by John Walker
Milna stood off to the side. Niva felt the woman’s eyes on her the entire time.
“What is it?” Niva asked.
“You don’t trust us.”
“Of course not.” Niva walked the perimeter. “This room will do. We should get everyone moved in here.”
“Is it because of our story?” Milna asked. “Or because we’re Kahl?”
“Our people have been fighting each other for a long time.” Niva stepped closer. “I wasn’t even out of school when your fleet arrived at our planet and we drove you off. Since then, I’ve done everything I can to contribute to the cause and to stop your massacre of other cultures.”
“Yet we’ve made it clear we’re against that too.”
Niva shrugged. “I’m an intelligence officer. I’ve worked against criminal organizations and even a faction of the Rhulin military that tried to overthrow their government. I know about lying. Getting into a group so you can turn an asset or destroy the peace of mind of those involved. So forgive me if you’re going to have to work harder to gain my trust.”
“We saved lives—”
“Don’t try to sell yourself,” Niva interrupted. “When we’re out of here and you’ve returned us to our ships? Then maybe I’ll buy your story. I’d rather have some evidence.”
“On our ship.”
“Perfect. So when we get that, I guess you’ll get what you want. Though until then?” Niva stepped into Milna’s personal space. Their eyes met. “You’ll be under scrutiny. I’m watching you closely. Because in all honesty, you worry me.”
“Why?”
“Your casual execution of that pirate for one.”
“She wanted to kill all of you.” Milna furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand why you even bring that up.”
“Because you walked out there amongst all those people then blasted that woman without a second thought. You suggested we blast them into space through a hole that would’ve turned them into goo.”
“Do Prytins care so much about their enemies? To the point they would sacrifice their own lives rather than cause a little discomfort before death? You make little sense. I’ve seen your fighting firsthand. Listened to the intelligence reports. You’re deadly in combat. Perhaps this conscience for what happens to those who want to hurt you is holding you back.”
“Maybe.” Niva shrugged. “I can’t say.”
“You would not have killed that woman?”
“Let’s just say no one on my team would’ve thought I did it easily. But yes, I would’ve killed her. Whether she stormed the room or if I had to execute her because it was the only way. You seemed to enjoy it.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong.” Milna tilted her head. “Efficiency is my concern. Not pleasure. Killing is a means to an end. To stop violence or achieve an objective. We were outnumbered. And those pirates only wanted one thing. She drove them on to attack us. Once that creature was out of the way, we were allowed to proceed.”
“You have a nice way of putting it.”
“The truth often is.”
“Are you with Kahl intelligence?” Niva asked.
Milna smirked. “You’re going to be direct now?”
“Answer me.”
“I am not.”
“Is Jok with them?”
“We are,” Milna replied, “with the Kahl resistance working with many different—”
“I’ve heard this before,” Niva interrupted. “I want a no for him too. Is he working with Kahl intelligence?”
“No.”
Niva stared into the woman’s eyes. She couldn’t see any deception though the bad feeling remained. Why are my instincts messing with me? Or are they? Part of her felt like she should take Milna out. Remove her from the equation. We need Jok. I can’t kill them both, even if they’re both unknown factors.
“Then I suppose this talk is over for now.”
“I’m so glad we could have it.”
Niva huffed. “We’ll do it again.”
“Of that, I have no doubt. Hopefully, after the Kahl have left… or we’re safely away from here ourselves.”
“Get the others.” Niva gestured to the tunnel. “I’m setting up some security measures in here.” Once Milna left, she approached the other corridor.
Two paces in, something cool touched her neck. A presence stood nearby; one she didn’t sense until it was too late. Stiffening, Niva held up her hands, letting the pistol hang from her finger by the trigger guard. The shadowy form beside her didn’t move. They kept the blade pressed against her, tight enough to be uncomfortable.
“Hello…” Niva muttered. “Do you live here? If so, I’m sorry…” She sighed, switching to Kahl. “We’re friendly. You can take that thing away from my neck. I don’t mean you any harm. Please, we just needed a place to rest so we wouldn’t find ourselves captives of the starships coming down from the sky.”
“You can lower the weapon,” a deep baritone spoke a form of Kahl from behind the shadow. The blade moved on their command. “You and your companions came from the streak in the sky? The first one, that is. Correct?”
“Yes…” Niva nodded. “We’re taking refuge here. Is that okay?”
“It’s not the safest place for you to be. You need medical attention as well, do you not?”
“Some of us, yes. Are you… do you live on this planet? Is there a colony here? I didn’t see anything on scans…”
“We have many things here. My name is Haulda. I lead our people with my mate. We have expected you. And now that you have arrived, you will have all our assistance.”
“Uh…” Niva cleared her throat. She nodded. “Thank you very much. I’ll just… fetch my friends, shall I? Then we go… where? Through here?”
“We’ll assist.” Torches burst to life, revealing a dozen Kahl standing two by two in the corridor. They were behind her as well, partially filling the room. She couldn’t get a good count, but they were all armed with blades and firearms. Their attire was dark, some kind of synthetic material that appeared loose-fitting, shimmering like the walls.
