Termination Shock

by Gillian Andrews

  Already Seyal and Mel were running onto the bridge. I saw Denaraz’s back as he hastily let himself through the service hatch into the crawl tube. He would be needed one deck down on the weapons bridge, together with Anzany and Sammy.

  “Report!”

  “We are under attack. But not by the Avaraks. A Terran fleet has appeared suddenly from the North. They are bigger and much faster than the Avaraks.”

  I pushed my feet into my shoes, and pushed the comlink. “Zenzie. Code white.” That would put her and baby Segaton safely cocooned in their crawl space. Well, more safely, at least.

  “Do we run or do we fight?” asked Mel. “And if it’s the second, who do we fight?”

  A good point. If we ran we would be shot out of the sky. If we stayed we could be shot out of the sky. We were being detained by the Avaraks and fired on by the Terrans. I thought about it.

  Mel was shaking. “What do I do?” she shouted. “Rye! What are your orders?”

  “Calm down, Melody. I’m thinking.”

  “Think faster!”

  “I might, if you shut up for a moment.” She sounded just like my mother, making it harder to concentrate. Not that there was a solution. There wasn’t.

  Seyal started as a heavy Avarak voice broke into the relative silence. She listened attentively and then took her finger off the com link. “They say we are to throttle back and wait for a shuttle to dock with us. Our ship is to be taken over and flown to an undisclosed nearby space station.”

  “They think we are too valuable for them to lose. I don’t see how they are going to get us out of here. Those Terran ships are all equipped with ZEPH drives, aren’t they?”

  Mel nodded. “All seem to have new EP receptors on their hulls, yes.”

  “All right. Tell the Avaraks we will permit landing. There should be room for an Avarak shuttle in the cargo hold. Tell them to use the front cargo bay door though. Our own shuttle is aft, right?”

  Mel gave me a withering look. “Yes. Don’t you know things like that?”

  “I’m not an encyclopedia! I have you for that.”

  She didn’t know what to say, after that. At least it shut her up for a while.

  It was hardly a solution. Mel wasn’t the only one who felt uncomfortable with my leadership abilities. I felt I should have been able to sweep in with some wonderful answer. But I truly couldn’t see a way out of this without Nivala being blown up by one or other, or both sides. Whereas before we would have stood a chance of outrunning the Avarak fleet, we certainly couldn’t outrun a Terran fleet equipped with ZEPH engines. If the Avaraks thought they could get us out of this situation, we would have to listen to them.

  I used the com channel again to pass on this news to Zenzara. “Code Red.” At least both she and little Segaton would be out of immediate harm’s way. Unfortunately, Nivala might still be blown up in the next five minutes, as far as I could see, so their safety was merely relative.

  Mel looked terrified and I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t too happy either. We slowed down to accommodate the incoming Avarak shuttle. I went down to the cargo bay and walked inside as soon as the green light indicated equivalent air pressure on both sides. Seyal came with me, looking scared.

  The Avaraks had already disembarked by the time we reached them. There were seven large males and four females. That shuttle must have been crammed. My eyes widened. The males were led by a huge figure who introduced himself as Akhetor.

  “Why is this female speaking for you?” he demanded, as soon as he caught sight of Seyal.

  “I speak no Avarak. She is a necessary translator.”

  “That is not acceptable.”

  “Then we will not understand each other. Unless you speak Universal?”

  “I do, if I so choose.” Clearly he did so choose, for I understood what he went on to say. “Your presence here will cause the loss of our fleet against the enemy. “Avarak Karax!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “This ship has the velocity to escape the Terran forces, does it not?”

  “Perhaps. I don’t know. If they are right behind us, maybe not.”

  “They will not be.” Akhetor turned stiffly to the four female Avaraks, giving them fluent instructions in Avarak. Seyal whispered the translation to me. “He is telling them to search all of the ship. One armed male is to accompany each female. All of the present crew members are to be brought to the bridge.”

  An arm whipped out, knocking Seyal flat to the floor.

  “Did I give you permission to speak, female?” Akhetor roared.

  I began to shake. I knew I couldn’t hit him, even if I tried. He was twice my size and wrapped in extensive armor. But how I wanted to! My adrenaline levels went through the roof.

  I told myself that I would make him regret that gratuitous violence. I didn’t know when, but I sure as krikk wasn’t let another ship get taken away from me. I would wait, but there was some sort of reckoning in our joint future. I promised myself there would be.

  I stepped in front of Seyal, who was dragging herself to her feet. I couldn’t stop what had already happened, but I could try to stop it happening again. I hoped. At least she seemed to be able to stand. The force of the blow could well have broken her jaw. I raised my eyebrows at her to ask her how she was. She gave me the tiniest of nods, much to my relief.

  “Who is this female?” Akhetor asked curtly.

  I explained and the large Avarak’s face darkened more and more. “Why was this female not auctioned off after Solutor’s death?” he asked. “How is that not possible?”

  One of the two remaining Avarak males approached Akhetor and seemed to be explaining something to him.

  “Oh. That female! I see. Get her out of my presence. She is unlanded and should already have been put to death.”

  “If you touch her I will blow up this ship and you with it.”

