by Tom Chattle
"Damnit, I guess the Syrax had to come from somewhere," Scott growled while more weapons fire zipped by them.
"It is not surprising," Sina said from beside them. She tried to keep long hairs from her face while the shuttle turned into a stomach-churning loop. "To land such forces, they would need substantial fleet support."
Chen grimaced. "More than a match for the Valiant, no doubt." She was about to ask Scott if they'd found the ship yet when a shadow passed over them. The Valiant surged into view, and its cannons filled the sky with streams of tracers. The shuttle pilot immediately spun the craft on its axis and dove toward the shuttle bay. The Valiant had kept it open for them, even while Syrax weapons hammered into the flickering void shields.
"Hold on, this is going to be bumpy," Scott warned.
He wasn't kidding. The shuttle plunged through the void shields far beyond the designed speed, and the massive planes of energy jolted the ship so hard the corpsman and injured Marines on the floor lifted halfway to the ceiling before they were slammed to the side.
Chen felt her eyes blur and strained to focus, but by the time she could think again, they crashed into the deck of the shuttle bay and screeched to a halt, supply crates swept across the deck before them.
Scott was out of his seat the moment they came to a halt, rushing to check on his troops who had been thrown around like rag dolls. Chen gave her harness a shove and eased to her feet, still unsteady from the shaky ride. Careful not to step on any of the injured Marines, Chen made her way down the ramp when it hissed open. She needed to get to the bridge.
With Sina in tow, Chen rushed through the shuttle bay. They waited for the turbolift, and Chen tapped the wall in frustration at how slow it was. Rumbles and crashes echoed through the Valiant's hull from the battle that raged outside. The ship lurched to the side, and the pair staggered, illuminated by a red light that lit up around the turbolift door.
"Fuck it," Chen snarled and started for the stairs. It took them several long minutes to climb their way up through the Valiant, and Chen was puffing and panting by the time they made it to the bridge. The door opened at her touch, and she strode through, about to ask for a situation report when the forward bulkhead exploded in a fiery inferno and all hell broke loose.
- 40 -
2208.10.22 // 15:02
UVS Valiant, Altheos orbit
Chen's feet swept out from under her when the extreme pressure differential sucked the air out of the bridge almost instantly. Her arms flailed, but she managed to grab hold of a railing and cling on tightly. The lack of oxygen burned at her lungs, and Chen's knuckles turned white from the death grip she had around the only thing that kept her from being spaced. A few seconds later, the emergency atmo-barriers kicked in, and the hazy blue shield sealed off the hole that gaped across the front of the Valiant's bridge. Air flooded back into the room, and Chen fell to the ground, sucking oxygen into her empty lungs in huge gulps.
She jerked up her head and scanned the chaos that filled the bridge. Sina struggled to stand behind her, but Moreau seemed fine at her station across the room, only a small trickle of blood dribbling from her nose. McCann moved slowly with a pained groan, and Chen could see the back of Arnesen's head still in his command chair, but Vega looked badly injured. His head pressed down on his console, the young ensign's arm twitched. Placed front and center, he had taken the full brunt of the explosion and subsequent decompression.
Chen leaped up from the deck. If Vega was down, then the Valiant was in the middle of a battle with nobody to fly it. Without waiting for an order, she stumbled down the step to the ensign's station and unbuckled him. Sina stepped in to assist when Chen tried to drag his limp body from the chair, and they laid him carefully down on the deck.
The view ahead was disconcerting. Where the viewscreen had been was now a jagged tear in the Valiant's hull, electrical sparks shooting out from the remains of the ruined electronics. They hissed off the shimmering atmo-barrier and filled the air with smoke. Beyond the energy field lay infinite space, and the planet below drifted into view from one side.
With no time to take in the view, Chen studied the console readouts before her, then pulled the ship into a tight turn once she had verified the ship's structural integrity. The hull groaned and popped in protest. The Valiant's cannons fired back at the enemy in incandescent streams, but nothing more. "Moreau, what's up with the torpedoes?" Chen asked.
"An early hit took out several on the starboard side and blocked most of the remaining tube doors," Moreau replied. "We can fire sporadically out the working tubes, but that's it."
Chen grimaced. The nuclear-armed spatial torpedoes were much more powerful than the cannons, which barely dented the enemy warships. "Where are we at with the main cannon?" Syrax energy beams stabbed past the ship.
"Almost recharged." The ensign wiped the back of her hand across her face and left a smear of blood on one cheek.
"Tell me when," Chen grunted. She rolled the Valiant and pulled toward the planet. Whatever input she gave to the ship, she couldn't seem to shake the pursuing Syrax cruiser. Enemy fighters zipped past and hammered the Valiant with energy fire. No matter what she did, the alien warship stayed on their tail, far more maneuverable than the venerable human vessel.
"Auri, we need that thing in front of us," McCann cried when another lance of violet energy slammed into them, armor plates buckling and peeling from the intense heat.