Okay, we’ve got a lot to figure out here.
“Thank you.” Niva grimaced, backing into the room. “We really appreciate your help, but um… the people who are coming down here won’t be friendly. They’re probably going to try to kill us.”
“Do not worry. We know of the second group. They are not foretold. We’ll keep you safe from them. For now, we must hurry.” Haulda made three signs with his hand, clapping his chest at the end. The others disappeared, fading into the tunnels in seconds. Only five remained. “These men will help with your belongings. Let us move.”
“Sure thing.” Niva headed toward the tunnel, back to their makeshift camp. Can’t wait to explain this one… or to win everyone over. Not that they had much of a choice. These people outnumber us dramatically. Maybe the Kahl in orbit as well. This may work to our advantage if Haulda’s being honest.
Or we could be eaten before midday. Hard to tell.
***
Titus Barnes stepped into the Engineering office area. The various technicians worked from desks in the area when they weren’t performing hands-on repairs throughout the ship. A corridor to the left led to the reactor as well as maintenance tunnels weaving throughout the ship.
Only a few members of the team seemed to be present. They sat with headsets on, offering remote support. He’d received help that way before. Most technicians could handle many problems from afar, at least until the issue proved to be physical damage. Then they’d dispatch someone.
Chief Huxley could be seen through the window into his office. He paced beside his desk, hands clasped behind his back as he spoke. Short gray hair looked particularly sparse. His eyes squinted, crow’s feet making them seem smaller than they were. He was lean, a broad-shouldered man with a solid build.
When Huxley noticed Titus, he waved for him to come in. The door opened as the captain approached, bringing him into the middle of a conversation.
> “That’s pretty much what I thought,” Huxley said, “but no, you can’t shortcut that. If you make a mistake you’ll burn out another generator. I don’t have enough replacement parts for you to play games.” He paused… let out a sigh. “You aren’t in a position to assume enemy reinforcements are on the way. Focus on your job. I have to go.”
He tapped the comm then offered a salute. “Welcome to the chaos, sir.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Titus returned the gesture before motioning to the chairs, “can we sit?”
“Yeah, of course. Sure.” They sat across the desk from one another. “What can I do for you? I sent an update to Rhys about half an hour ago. Violet’s been breathing down my neck too.”
“Sorry about that. Everyone’s getting uppity because we received word from our people on that station. They need a pickup.” Titus shrugged. “Everyone’s asking the question about how much you can do while we’re at warp. We’d like to get underway. I’m sure you understand.”
“Oh, I’d love to get moving.” Huxley turned to his terminal. The windows went dark, filling with technical information. “When we were hit without shields, they caused hull damage here… here… and here.” He gestured to points on the bottom of the ship. “Now, the one on the right is negligible. We already have that sealed up.”
“Why’s that?”
“It was basically a crack.” Huxley shrugged. “And though our hull is still mostly TCN design, the armor and interior are of Prytin design. Meaning you introduce additional material, and it can fill in. Effectively, we add an agent, and it melts into place. So unless there’s a hole you could fly a shuttle through, we can fix it.”
“Got it. And the other two?”
“They’re still being corrected and are big enough to take some time. I’ve got guys nursing them through. We can’t cut corners with something like hull damage. Fortunately, I had them working on it immediately, so we’re only looking at another hour. Which leads us to the shield generators.”
“How bad are they?”
“One had to be scrapped. We finished dismantling it. The internals were melted, bad enough that it’s all for the recycler now. The new one is in place. They’re running tests while the others that were banged up should have all their replacements within an hour and a half. Bottom line there, when the new one’s up, we can probably leave.”
“So the reactor and warp drive?”
“Both fine. We taxed the hell out of the reactor though. Like… pushed it hard. All those maneuvers, shooting, getting shot… took a toll. I’m glad to say our optimization efforts have paid off.” Huxley rubbed his eyes. “On a minor but important to you point, the helm should already be one hundred percent functional.”
“What happened there?”
“Disconnect,” Huxley said, “there’s a redundant system in place so you don’t have this happen. However, we got lucky. Both the backup and the primary took a surge. Which means some of the protectors were overwhelmed. I’ve got someone on my team who can reprogram them, enforcing the protection with bigger coils, basically.”
“How will it help?”
“He’s doubling the capacity of the protection going to your various consoles. If a shock big enough to overwhelm that happens, it’ll probably be because the ship is in the middle of exploding. At which point, we won’t care much about whether the helm works.” Huxley smirked. “Don’t mean to be dramatic but—”
“I understand. What about weapons?”
“They came out unscathed. Their generators needed some maintenance. A few circuits here and there are being replaced. In all honesty, yes, we took a beating, but it could have been a lot worse. Though I guess that’s always the case.”
Titus nodded. “I’m going to let you keep at it. Tell me the moment you think we can go to warp. Those people are waiting out there.”
“Got it.” Huxley stood, offering another salute. “I’ll push them as hard as I dare, sir.”
“I know.” Titus patted his shoulder. “See you later.” He tapped his comm as he left, reaching out to Rhys. “I’ve spoken with Engineering. Mostly good news. Do you have an update from the Brekka? How soon before they’re good to go?”
