by Tim Marquitz
A dozen explosions emphasized her words, Wyyvan cannon fire falling from the sky. Smoke and debris filled the air, dust and dirt peppering the view screen. Taj snarled as she lost sight of her people in the chaos below. She had to rely on the ship’s scanners, which only showed the Furlorians as a blur of squirming black against the green background.
She spun in her seat. “Get them inside, Cabe! All of them!”
Cabe grunted, flung his safety harness aside, and shot off down the corridor outside the bridge. Taj watched him go, turning back when he disappeared. Comm still open, she hopped on the speakers and urged her people to hurry as more and more enemy fire rained down.
The Paradigm shuddered as blow after blow crashed into its ancient shields. Taj watched as the city they’d only recently rebuilt came apart in moments. An orange glow tinted the view screen as more and more fires erupted across the city, spreading quickly with no one there to curtail their advance. She could smell the bitter char wafting through the open hatch in the belly of the ship, the stench creeping its way through the ship.
It fueled the fire inside her.
“Hurry, people,” she screamed, desperately urging them on.
A loud, harsh beep sounded, reverberating through the bridge. A half-dozen impacts rattled the ship right then.
“They’re targeting us directly now,” Torbon called out needlessly. Taj knew gacking well what was happening. Her only surprise was that it had taken so long for the enemy to do it.
“Double power to the shields,” she ordered. “We sit here until everyone is aboard.”
“Your misplaced compassion is going to get us all killed,” Vort told her.
She snarled. “My compassion is the only thing keeping you alive, Captain. So, unless you want to test my patience and my willingness to throw you out the hatch, I’d suggest you keep your mouth shut.”
Vort harrumphed, but her threat didn’t quiet him. “Forgive me for not trusting solely in your compassion to keep me alive,” he replied. “My people’s weaponry fires on a specific frequency,” he offered. “While your shields appear to be holding, they would sustain the battery better if you tweaked their range in accordance.”
Taj grunted and said nothing for an instant, debating the captain’s offer. Much as she didn’t trust him, she knew well enough that all he cared about was his own safety. The last thing he’d do is put the Paradigm and her people at risk right then because he would die right alongside them.
“Adjust the shields as he dictates,” Taj called out to Lina, gesturing for Vort to go ahead.
The captain smirked and offered his knowledge, calling out the necessary adjustments.
Taj saw immediate improvement in the shield’s function, but it still wouldn’t be enough if they sat there for too much longer. “Hurry,” she screamed into the comm again. “We need to move.”
“Almost there,” Cabe answered over their personal comm, his message only broadcasting to the crew. “It’s seriously crowded down here. Having a hard time making room and getting everyone inside.”
Taj nodded even though Cabe couldn’t see it. “Do what you can, but do it fast. Better we pile live people on top of each other than leaving corpses.”
She hadn’t expected the Wyyvans to bombard the planet from orbit, hadn’t even thought of the possibility, and that made her nauseous, a sure sign of her inexperience. Her people had spent all their time and resources preparing for a ground invasion, thinking the Toradium-42 too important for the invaders to do anything else but land and try to take it by force like Vort had.
Now, the fate of her people hung in the balance, a battered old freighter’s shields and hull the only thing standing between them and annihilation. Taj’s whiskers vibrated as her anger grew.
“Not without a fight!” she blurted.
“Shields at sixty-five percent,” Lina warned. “Sixty-two percent. Sixty.”
“Bloody Rowl,” Taj muttered under her breath. “Push more power to them. We need everyone on board.”
“Think maybe we can, I don’t know, get this show on the road sometime soon?” Torbon asked.
“I concur,” Captain Vort said, gesturing toward Torbon. “We remain much longer and my dear compatriots—” There was no mistaking the bitterness in his voice. “—will turn the dreadnought loose upon us. This—” He gestured toward the explosions rocking the ship. “—will be nothing compared to what we will endure if the dreadnought joins the barrage. No amount of shield tweaking will defy its power.”
