"We need to go, Captain," Sendrei said as he brought Gaylon Brighton to a hover atop our position.
When a final scan showed no sign of life, Tabby picked Bray's lifeless body up and turned toward the ship. Silently, we flew to the airlock and cycled through.
"What's the plan, Captain?" Sendrei asked as we carried our dead crew back to the cargo bay.
"Let's get into space," I said.
"You don't want to take down those Kasumi?" Tabby asked, her words less of a challenge than I'd have expected.
"You bet I do," I answered, exiting the armory and heading aft instead of to the bridge. "But if they take us out, this will all have been for nothing. Take the helm, I need to have a conversation."
"Liam?" Tabby asked.
"Just do it. I'm going to talk to Tskir," I said darkly, palming my way into the crew lounge where Tskir sat.
"Why did you take that woman's jewelry? Do you seek trophies from the dead?" Tskir asked defiantly as I entered.
I pulled the simple leather cord from my waist pouch, tied it around my neck, and pushed it beneath my grav-suit's collar. My cheeks burned at her suggestion and I fought back my first, angry response.
"The hunters who killed the Jarwain are coming for us. Their ship is more powerful than ours and it is likely we will not survive direct combat," I said, my voice still carrying hostility. "What I don't need is your approval. All I need from you is the location of your home planet. I don’t know if there's some magical super weapon that will help us. I am, however, willing to sacrifice everyone on this ship to find out why the Kroerak are so afraid of your people. Now what's it going to be? Are you with us or against us?"
The ship shook as we transitioned from the atmosphere to space and accelerated, most likely in the wrong direction. For several minutes, Tskir and I stared at each other. I was not in a position to back down from my statement. I was too angry and grieved at the toll my actions had already taken on so many.
"Your mind is clouded with darkness," Tskir finally said. "It is a darkness I have often felt."
"What do you know of darkness?" I growled. "Do people die simply because of entering your presence? Are you a plague on all the good around you? I might as well be a frakking virus for the good I do to those around me."
"You speak as someone who has lost much," she said. "I have lost only one, but it was the only person I've ever known. I did not know my father. Can you fathom living your entire live in seclusion? Can you imagine waking every day and wishing you were dead?"
"Nobody wants to die, Tskir," I said.
"I do. Or at least I did," she said. "I want nothing else but to believe you are noble – that your cause is as just as you say it is. I have lived with only one goal and that is to survive long enough that this day would come. Now that it is here, I find I cannot trust."
"Do you really believe we are worse than Kroerak? Do you not understand? They pursue your people in order to wipe them from existence. You don't need to trust me, Tskir. I am the enemy of your enemy. That should be sufficient," I said. "Make your choice. Understand, I'm grateful the path we take next is not mine to decide and that the blood of others will finally be on someone else’s hands. I've had too much."
The small, reptilian woman looked into my face and reached over with her tiny, clawed finger to touch my cheek. "It is hard for me to believe you are real," she said. "I choose to trust you this day, Liam Hoffen. It seems it is something you have forgotten."
"I trust that your wish to die may well be granted by choosing to travel with us. And it is a weight I do not enjoy carrying," I said, as she removed the chain around her wrist and handed it to me.
"My mother shared wisdom that you should take within," she said. "It is that we should not choose the time of our death, but the manner in which we live."
"Liam?" Tabby broke through on comms.
"Go ahead," I answered.
"Kasumi ship is giving chase," she said.
"I'm coming."
"Hey, buddy," I said, accepting the quantum communication handset from Tabby. We'd escaped the Kasumi pursuit and had been underway for a ten-day. Apparently, I'd stayed in bed and skipped my workouts too frequently for Tabby. She'd called in the big guns.
"Liam," Nick's voice sounded a little tinny over the quantum device. "What's going on? Tabby says you're acting funny."
I smiled mirthlessly. If you wanted to beat around the bush, Nick probably wouldn't be your go-to. "I'm okay," I said. "Losing Hunter and Bray kind of took the wind out of my sails."