  He glared at me, but that did make him pause for a moment. He considered his options. “If she dares to venture into the same space as mine again I shall see that she is culled.”

  Culled! How could he even use that word for one of his own species? However, my priority had to be to keep her alive. “Where am I to put her?”

  Female Avaraks obviously posed no threat to him. “I care not.” He waved an arm. Get her out of my sight.”

  I nodded. “Go to sick bay, Seyal. Do not move from there.”

  She assented. She knew that the sick bay was one of the nearest rooms to the crawl space under the swimming pool. In fact she could access the crawl tube network from sick bay. Should she want to, of course.

  She walked backward to the cargo corridor. Perhaps females were not allowed to turn their backs on the males? I wouldn’t put that past these misogynists. Then she slipped out of sight.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Apart from Seyal being knocked down, that probably had gone as well as it might. Now we just had to hope that we were worth more to the Avaraks alive than dead. I wasn’t sure that they would think so.

  Two hours went past before the rest of us were all reunited on the bridge. I was greatly relieved when the female Avarak searchers came back in without Zenzie or Segaton. Whoever had found them must have been convinced by Seyal’s letter. Or perhaps by Seyal herself. For the time being, the youngest members of our crew remained undiscovered.

  Those of us who belonged on Nivala were herded together into the mess hall. One of the Avarak males was stationed outside, with the door open. However, we were allowed access to the adjoining kitchen. At least we would not starve to death. Small comfort. This was reminding me most uncomfortably of the Vaers.

  I still had no idea what plans Akhetor had. Even if they wanted to get us away from the Avarak fleet, the Terrans were almost on top of us. I
couldn’t see that they would let any ship away, even if it was Tyzaran.

  I mulled over the possibilities, and still could see none.

  Until the attack started.

  Then I realized all at once what they were going to do. I hadn’t happened on the plan because it simply hadn’t occurred to me that the whole fleet would sacrifice itself merely to save one ship.

  Silly of me. I already knew just how far they would go for their Avarak Karax.

  We had already seen that with the Raktor.

  Chapter 13

  The Avarak fleet stopped, turned, and spread out. It disgorged all its ancillary craft, and these spread even further apart, laying some kind of fluid trace behind them.

  I was peering out of the mess hall viewport, having switched the lighting off. Nivala has viewports in all of the common areas. They are slightly convex constructs, built that way because of the increased strength of the rounded edges. The viewport in the eating area measures around two meters long by one high, which gave us a pretty good panorama. Since the mess hall is wedged into one of the wing fins, there are two viewports, one facing forward and one aft. We clustered around both of them and relayed to each other what we could see.

  Denaraz was frowning. “That fluid must be some sort of fuel. I don’t see how it could be anything else.”

  Mel was at the front port, with Sammy. “Oh no! They are going to set it alight!”

  I peered out into the darkness. “That would be suicide!” Images of the last minute of the Raktor came into my mind. “…Oh!”

  We stared at each other. Neema and Anzany reached out to touch hands. Sammy and Mel did the same. Didjal and Eshaan chattered silently to each other on each other’s arms.

  Denaraz met my gaze. “They will ignite the whole cloud, and fight to the death, hoping we can escape in the confusion.”

  I blew out air. “You have to admit, the Avaraks know how to immolate themselves.”

  A large figure filled the doorway. Akhetor loomed over us. He looked sick and horribly angry. “You!” he pointed at Didjal. “And you!” he singled out Neema. “You will come with me!”

  They both turned to me for direction. I nodded. “Do exactly as they say, please. It is in all of our interests to get out of here, however little we like the means.”

  Akhetor rumbled. Literally. He made a sound like an approaching cargo hauler might make. I gathered that he also was unhappy with his lot. I guess, as a good Avarak, he would have preferred to be out there dying in glory. Tyranny and death. An inspiring combination. Personally, I struggled to see the attraction.

  Didjal and Neema disappeared, presumably to oversee the escape, one from the engine room and one from the pilot’s station. The rest of us waited.

  It seemed interminable. The shuttles outside buzzed around, in what looked like random patterns. The larger ships turned their armament to face the incoming Terran vessels. Then they waited, I supposed, for the Flatlanders to get into range. The Terrans were still a long way off. I doubted very much that they could have resolved the movements of the shuttles.

  A large piece of the sky was now dotted with the small craft. Certainly our escape along the same vector as the Terrans were using would be covered. For how long, I couldn’t tell. I wondered if the Avaraks had devised other actions to take the Flatlander focus away from us.

  They had. Just as the Terran fleet hove into range, one of the leading Flatlander ships exploded. The rest faltered and fell back.

  And that was what the Avarak fleet had been waiting for. They poured missile upon missile bank into the midst of the Terran ships. The Terrans were still wavering. It must have taken them ten long seconds to get themselves into line once more and reply with their own missile fire.

  There was a strident flash of light so strong that we all cried out and covered our eyes. Then Nivala sheered away from the Avarak fleet like a nervous Nepheal faced with a Vaer hunting party. The ship flipped up and over effortlessly, narrowly escaping a Terran ultrapulse as she did so.