As much as Taj hated the alien captain, she knew he was right. She clenched her teeth and screamed into the comm, “Hurry up, people. We can’t hold on much longer!”
She heard Vort sigh at what he considered to be her indecision and did her best to ignore him. She wasn’t going to leave anyone behind.
Those were the decisions a real captain made, and that’s what she was now, like it or not. She was sitting in the big chair and making the big decisions. It was frightening, but exhilarating, too. “Prepare for max acceleration the second the last Furlorian is aboard, even if they aren’t strapped in. Better bruised than dead.”
“Almost done,” Cabe called out.
“Better rush it, Cabe,” Lina told him. “The dreadnought’s weapon array is warming up. If we’re still sitting here when it fires…”
Taj heard him mutter something across the channel about missing his nip, followed by a profound string of curses referencing the Wyyvans’ mothers, and she couldn’t help but concur with the latter.
More blasts echoed against the shields overhead, and she heard the emergency beacons kick on again, a horrible wail pinning her ears to the side of her head. She glanced over her shoulder at Torbon.
He met her eyes and shrugged. “You don’t really need me to say it, do you?”
Taj sighed. She didn’t. “Don’t you dare.”
“Done! Everyone’s in,” Cabe called. “Closing the hatch now.”
Taj felt the knot in her stomach loosen the tiniest bit as she saw the hatch indicator signal its closure. “Hold on, everyone. Things are gonna get bumpy.” She motioned to Lina. “Go! Get us out of here.”
The engineer barked an affirmative. “Shields adjusted, full forward thrust.”
Taj was pressed deeper into her seat as the Paradigm shot forward, angling low then darting upward. Culvert City disappeared behind them, and Taj groaned at leaving the only place she’d ever known as home behind. Her every memory centered around Culvert City and Krawlas, and now she and the whole of her people were abandoning it, hurtling into space with barely enough supplies to last a month, if that.
Though that wasn’t her biggest concern right then.
“You do realize you are flying directly toward the fleet, correct?” Vort asked. “Seems counter-intuitive if your goal is to survive, but perhaps you have some tactical wisdom I simply don’t comprehend, earned in all your years piloting a warcraft.”
Taj growled at him, but once more, he was right. The Wyyvan ships were shifting their position, several of them turning to continue their barrage on the Paradigm. It would only be a matter of time before they cleared the atmosphere and ended up directly ahead of the whole Wyyvan fleet.
“Any suggestions?” she asked, squeezing the words out through her clenched teeth.
“Well, since not dying is at the top of my to-do list, I’d suggest you let me take the helm.”
Taj jerked around, spinning in her chair to glare at the alien. “Are you serious?” she snapped. “You expect me to let you take control of the ship in the middle of a fight with your very own people?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but no one aboard any of those ships knows I’m aboard this one, nor, as if it weren’t even more obvious, does anyone appear to care about my safety or wellbeing.” He jabbed a finger at the view screen. “As such, I am in every bit as much danger as you and your people. I’m also the most qualified regarding Wyyvan fleet tactics. So, unless you want to end up as charre
d debris floating in space, I suggest you stick a pin in your paranoia and allow me to take the helm.”
“Gack me!” Taj cursed. She spun on the engineer. “Scoot over, Lina. Let him have the helm but stay close. He does anything funny, shoot him.”
Wide-eyed, Lina loosened her safety harness and hopped to another seat, pulling her gun loose as Vort claimed her chair.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Taj,” Lina told her.
“You and me both,” Taj muttered in reply, wondering how in the gack she’d reached this point.
“We’re all gonna die,” Torbon muttered in the background, his lips moving as if he couldn’t help himself.
Taj sighed. “You seriously need a new catch phrase, Torbon,” she barked at him. “We’re not gonna die. I won’t allow it.”
He grunted and sat back in his seat. While she didn’t think she’d gotten through to him, at least he’d shut up.
That was something.