"That was a good thing you were doing with the water," Nick answered.
"A lot of good it did anybody," I said.
"Cap?" Marny's voice cut in and I could just imagine her grabbing the handset away from Nick.
"Heya, Marny," I said.
"Remember when we took down that first Red Houzi hideout and were floating in the pitch black?" she asked.
"Sure. Hard to forget that. I thought we were goners," I said.
"Remember what I told you? What I always tell you?"
"Stop whining?" I asked.
"You gotta stay in the moment, Cap," she said.
"I'm getting good people killed, Marny," I said. "If we hadn't come here, those Jarwainians would still be alive and so would Hunter and Bray."
"You're probably right," she said. "Look at Sendrei. You willing to put him back on Cradle so the Kroerak can eat him?"
"Of course not."
"That's your contribution to this whole mess," she said. "Killing those Jarwainian, Bray, and Hunter is on the Kasumi. You need to get your head straight. The only way this works is if you stop looking back and start looking forward."
"I don't know if I've got that in me anymore," I said.
"You need to, Cap," she said. "We need you to. Little Pete needs you to. Who do you think the Kroerak are coming for once they figure out that selich poisoning thing?"
"I know. I just … wait, what? Little Pete?"
"Wanted to wait until you were back. It's why I chose to stay behind. We just started our third trimester. Honestly, I was surprised you didn't notice before you left, I was starting to show a little."
I chuckled. "Seriously, you're pregnant and it's a boy? That's amazing. Congratulations."
"There he is," Marny said. "There's my boy. And, honestly, I'm a little offended that you didn't notice. Word on the street is you used to check me out from time to time."
"Uh, right. You're not kidding? Does anyone else know?" I asked.
"Your mom called me out a couple of ten-days ago," she said. "We asked her if it would be okay to call him Peter after your dad. We'll change if you want to use it."
"Heh, I don't think we're headed down that path anytime soon. Tabby is afraid of even getting married. I can't imagine the whole have-a-kid conversation," I said, sitting up in bed and leaning against the wall. "What's going on with Munay? You got him towing the line?"
"We've had our moments, but I think he's finally getting the bigger picture," she said. "You won't recognize Hornblower when you get back."
We continued to chat and slowly, the fog started to lift. Sailing without my full crew was hard on me, especially when I hadn't realized just how much I'd come to depend on them.
"Here, Nick wants to say goodbye to you," Marny finally relented.
"Way to keep a secret," I said, when I heard him pick up the handset.
"Pretty exciting, right?"
"Best news I've heard in a long time," I said. "Have you decided if you're going to share the Piscivoru home planet location with Abasi yet?"
"Not yet," he said. "I'm not sure who we can really trust outside of Mshindi and I'm not sure she'd keep it to herself."
"Take care of yourself, Nick. Good news on Little Pete and thanks for reaching out to set me straight," I said.
"No problem, Liam. Fair warning, though, you might get a call from Ada. I guess she and Tabby have been talking," he said.
"I'll take that call," I said. "I miss y
ou guys."
The trip to Picis turned out to be both eventful and not so much. We'd definitely taken the road less traveled. Each system we entered seemed even less populated than the last, until finally we were on the very edge of the Aeratroas region of the Dwingeloo galaxy.
As it turned out, Tskir was easier to get along with than originally expected. As different as she looked – and she definitely did at seventy-five centimeters in height and a torso as small around as my forearm – she was much like every other sentient I'd come to know. Isolation had given her some quirks, but she had many of the same thoughts and feelings about life that we did. She also took great delight in the varieties of foods we were able to produce. While she was not very good at it, I was able to rope her into playing in our daily card games. She didn't mind losing and I took some joy in watching her progress each day. Perhaps the most interesting discovery was that Tskir’s body could be exposed to complete vacuum without any harm at all, aside from issues related to the cold.
"Tskir, would you come to the bridge?" I called as we approached the final wormhole that would take us into the system we'd simply come to call Picis, which was also the name of her home planet.
