"For what?" Tabby asked. "So we can wait for the Kroerak to hunt us down? Or even worse, what if they don't? Sendrei and I are trapped on this stupid planet until Nick comes for us? What then? We wait it out until the Kroerak come back to Zuri? No, we do this now."
"Sendrei?" I asked.
"We are strongest as a team," he said. "We should not split up."
"We will protect you," Sklisk said, running up a tree so he could look across at me. We'd been accompanied by fifteen volunteer Piscivoru guard, each holding Iskstar-tipped staves.
I smiled. I wasn't about to dismiss the small alien. Without our Popeyes, the Piscivoru were truly our only hope against Kroerak warriors. "Let's go," I said. We had a significant journey ahead of us, but it was nothing like what we'd endured so far.
We decided to walk under the bright moon and hunker down for sleep during daylight hours. I found I had to dim my face shield to the bright light, my eyes significantly more sensitive than before. What I gave up in the daylight, however, I gained in my ability to see in the dark. Even the smallest details were visible at night, though colors had a distinctive blue wash to them.
By the end of the first evening we'd closed to ten kilometers, our pace significantly slowed by occasional sightings of small Kroerak craft. Fortunately, we didn't gain their attention and I wondered if a new ship had arrived or if the frigate we'd seen orbiting Picis was in charge of the bombing.
"You ready for tonight?" Tabby asked, lying next to me. We'd covered ourselves with the thick foliage of the forest that had long ago encroached on the dead city.
"Can't say I'm not nervous," I said.
"I wonder what Marny's up to," she said. "She could have her baby before we ever get home. I can't imagine bringing a child into this world."
"It'll be interesting to see how a baby changes her," I said.
"It already has," Tabby said. "It was her idea to stay back."
"I thought she just missed Nick."
"I don't like that we're splitting up," Tabby said. "Nick with his business, now Marny with her baby."
"Have you told anyone how you feel?" I asked.
"Not mine to decide for them," she said.
"No, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't hear what you think," I said. "They all look up to you, Tabbs."
"Okay," I could hear in her voice that she was fading off.
For me, the day seemed to drag on forever as I dozed on and off. The tension of the coming night weighed heavily on me as it often did. When the star finally hung low in the sky, I gave up any pretense of sleep.
"How's the voting going?" I asked, sitting down next to where Jonathan's glossy black vessel rested.
"Voting on a successful operation?" Jonathan asked.
"Sure," I said.
"There are many who express positive expectations."
"That bad?" I asked.
"The relationship between the Iskstar crystal and human blaster technology is too unknown," Jonathan said. "The arguments have mainly focused on how you were able to extract such a well-formed crystal in the short period of time you were in contact with the mother crystal."
"I'm telling you, I didn't do it," I said.
"And yet you cannot account for much of the time you were beneath the water," he said. "Your bio signs were reviewed. You had entered a REM sleep pattern. It is a mystery we would very much like to resolve."
"What's the leading hypothesis?"
"That a pathogen was ingested during your seizure."
"So, you're saying there was something in the water?" I summarized.
"That's correct. Do you have an alternative explanation?"
I pulled the Iskstar crystal from beneath my grav-suit. I'd found I preferred to carry it against my skin. Turning it over in my hand I looked up at Jonathan. "There's something about this crystal. It's more than just a rock."
"We feel compelled to point out that a crystal is a different structure than is a common rock, but we also believe that was not your point. Could you elaborate on why you feel the Iskstar is unusual?"
"I feel connected. Nothing I can really put words behind. I like the way it feels when I'm touching it."
"You and your feelings. They just run you," Tabby said, catching me off guard as she knelt next to me, placing her hand on my back.
Most of the camp had begun to stir. Upon hearing the conversation, the normally quiet Piscivoru gathered around us. Picis' star would fall below the horizon within the hour and it was understood we needed to get moving.
"Your broken vessel sits here," Sklisk said, drawing in the dirt with a stick. "There is a building here." He continued to draw. "If our mission becomes desperate, we will go to this building. It can be secured."