"No shit," Chen snapped. "I'm trying, but it's too nimble." Any way the Valiant turned, the Syrax ship was still right there behind them. Desperately trying to come up with any plan, Chen remembered a maneuver she'd read about in flight school. "Moreau? Get ready to fire that cannon the moment you have a clear shot. McCann, I'm going for a Crazy Ivan, hold on."
"Are you insane?" McCann shouted. "That could tear the damn ship apart."
"That damn cruiser is going to tear us apart, anyway," Chen shot back. She grimaced and threw the ship to starboard. "At least this might give them a hell of a surprise before we all get spaced to hard vacuum."
McCann didn't reply, and Chen half-expected Arnesen to order her not to, but he said nothing. With Vega knocked unconscious, it was likely Arnesen had been directly in the same path of destruction as the helmsman. There was no time to worry about him now, though, so Chen searched for just the right spot while she jinked the ship back and forth to give the shields a chance to weather the constant barrage of energy fire. She needed the Syrax ship to back off to even have a chance of this working, but the Valiant didn't have the power to outrun its pursuers.
With nothing in sight but the planet itself, Chen gritted her teeth and rolled the Valiant toward the upper atmosphere. She pushed away the panicked thoughts of several of the bridge crew that assaulted her mind. The huge ship began to shudder when the first tenuous strands of gas hit the hull. While it didn't stop firing, Chen noted with satisfaction that the Syrax cruiser had pulled back to stay clear of the atmosphere and take longer-ranged shots at its fleeing quarry, no doubt certain of its superiority.
The vibrations that rumbled through the Valiant's hull grew ever stronger, but Chen held course and skimmed the ship through the mesosphere of the Talamar world. Even the fighters had peeled off to allow their mothership to finish the fight. "Moreau, void shields to rear, but prepare to shunt them forward on my mark," Chen ordered.
The tactical officer nodded in response, and launched a brace of torpedoes toward the Syrax warship now they were finally reloaded. Their pursuer backed off further but continued to pursue at speed. The extra distance put the enemy ship just where Chen needed it.
"All right, everyone hold onto something." Chen shoved her left hand forward on the port engine controls and yanked the other back toward her. The starboard engine roared into full reverse thrust while the port engine throttled to maximum burn. The Valiant shuddered and slid into a flat spin, the navigational thrusters firing out powerful plumes of gas to assist the abrupt turn. Hull plates let out tortured rumbles
from the immense forces acting upon the ship, and a panel exploded somewhere behind Chen. Alarms screeched when the ship's violent turn rocketed past the built-in safety functions.
"Moreau, shields to front, now!" Chen blinked away the blood rushing to her head, her fingers rigid on the controls. Moreau complied, staggering against her console when the grav-compensators whined in protest, unable to keep up with the abrupt change in direction.
Chen held the throttles until the last moment then reversed them quickly, and the Valiant snapped back to straight and level flight. Suddenly, the Syrax warship was ahead of them, still closing rapidly. The Valiant's turn had been too sudden for it to react to. The moment it realized the danger, it started to angle away, but it was too late.
"Moreau, fire," Chen said, coldly, while she held the ship on course.
An alarm sounded, and the main plasma cannon along the spine of the ship flared. A blue beam pulsed out ahead to connect with the banking enemy ship in the blink of an eye. The weapon overwhelmed the Syrax shields and punched through the hull. Lights flickered, and the ship came apart where the beam had bisected it. It tumbled through space and disintegrated into a cloud of parts while its momentum tore it to pieces.
"Brace for impact!" McCann cried. The ship was destroyed, but the danger wasn't over. The speed that the two ships closed in on each other meant there was no time to avoid the lethal storm of shrapnel that now headed their way.
Chen winced when the first pieces hit and the void shields ahead bloomed with energy from the onslaught. Within seconds, their entire view was obscured with alien technology vaporizing before them. Designed to continually recharge between impacts, the void shields weakened from the constant bombardment of debris. Gaps opened momentarily before being regenerated, and fragments of the enemy ship started to sneak through, slamming into the abused hull with tremendous crashes that reverberated through the vessel.
Most of it was small, inconsequential, but then the bulk of the Syrax ship hit. The shields flared to almost pure white, then collapsed, overwhelmed by the barrage. Vast sections of hull hurtled in and broke apart as they did. Most slid past the Valiant to tumble to their fiery destruction in the atmosphere below, but the prow of the ship headed straight for them. It glanced off the port bow before it slammed into one of the engine nacelles. The Valiant staggered at the impact, and explosions rippled along the protruding drive pod.
As quickly as it had started, the chaos was over. The remaining pieces of the Syrax vessel soared past but left damaged hull plates and venting atmosphere behind. The last two Syrax fighters turned tail and fled into deep space. With no sign of further attackers, Chen set the Valiant to station keeping mode and pushed herself back away from the console. She closed her eyes, and her hands started to shake when the stress of the last few minutes hit home.
The bridge was near-silent—only the hum of the atmo-barrier and occasional sparks from crippled electronics filled the air. Chen took a deep breath to calm herself and rose from the chair to talk to Arnesen.