"How may I be of assistance?" she asked amiably. I’d learned Tskir had little understanding of the passage of time. Even though I'd set the expectation that we'd be arriving in her home system shortly, she'd seemed unaware of it.
"We're about to enter the Picis system," I said. "Why don't you come to the bridge so you can watch our approach to your long-lost home?"
"Yessss," she said. It wasn't uncommon for her words to have a hissing sound when she was excited.
"All hands, prepare for possible combat," I said. We hadn't seen the Kasumi, but I had no reason to believe they wouldn't be here. "Engaging wormhole transition."
A moment later we popped through into Picis. I accelerated even before I was fully aware of our surroundings.
"Local space is clear," Jonathan announced. "We have a lock on planet Picis."
"Any enemies on long range sensors?" I asked.
"Difficult to tell," he answered. "There is ship activity within the system. We have not identified its source."
"I suppose that's to be expected," I answered and turned Gaylon Brighton toward Picis and continued to accelerate but not so hard that Jonathan's data gathering would be impacted.
"We're four days to Picis," Tabby announced, flicking the navigation plan my way. The plan called for several mid-trip adjustments just in case someone was tracking us.
"This is my home?" Tskir asked.
"We're in the right solar system," I said, throwing a system view onto the holo projector. "We're here." I poked on the worm hole and it blinked, expanding for emphasis. "This is your home." The planet looked much like Earth, with blue and green patches visible through the clouds. I knew the visual had been created with information Jonathan had just gathered and was a computer estimation, but the planet was beautiful nonetheless.
"Thank you for coming to Jarwain." Tskir unstrapped, ran across the forward bulkhead and jumped onto my knee. I winced as her sharp claws dug into my leg as she balanced. "It was beyond my dreams to visit my home before passing."
"Might be a rough ride," I said. "Jonathan says there are visitors."
"I accept this."
"Do you have any suggestions on where we should look for your people first?" I asked. "It looks like a big planet."
"Yes. The Iskstar is found in only one mountain," she said, pulling out yet another memory device and handing it to Jonathan. "I now entrust you with the most important secret of the Piscivoru."
I raised my eyebrows. "Aren't you just full of surprises. I didn't think the Iskstar had been discovered when your people left."
"It hadn't," she agreed. "We learned of its existence only a hundred of your standard years ago and even then we did not know of its value."
The news was bad, although not beyond what we'd expected. In-system was a single Kroerak frigate-class ship of a design we hadn't seen before. While distinctly Kroerak, the ship was narrower and less disk shaped than the cruiser we'd taken.
The mountain where the Iskstar was located was adjacent to an ancient city that had been ruined long ago. The city was lousy with Kroerak which seemed to confirm the existence of Piscivoru. Our goal was simply to drop into the atmosphere and get a good look at what the Kroerak were up to. We would formulate our plans from there.
"All right everyone, strap in," I said as we dropped from hard-burn. On our third pass of the planet, we came in as far from the cruiser’s path as possible, giving us a two-hour buffer should it decide to come after us. We wouldn’t get a better window to take a close pass at the city. "This could get kind of bumpy."
"Liam, I'm reading a second ship," Tabby said as we hit our cruising altitude. I'd been drawn in by the rugged beauty of the planet. Five hundred stans had done much to erase the previous civilization's mark on the surface. Now, only the ruined husks of a few dozen of the largest buildings remained beneath a brilliant blue sky.
Tabby's warning came just before blaster fire pierced Gaylon Brighton's left wing. I banked hard away from the surprise attack and accelerated toward the city.
"It's that Kasumi ship," Sendrei announced. "Going hot on missiles. Give me a shot, Captain."
"Copy." I tipped the nose over and accelerated hard for cover near the ancient sky scrapers.
The fire from the Kasumi ship was relentless. Their blasters were significantly hotter and fired at twice the rate of our weapons. This battle would be short if I couldn't find cover and turn to give Sendrei a shot with the missiles.