“Violet’s in contact with them,” Rhys replied. “And we’ve got techs up here swapping parts out near the helm, so… even if we wanted to move right now, we’d have to go through the auxiliary control room.”
“Okay.” Titus rubbed his eyes. “I’m anticipating a conversation with command. Ours and the Prytins. I don’t think they’re happy with Griel’s attack on those ships.”
“Pretty sure it’s better to win fights than otherwise.”
“Yes, unless you’ve got a plan specifically designed to save civilians. I don’t know. This feels like a situation where victory won’t help. I’m sure you’ve been there.”
Rhys huffed. “Oh, you’d better believe it.”
“Hey, be sure Jane gets real downtime. I want Ronan in her place until further notice. If she gives you any guff, tell her the next step is mandatory leave. I want that woman well rested.”
“Sounds good to me. Um…” Rhys cleared his throat. “About the Flotilla…”
“Soon as Huxley clears us, we’ll take off.”
“But if command gives you a hard time about this situation…”
“Don’t worry,” Titus interrupted, “I’ll take full responsibility for an unauthorized stop if it comes down to it. I’m not leaving those people out there. Our civilians, our soldiers. It’s not happening. And yes, I know Griel feels the same… he’d go if we couldn’t. But he shouldn’t have to do it alone.”
“I’m in agreement.”
“Excellent. Keep working with Engineering. Huxley’s pushing his people, be sure they have anything they need. I want no delays due to admin stuff. Give them anything they need.”
“Understood.”
Titus drew a deep breath before continuing. “I’m heading to my quarters for any potential command conversation. I’d also like to find out if all the civilians made it out of here. Rumor suggests we saved over a hundred of them and a lot more escaped from other parts of the planet.”
“Oh, I did find out about that,” Rhys replied, “grand total of ten thousand people escaped the planet over the past few days. The last to escape were some frontline workers. Medical professionals, security forces, and some of their families. We were there to help the ones who made sure the others got away.”
“That makes me feel good about the situation then.”
“Me too.”
“Well,” Titus said, “thank you for the update. I can use that when I speak to command. Alright, I’m out.” He shut down the connection while heading to his quarters. The best course of action meant finding a place to stay out of the way, available but not hovering. If anyone needed anything, they’d reach out.
I’ll start the report. Though the admiral will undoubtedly contact me before I finish. Titus wondered if he should reach out first. I don’t want to risk them sending us somewhere else. If we get the repairs done before I speak to them, we can pick our people up then check in. Not the most ethical approach, but a gamble he was willing to take.
***
Chapter 2
Griel stood before General Hal Trev on his ship the Kaldia. The man called him over as soon as the fighting ended, shortly after everyone finished performing a damage assessment of their ships. They were only barely acquainted, familiar through reputation rather than personal attachment.
Trev had graduated secondary school before Griel had started to walk. The general wore his silver-gray hair short though flat on the top. It stuck up perfectly, taking away all the roundness of his skull. He stared at his terminal, neither speaking nor moving. The fact he called the meeting but didn’t start came off as a petty retaliation.
“Sir?” Griel cleared his throat, “can we get on with this? I’ve got a lot to do back at the Brekka.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Trev r
eplied. “You came here under strict orders to perform relief efforts. We were evacuating civilian aid workers and you… you brought your personal crusade into the situation. You just had to kill Kahl today, didn’t you? Had to push them.”
“I’m under the impression we’re trying to win a war,” Griel replied, “though sometimes it feels like we’re letting it go on for no reason.”
“I see why everyone has a problem with you. That’s not at all what’s going on here. We do not have the resources to turn every fight—”
“We won,” Griel interrupted. “Wiped those bastards out of the system, giving everyone ample time to leave without rushing. Why are you so upset about it?”
“Because our risk assessment suggested we needed to make haste. Not fight to the last but to get those people and go.”
“Yet it was wrong.”
“Let’s not mince words,” Trev replied, “we were lucky.”
“I say we had skill.”
“Yes, that’s because you’re young and inexperienced. I’ve seen plenty of fights with the Kahl go the other way. And just because you’ve hopped around stealing intelligence on our behalf doesn’t make you some kind of authority on when to push or retreat. The fact is you don’t even have your liaison with you anymore.”
“We’re working on that.”
“It won’t matter. I’m pushing the council to revoke your commission. I’ve asked them to turn over the authority of your vessel to me. We’ll return you home and get on with this war alone.”
Griel huffed. “Good luck.”
“I know you’re connected. And not only with one council member. But after this? After they find out how you ditched your intelligence contact? It won’t take an orator to push you out.”
“We’re going to get her,” Griel said. “She was captured. I intend to free her. And when she’s back on the ship, you can’t do anything to me.”
“As if she’ll corroborate your ridiculous story.”
“What story?”
Trev scowled. “The one where you’re trying to tell me you did not get rid of your liaison. The one where you’re trying to say she was captured by the enemy when we both know she went off with the humans to perform a mission while you took care of private business behind enemy lines.”