Not long after, as Vort had predicted, the Paradigm broke free of the atmosphere ahead of the fleet. She swallowed hard at seeing the array of destroyers splayed out before her. The dreadnought loomed large, ominous. Then the Paradigm’s engines kicked in with a rumble, pinning everyone to their seats. The whole crew gasped as one.
Then the Paradigm shot directly toward the dreadnought.
“What the gack are you doing, Vort?” Taj screamed. Her hand fought the surge of forward momentum in an effort to kill power to the helm’s console. “Lina! Get ready to shoot him.”
“It’s the only way to get clear,” Vort answered as the engineer lifted her bolt pistol and pointed it at him.
Taj glared, finger over the console, ready to kill Vort’s access. It was only the narrow-eyed, almost fearful expression on the captain’s face that kept her from taking control from him.
“The rest of the fleet won’t risk striking the dreadnought so this is the safest place we can be,” he told them. “The dreadnought has no in-tight defenses, its focus solely on overwhelming offensive power, relying entirely on the fleet to keep ships from getting anywhere near it.” He gestured to the view screen. “And since we came out of the atmosphere so close to the beast, the fleet is unprepared to defend it. That buys us several moments to maneuver past.”
Taj continued to glare at the alien, but there was nothing she could do to alter their course, even if she did reclaim control of the ship. The nose of the dreadnought loomed in the view screen. Taj squirmed in her seat.
“You better know what you’re doing,” she said to Vort.
“If I don’t, you’ve nothing to worry about,” he replied. “Our death will be quick and painless.”
“That’s comforting,” Torbon muttered. “Put that on my space dust headstone, if you don’t mind. ‘Torbon died, quickly and painlessly thanks to a stinky lizard’s poor choice of tactics.’”
Vort shrugged. “Feel free to take the helm if you can do better,” he told Torbon.
“Just do what needs to be done, Captain, and keep your mouth shut,” Taj told him, cutting off any further banter with a sharp wave of her hand. “I really don’t want to hear you right now.”
To her surprise, Vort simply nodded as the dreadnought grew closer and closer. The dark gray steel of its armor filled the view screen. A few last explosions rattled the Paradigm’s shields, the console reading 55%, and then they were flying only meters above the dreadnought’s hull. The rattling impacts of enemy fire ended immediately like Vort had predicted.
Captain Vort chuckled. “Am I not a genius?”
“I hope you’re not actually looking to get an answer,” Torbon snarked.
The dreadnought hurtled under them, a blur of impending doom that grew less threatening with every passing second.
“Now what?” Taj asked as they neared the dreadnoughts massive engines.
“Now,” the captain began, “we run like hell.”
Chapter Three
The Paradigm shot past the rear of the dreadnought, and Captain Vort veered the craft sharply, diving behind the hull of the enemy ship. Taj bit back a groan as the sudden change in direction pinned her to her seat, the old freighters equipment not quite up to the task of perfecting gravity within its confines.
“A little warning,” Torbon shouted. “My tail nearly poked my eye out.”
“This is no joyride, Furlorian,” Vort answered. “Were I to warn you of every tactical maneuver required, we’d be back to discussing how quickly our deaths would be upon us.”
“Knock it off, both of you,” Taj shouted, waggling a clawed finger at Torbon. “Get us out of here, Vort.”
“I endeavor to do exactly that,” he replied.
There was another sudden shift of direction, and the Paradigm kept the dreadnought’s bulk between them and the majority of the enemy ships.
Taj watched the monitors closely. For the most part, the alien fleet continued to bombard the planet, ignoring the escaping freighter now that it had slipped past them. Only two destroyers seemed to be engaged with the pursuit and even that seem halfhearted, neither ship pressing hard to catch them.
“Why aren’t they chasing us?” she asked.
“Outside of satisfying Grand Admiral Galforin’s ego and bloodlust, a ship full of escaping rodents is hardly high on his list of priorities. It’s the Toradium-42 he wants, and his efforts at annihilating all life on the planet, to include my own, shows you how much he prizes the mineral over all else.”
