel a little familiar to you guys?” Karson asked.
“You mean your brilliant Blackbody idea?” Harper said.
The Command Hub’s door slid slowly open. Reece’s backlit silhouette stood there, swaying and clutching the back of his head. “Permissio
n to enter…Captain Leigh?”
She threw Aiden a questioning glance. He gave a small nod.
“Permission granted, Reece,” she said, “but you’ll want to harness in.”
He took an empty seat and glared at Flea. She didn’t notice.
The AEV Mark-I’s forward viewport to space turned a brilliant white, lighting the inside of the Command Hub. Aiden raised his arm to shield his eyes.
“Zero-point-one-seven ems to blast wave,” Flea announced.
“Here we go,” Aiden yelled. “Hold on, everyone!”
“I love you guys,” Karson yelled.
“Captain…” Ryder said, but that was all.
“Karson,” Harper spoke in a hurry, “I’m sorry I’ve always been such an assho—”
The wave from the hydrogen blast engulfed the scout ship. The Command Hub went dark. Aiden pitched forth in his seat, the harness pressing into his chest and hips as his limbs slung outward. He gritted his teeth and thought of Lauren and Sam. He thought of Spero and wanted her there with him to clutch the dog tight.
The force from the blast abated. Aiden lifted from his seat, floating in zero-gravity for a moment, and then settled down into it as the hub’s interior lights raised. He looked around. Everyone did the same. Karson blinked. Harper sighed. Ryder smiled at Aiden. He peered at Kellanie where she had sunken back into her Command chair, hands gripping its arms, face covered in a sheen of sweat.
“Our shields…held,” Flea announced. “The AEV Mark-I’s hull was unaffected by the blast thanks to your suggestion to divert resources, captain.”
“And the escort?” Kellanie asked.
“The Terudithan escort has been disabled,” Flea confirmed. “They appear to be adrift.”
“Yes! That’s good news,” Karson said.
Aiden noticed Reece in his chair, face down, his expression the blank stare of loss.
Karson noticed as well. “I mean…not all of it is good news…Reece—”
“I’m sorry, Reece,” Aiden said. “We owe your grandfather our lives. He’s a hero.”