"What's in there?" I asked.
"Supplies left behind by our ancestors. There is much technology within that is foreign," he said. "The Kroo Ack were unable to enter the stronghold and it could provide safety. It is from this stronghold we watched the battle in the air between the two flying vessels."
"Watched?" I asked. "How?"
"It was shown on the wall," Jaelisk said. "We do not know how it worked."
"That sounds like a command and control bunker," I said. "If they have working sensors and video, maybe they have some old stationary weapons. This could be the key to taking back Picis."
"Sure and then the Kroerak would bomb the Piscivoru back to the stone age… again," Tabby said. "Ground-based weapons aren't going to do anyone any good. We need to focus on Gaylon Brighton."
"The technology level of the Kroerak is quite low when compared to most other species," Jonathan said. "We have seen no evidence of orbital bombardment capability, which is what we believe you refer to, Tabitha. We do, however, agree with your assertion that any successful plan starts with returning Gaylon Brighton's weapons to operational status. Perhaps we were not clear, Gaylon Brighton will not be capable of anything more than a short flight, presuming we're able to restore engine function."
"Sure, whatever. Let's get moving," Tabby said impatiently. Apparently, we'd reached her tolerance for strategy. Anyway, she was right — if the Iskstar crystal didn't work, no amount of planning would make this better.
Trekking through the ancient city put me in a melancholy sort of mood. Five hundred stans was a long time and most structures had been destroyed and taken over by forest undergrowth. It was a testament to the ancient Piscivoru that what I suspected was the downtown portion of the city had buildings that still stood. According to Jonathan, the materials were every bit as advanced as anything used by humanity. The knowledge did little to ease my feelings of loss as I contemplated an entire world destroyed by the single-minded bugs. I wondered how many other civilizations had been lost to them.
We'd decided to shut down our grav-suits and carry Jonathan's vessel so it could run in extreme-low-power mode. The Kroerak could track energy or electromagnetic radiation and we felt it best if we approached with as little EM signature as possible. A tap on my shoulder from Tabby caught my attention and I followed her arm as she pointed. She'd caught sight of Gaylon Brighton's cockpit, sticking out of the side of the building we'd crashed into.
"Hold," Tabby whispered, sinking to her knees.
So far, we hadn't run into even a sign of Kroerak beyond the distant thunder of their continued bombing runs on the mountain.
"What is it?" I asked.
"The ship." She pointed to where the nose of Gaylon Brighton poked out from the building. It took me a moment to realize she couldn’t see as well as I could in the dark.
"I've seen no evidence of Kroerak," I said.
"How?"
I pointed to my glowing eyes. "I've had eyes on it for the last five hundred meters."
"You should allow us to approach first," Sklisk said. While his words made sense, the idea of sending a group of lizard aliens that were barely taller than my knee to scout for Kroerak seemed almost laughable. "We will make sure no Kroerak remain."
"I agree," I said. "We'l
l be right behind you."
For a moment, I watched as the Piscivoru guard dropped to all fours and skittered off. Their running style resembled anything but human as they ran forward, jerkily stopping every ten meters to taste the air or abruptly turn.
"They're not exactly stealthy. We need to move," Tabby said.
"Jonathan, I think it's time to wake up," I fell in behind Tabby, who easily outpaced both Sendrei and me. I felt bad as I watched Sendrei holding his side, he'd cracked a few ribs while crawling through the tunnels and running had to be anything but pleasant.
The egg-shaped vessel that carried the collective Jonathan lifted from my grasp and sailed forward under its own power as we closed the final two hundred meters to Gaylon Brighton. As the debris of the crumbled building became more difficult to climb, I finally decided to reactivate my grav-suit and watched the power-up sequence impatiently, then lifted myself over the wreckage.
From the outside, Gaylon Brighton didn't look much like a ship that would be going anywhere, any time soon. The armored skin had been peeled back in several places and the bottom turret was buried in the rubble with its one barrel sticking up at an angle not in line with its original function. Ignoring that, however, the ship's frame was essentially straight and at least one engine was still well attached. The other engine, however, was not visible given that it was covered by several floors of the collapsed building.