We had some speed advantage, especially while dropping toward the city, but the problem was we'd taken damage and were hemorrhaging fuel. It wasn’t like we were running for home. We’d be lucky if we were able to limp back to the nearest civilization – ten wormholes back.
Blaster fire stitched through the air as I twisted around a once-proud building and spun from our pursuer. Chunks of the building exploded as the blaster finished what nature had started. In slow motion, the entire top section tilted and fell off.
"Get ready, Sendrei, coming around port," I said tightly.
"Frak, we're hit again," Tabby said.
Taking the strike was in my desperate plan to draw the Kasumi along a line I knew Sendrei would shortly have in his targeting reticle.
I swung hard starboard and just as the Kasumi blasters found us again, I performed an about-face, reversing the starboard engine as I swung around inelegantly. "Now!"
The sound of missiles leaving the ship was overshadowed by the destruction wrought by the Kasumi’s gunner. He had anticipated my maneuver.
"We're hit," Tabby said again.
"Hold on, we're going to crash."
Brilliantly, the Kasumi ship exploded as Gaylon Brighton spun on her vertical axis and crash-landed into the base of a tall building that toppled, barely missing us. A second explosion a few clicks away rocked the ground as the Kasumi ship impacted the city with considerably more energy.
Chapter 17
Kill Box
Sklisk pushed on Jaelisk's back and the two tumbled into the darkened room. Sounds of rubble collapsing into the hallway meant the bugs had taken up the chase once again. Without hesitation he spun and pushed at the heavy door only to meet resistance. Sklisk frantically searched for the obstruction, locating several fist-sized chunks of building debris that had tumbled into the door's path.
"Close it!" Jaelisk urged, her back pushing against the door.
Sklisk attempted to clear the debris, but their pushing had pinned several pieces between the door and the frame. The scratching sounds of a bug in the hallway added to the urgency. "Stop pushing; a rock obstructs."
Jaelisk pulled back and Sklisk raked his hand across the rubble. A pincer shot through the opening and stabbed him, catching him perfectly on his already wounded side. Falling back, he watched as Jaelisk pushed at the bug's extended claw. Physically
stronger by an order of magnitude, the bug would have no problem overpowering his mate. Sklisk flashed with a risky idea. He scrabbled forward and chomped on the top of the bug's claw. Piscivoru never bothered with Kroo Ack claws, as they had no meat and no nutritional value, but they were easy to bite into. Sklisk planned to furrow a line through what was the bug’s wrist. No one was more surprised when Sklisk’s first bite elicited a startled bellow and the immediate extraction of the claw from the doorway.
Free of obstruction, the door swung closed and Sklisk snapped his head back to avoid a serious nose pinch. Machinery, spurred into motion as the door clicked shut, vibrated beneath the palm of his hand. A muted bang at the door turned into rhythmic pounding as the bugs tried to break through.
"What manner of structure is this that Kroo Ack are unable to enter?" Jaelisk asked. They'd both seen the destructive power of the warriors.
"Look," Sklisk had turned around to find the source of the flickering light. At the back of the room were many finger-counts of large translucent panels just like the one on Engirisk's machine. While many machines flickered or had no light, several showed clear pictures of the city. "This is the building we are in."
"How is that possible?" Jaelisk asked.
"In class, Engirisk showed that his device could remember pictures of the people and display them on these panels. It is like that device we found that showed the woman in the field," he said. "It is able to remember and display."
"Are these pictures a memory?" Jaelisk asked.
"I do not think so," he replied. "The building looks just as we saw it earlier today. If it were a memory, it would appear as the picture Engirisk showed us before we started our journey. The Kroo Ack were not attacking the building in the memory he showed."
"There are so many," Jaelisk said. "How will we escape?"
"We must focus on our mission. Device – where are the items Engirisk has tasked us to find?" Sklisk said, holding Engirisk's nearly ruined machine in front of his face as he spoke.
"It is recommended that you utilize a replacement engineering pad. The screen adjacent to your location shows a suitable replacement," Engirisk's machine answered.
Pursuit of the Bold Page 18