Taj swallowed her complaints at being called a rodent, simply grateful that the enemy wanted the precious mineral more than he wanted to kill off the escaping Furlorians. She sunk into her seat as Vort triggered the thrusters, doing his best to put as much distance between them and his murderous cohorts. She watched as the two destroyers slowed on the monitors, clearly content to let the Paradigm slip away.
She sighed and muttered a thanks to Rowl.
Of course, she should have known better than to trust a fickle goddess with her safety.
Out of nowhere, a sleek black craft appeared on the screen.
A metallic thump resounded through the bridge, and Vort cursed as the Paradigm trembled and slowed. The monitors showed the engines waning as something drained the power from them, a strange current shooting through the craft and overwhelming the systems.
“What the gack is that?” Torbon asked.
“We’ve been snagged by a small Wyyvan ship of some kind,” Lina answered. “A boarding tube’s caught our hull.”
“What is this thing, Vort?” Taj asked.
The captain growled. “It’s a leech ship,” he replied. “Designed for boarding, infiltration. There will be—”
Another metallic thump interrupted him, followed by a second and a third.
“—more boarding tubes attached in a moment,” Vort finished, offering a shrug for his delayed assessment. “Like those they’re hooking up now.”
“One near the bridge, two at the engines, and one attached at the midsection,” Lina called out. “All power to the engines has been cut off. I’m trying to re-engage them.”
“Cabe!” Taj shouted into the comm.
“Go!” he answered.
“I need people armed and ready to repulse invaders. Get them to the bridge and engine room, then I need some people arrayed at—”
“Wait,” Vort said, clambering free of his chair and flinging his harness aside. “The extra tubes are a ploy, don’t fall for them.”
He ran over to where Taj sat and began typing a sequence onto her console. A holographic display of the leech ship and the Paradigm appeared, floating alongside each other, the boarding tubes visible. He tapped the spot where the tube connected to the bridge, then to those at the engines.
“Tactically, these three tubes are intended as feints. They’ll be minimally manned, the forces stationed there intend to do nothing more than to hold your attention while the true invaders—” He tapped the innocuous tube connected to the middle of the ship. “—board here, where you�
�re least likely to deploy sufficient soldiers, and then they’ll make their way to the bridge.”
Taj growled. “How do I know you’re being honest, Vort?”
The captain chuckled. “Because I don’t want to die any more than you do, Furlorian, as I keep telling you,” he answered. “Why would they raid your engines when they’ve already cut power to them? And why push straight at your bridge when they know you’ll crowd the corridors and defend it with everything you’ve got? It would be suicide on their part.”
He gestured to the leech ship floating alongside them outside of the hull.
“Their ship has a finite number of soldiers it can throw against your defenses, and they can’t afford to mass up and risk being battled back while trying to navigate a narrow boarding tube. That’s the reason behind the subterfuge. They’ll engage you at all the tunnels, superficially, to keep you occupied, splitting your forces throughout the ship. That keeps you from mustering your people in time to hold the bridge from the true threat, which will catch you off guard, your attention turned away from them.”
“Bloody Rowl,” Taj muttered. She flipped on her comm. “Cabe! Belay my last. Get everyone armed and to the bridge. Now!”
He muttered an affirmative, and Taj lifted her gaze to meet Vort’s once more. Her tail slapped hard against her thigh. “You better be right about this,” she told him.
“If I’m not, then I die right alongside you,” he answered with a shrug. “Speaking of, perhaps you should have someone fetch Commander Dard. I’ve grown fond of him and would prefer not to leave him behind to the mercy of my former comrades.”
“Wait! What do you mean by leaving him behind?” Taj asked.
The captain chuckled. “You don’t actually think we’ll be able to escape on this ancient clunker, do you? You saw how quickly the leech ship caught us, and there will be more on the heels of this one.”