"Aiyee!"
From seemingly nowhere, a Kasumi bounty hunter leapt from behind the engine cowling. In both hands were blaster pistols and they immediately erupted in fire, targeting the Piscivoru who were completely taken off guard. Horrified, I watched as the aliens were cut in half one after the other by the vicious weapon fire.
Whether unseen or ignored, the Kasumi had made a critical mistake in not targeting Tabby first. Unarmed save for a thick stick she'd picked from the forest, Tabby rushed the Kasumi who fired on the scattering Piscivoru. It wasn't until the last second that the Kasumi understood the threat. Tabby's stick caught the bounty hunter across its back, breaking on contact.
With my suit booted, I lunged forward, gaining as much acceleration as possible before I crashed into the Kasumi. Not to be fooled twice, he twisted elegantly out of my path and even managed to fire a single shot that creased my leg, burning through my grav-suit.
The reaction from the Piscivoru was nearly instantaneous as they switched from defensive to offensive. For beings with such little mass, they moved with incredible speed and had the ability to change direction almost instantly. Something within the Kasumi had a difficult time ignoring the jerky movements of the smaller prey. The Piscivoru leapt on top of the bounty hunter, striking with their Iskstar-tipped staves, which as far as I could tell did virtually nothing.
Thwarted from using blasters, the Kasumi lunged for one of her attackers, grabbing the unlucky Jaelisk as she moved just a little too slowly. I saw the lightning-fast killing blow just a fraction of a second too late. I twisted, attempting to intervene, only I was too slow by twice to stop it.
"Jupiter piss, but I'm tired of you guys," Tabby said, grabbing the Kasumi's arm at the last second. In a single fluid move, she jumped onto the Kasumi's back, wrapping her legs around its waist and riding it to the ground. The Kasumi attempted to twist its other arm around and shoot Tabby. Seeing the danger, Tabby grabbed the Kasumi's wrist and wrenched it backwards, cracking cartilage as she pulled it violently.
"Relent, Kasumi," I said. "Or you will be destroyed."
"You will all die," it hissed. "The Kroerak have been alerted and will soon turn this city to dust. I may have failed, but I have at least ensured you have also."
"You do not deserve life," Jaelisk said, standing up from where she'd fallen. And, before I could stop her, she impaled the Kasumi, driving her Iskstar staff into it.
"We need to move," Sendrei said, stumbling across the rubble. With only a tattered suit liner, he was having trouble negotiating the rocks, but it was clear he wasn't about to give up. The constantly changing scene was a lot to process, but if the Kasumi was telling the truth, we had precious few seconds before the bombers would arrive at our location.
"Tabby, get Sendrei to a combat station," I said. "Jonathan, help me get this crystal loaded. Those bombers are incoming! Sklisk, get your people to the bunker. This is about to become a very bad place to be."
I sailed up to the airlock and slapped my palm onto the security pad. It blinked red, showing that my palm print was not being recognized. "Frak. Open this!" I said, frantically.
The panel blinked green just as Jonathan arrived next to me and the door slid open. Racing forward, I ricocheted off the starboard bulkhead as I took the corner and sprinted for the engine room, where I could gain access to the top turret.
"Liam, we need power on, now!" Tabby said.
"We are booting the system," Jonathan said. "Twenty seconds."
"Frak. I can see them clearing the mountain," Tabby said. "They’re almost here. There won't be enough time."
I grabbed for the tools and tried to slow my heart rate so my hand would stop jittering the tool along on the access panel. Using two hands, I steadied the tool and removed the fasteners as quickly as I could. I heard the various systems booting around me and hoped Jonathan's assessment of the blaster's condition was correct."
"Ten seconds to full power," Jonathan announced. "Liam, do you require assistance?"
"Almost there," I said, fumbling with a fastener that had become jammed. I was losing precious time as I struggled.
"Hold on!" Tabby exclaimed.