  Denaraz and both raced to the other viewport. The fight we had left behind was warming up. The Avarak fleet had taken advantage of the huge fire flash and its subsequent disruption to scatter towards the Terrans. The Flatlanders were now opening fire with some of the shorter-range Ultrapulses that their ships were equipped with, and the Avaraks were returning heavy torpedo fire, their own specialty.

  One thing about torpedoes; you have to focus in order to avoid them. Several of the Terran captains didn’t. I saw three of the Omnistate ships hit while we were still in range. That was what was so clever about the Avarak strategy, I realized. They used physical weapons, ones that might still take you out even if you eliminated their ship. Slower-than-light armament could hit you long after an ultrapulse had evaporated the attacking ship. They weren’t stupid. They died knowing exactly what they were doing. They were giving one ship time to escape.

  I couldn’t like these authoritarian male Avaraks, but this was the second time scores of them had died in order to save us. It was humbling and very, very uncomfortable.

  We were only able to see the scene behind us for some long seconds. Soon it was all behind us. As we raced away from the battle, I tasted bile in my mouth. I did not feel proud of myself.

  Denaraz and I sank onto chairs. Nobody felt like eating. Or talking. We had survived, but the cost was hard to stomach.

  About an hour later Akhetor’s figure filled the doorway again. “It is done,” he said heavily. “We are no longer in range of the Terran instruments.”

  I scrambled to my feet. “How far is it to this space station you are taking us to?”

  He dragged his gaze away from the now empty viewport, where only a few dim stars vied with the blackness. “At this speed, one day.” He turned on his heel. “In one hour please have replacements ready for pilotage and engineering. I require two of you to be available on a six hour rotation.”

  I nodded. “Certainly.”

  “My commander thought that your news of a possible alliance was important enough to sacrifice himself and over a hundred crew. And that was just one of the ships that died. I hope that he was right.”

  “The Alliance is very important. We now know that the Terran Omnistate has already equipped its ships with ZEPH drive. That means you can’t win this war. Not on your own.”

  He glowered at this patent truth. “They have no integrity. They are mere thieves!”

  “Maybe. But they will still win this war unless you get the same technology they have.”

  His face contorted with rage. “Why do you think you are still alive, Human?”

  “Spacelander,” I corrected him. “Spacelander. The Spacelanders will sign for membership of the Alliance. They would be your allies.”

  He looked as if the very thought of that made him sick. The rumbling started up again. I found myself taking a small step back. He was very intimidating when angry. Then I tried to put myself in his place. He had just lost his whole unit.

  “Your friends were very brave. They knew there was no hope. I, too, hope that their sacrifice was not in vain.”

  He gave a sort of strangled groan. Then he stumped up to me and put his face almost into mine. It was all I could do not to jump backwards. I tried to remember I was supposed to be captain of this ship, not a scared schoolgirl. I straightened my shoulders and met his small furious eyes with what I hoped was fearlessness.

  “You speak well,” he said finally. “They were brave. I honor them for their sacrifice. Avarak Karax!”

  The words meant nothing to me, but they did to him. I stood to attention to honor the selflessness of his fellow Avaraks. “Avarak Karax!”

  He sighed. “You will explain to those in charge of the space station. They must understand. They need to see that this
war will be lost without the help of some of the other Shell races.”

  I inclined my head. It had not been our mandate, but I knew that it would be the right thing to do. “I will do my best.”

  “Then all will have been worthwhile. My Avarak friends will be avenged.” He gave a curt nod back to me and stepped away and back out of the doorway. We settled in for the long wait. Crammed as we were into the mess hall, with no place to sleep comfortably, it was going to seem a very long wait. Still, I suspected that Zenzara would be having an even more difficult time with Segaton. I just hoped that Seyal had been overlooked by the Avaraks, and had been able to help her.

  I lay down on the decking. It was not conducent to sleep. Still, I would need to be up shortly for my stint in the bridge.

  A day later we came upon the very edges of the Peliss system, still in the Bifold Shell. The space station was perched in space on the spaceward side of the heliopause. The Peliss K star at the centre of the system was visible only as a slightly larger dot of white against the background stars.

  It was my turn on the pilot station. I brought Nivala gently into the docking area indicated. There were various metallic sounds which reverberated through the hull as the docking clamps extended. I flipped on the comlink. “Docked on the Avarak space station near Peliss, red continues.”

  “Stop talking!” Akhetor snapped. “I did not instruct you to do that!”

  I held up my hands in innocence. “Sorry. Force of habit.” I just wanted Zenzie to know where we were and to keep going for a little while longer. I was pretty sure that a baby male would get snapped up pretty fast if they got to hear of it. I was still amazed that none of the females had given the game away. It was clear that the Avarak females were very loyal to whoever they considered to be one of them. Interesting.

  Akhetor took Denaraz and me to meet the station head. We were walked smartly along the corridors of the space station, but that didn’t stop us taking in quite a lot of detail. I knew that Denaraz was thinking about the Tyzar Intelligence Bureau. I had something similar in mind. The Space Trust would like very much to know about this secret Avarak base. We tried to appear uninterested as we were marched along, but that was very far from the case. I was memorizing as much as I possibly could of the layout.