An explosion rocked the ship and I was thrown to the side. "Frak! That's too soon."
"They released too early," Tabby said, "They're lining up for a second run. Liam, we need that turret!"
I grabbed at the cutting torch, jumped up and sliced through the panel's corner, leaving a deep trail through electronics that I hoped weren't critical. Fortunately, the panel finally fell free.
"Targeting is down," Sendrei reported evenly.
"Damn, that's my bad," I said, using my grav-suit's lift to push me deeper into the blaster's electronics. As you might expect, the cradle that held the crystal was just out of reach through the tangle. "Show me non-essential components."
On my HUD several lines were highlighted and once again, I cut with the torch. I pulled the slagged electronics away and tossed them behind me as I pushed deeper into the machinery. Sitting in line with a highly polished barrel, sat the cradled yellow crystal I hadn't even known existed. It was exactly the same size and shape as the Iskstar crystal next to my skin. I'll admit I felt a sense of loss as I removed the original crystal and replaced it with the bright blue Iskstar.
"It's in," I said. "Go!"
"Get free, Liam, they're almost on us!" Tabby exclaimed.
Pulling my hands back just in time, my face shield blanked. Even through the grav-suit, I felt the heat as Gaylon Brighton's turret burst to life.
Working to extract myself, I slowly backed out of the space. "What's going on?" I asked.
"We can't see," Tabby said. “The building's blocking.”
"Did you hit anything?"
"There were three of them, but they disappeared behind a building. Whatever you did knocked out our targeting, so we're blind," Tabby said. "Sendrei manually targeted and I think he hit at least one of them."
"My bad," I said, when a horrible idea came to mind and I leaned into my grav-suit, racing back up the hallway and out the airlock. "I'll provide your eyes."
"Liam, don't!" Tabby said. "We're already tied into the other ship sensors."
"I'm not covered by half a building."
It was mostly a moot point, I was already out the airlock and sailing skyward. The burning husk of a small ship lay in the rubble two hundred meters from our position. Two more ships were arcing and gaining elevation, keeping the building between us and them.
"They're lining up for a flyover," I said, flipping over and flying back to the airlock. "They're using the
building as a shield." Being stuck on the ground wasn't going to work. If they got their bombs off before we could target them, we'd be taken out, even if we could hit them before being destroyed.
"Engine two is on line, Captain," Jonathan said. "We will not know if it is possible to receive power from the starboard engine until it is clear from the debris."
"Copy," I said, racing to the bridge where Tabby had plastered herself against the armor glass, trying to get a glimpse of the bombers. I jumped into a pilot's seat and grabbed the controls. "Hang on, everyone. The ride could get rocky." I chuckled despite our situation.
At first Gaylon Brighton did not want to move, but with urging, I was able to slide forward and break free of the building. It was just in time, as we were thrown forward on a blast wave of explosions behind us.
"I can't gain elevation," I complained. "Jonathan, what about that starboard engine?"
"You're carrying too much debris," Sendrei said calmly, despite our situation.
"Frak! Right," I said and rolled to the starboard. The sound of crap scraping across the ship's ruined armor as it fell away was accompanied by a jolt of power as the starboard engine came online.
"I have targeting," Sendrei announced as I scooted away from the city and flipped around.
"How is that possible? All of our systems got knocked out," I said.
"Tertiary redundant systems, Captain," Jonathan said. "Mars Protectorate had emergency systems as part of Gaylon Brighton's original design. We simply located and activated them."
"Three?" I asked, lining up on the two bombers that had turned away and were now fleeing.
"The ship was designed to survive without expectation of returning to Sol," Jonathan said. "Indeed, this mission demonstrates the efficacy of the design."
Catching the bombers took little effort and Sendrei dispatched them with a single, brilliant blue beam that tore easily through their armored hulls.
"The frigate," Sendrei said. "It is breaking orbit."
"Let's do this," I said, turning toward the blip he'd identified.
"Careful, Liam, they'll have lances," Tabby said.
Pursuit of the Bold Page 23