"Captain..." Chen froze where she stood. She'd been unable to see the man from her position up front, but the rest of the bridge crew watched Captain Arnesen with somber stares. Eyes open, he was slumped back in his command chair. Blood oozed from a deep wound across his throat. Blood coated his chest, and it dripped down to pool on the deck below. The razor-sharp piece of shrapnel that had caused it was lodged in the headrest, glinting in the emergency lighting.
"Shit..." Chen's gaze turned to McCann. Her friend looked up slowly, brow creased and lips pursed. Her training kicked in, and Chen crossed to Moreau. The ensign's vivid cerulean eyes were locked on Arnesen while her hands gripped the edge of her console. Chen waved a hand in front of her face to grab her attention. "Moreau?"
Moreau's eyes snapped to Chen. "Yes, Lieutenant, ma'am?"
"What's the status of the ship?" Chen asked gently.
"Umm, right." Moreau shook her head and glanced down at her screens. "Engine one is offline, void shields are still recharging, and we have numerous hull breaches across all decks." She straightened. "They are generally minor, though."
"Good," Chen murmured. "We, uhh...We should..." A wave of dizziness threatened to topple her, and she leaned back against the bulkhead.
"We should move operations to the auxiliary bridge," McCann finished for her.
Chen nodded when medical teams finally made it to the ruined command center and immediately headed for Arnesen. Suddenly, the thoughts and feelings of everyone on the bridge flooded into Chen's mind. Stress, panic, anxiety, anger. The mix of emotions made it hard to focus, and Chen bent over, trying not to vomit on the deck and black out. A warm hand reached down to touch her back, and a wave of calm spread out from the contact.
"Are you okay, Aurichen?" Sina asked.
"Yes, I think. Thank you." Chen gulped back bile and straightened. As quickly as they had arrived, the thoughts in her mind had quietened to a gentle hum. "How do you do that?"
Sina cocked her head, her brow creased. "Do what?"
Chen frowned. "Never mind." The medical crew gently lowered Arnesen's body onto a stretcher. Chen took one last look at the captain and sighed. "Come on, let's leave them to it."
- 41 -
2208.10.22 // 15:58
UVS Valiant, Altheos orbit
The doors hissed open, and Chen stepped into the Valiant's auxiliary command center. As close to the center of the ship as possible, the difference to the primary bridge was unequivocal. Small and clunky compared to larger, modern ships, at least that still felt like you were on top of the ship. The large, panoramic viewscreen provided a window out into the unknown.
Down here, though...Chen's eyes darted around the cramped room, and she shivered in the cold, dry air. Down here, there were no viewscreens, and the walls encroached from every side.
Most of the bridge crew had already taken their positions, booting up dormant consoles and configuring their stations to their needs. McCann adjusted his seat, and exasperated sighs punctuated the squeaks of stubborn mechanics being moved for the first time in a while. Chen meandered into the center of the bridge. She skirted past the command chair, not wanting to broach the implications of Arnesen's death. Even though she hadn't known the man for long, she had already developed an immense respect for his command ability.
Raised voices from outside drew Chen's attention, and she turned just as the doors opened once again. Bennett stormed in, followed by both of his Naval Intelligence guards. Wilde chased after them, her freckled face set firmly in a scowl.
"Ah, there you are," Bennett spoke to McCann, ignoring Chen completely. "We need to talk about the command chain." He swept past Chen and ran his hand along the back of the command chair. "Because of the lack of availability of senior officers—"
"Captain Arnesen is dead," Chen snarled. "He died doing his duty, defending against a hostile race you've tried to run from at every possibility."
His jaw clenched, but Bennett ignored Chen. His voice raised and he continued. "Given the fact I am the senior officer on board, it is only logical that I assume command of both this ship and this mission."
Chen jerked up her head, chin jutting out. "There is no way—"
McCann raised a hand to warn her off. He closed his eyes for a second as though to marshal his words, then stepped forward. "Sir, with all due respect, given your position as an intelligence officer, you don't have the necessary training to command a starship, especially in such a dangerous combat situation."
"Nevertheless," Bennett said, his tone harsh. "Given there is nobody else in a position to salvage the wreckage of this mission, the duty falls to me."
Wilde circled the room and stopped beside Chen. "There's someone much better qualified for this than you."
Bennett glared at the young woman, and his lip curled back. "And just who would that be?"
"Lieutenant Chen, of course." Wilde folded her arms across her chest. "This was her ship before; it makes sense for her to resume comm
and."
"Absolutely not," Bennett scoffed. "Her command authority was rescinded for classified reasons." He looked Chen up and down and shook his head. "Quite frankly, she should never have been in command in the first place."
"Well, she'll do a far better job than you," Wilde growled. "McCann, back me up!"
McCann hesitated. His eyes darted from Wilde to Bennett and finally rested on Chen. His words came out careful, measured. "I think, all things considered, that Lieutenant Chen would be a better fit for the position."
"I don't care what your opinion is, Lieutenant," Bennett snarled. "Chen is neither active-duty nor suitable for command. An emotionally unstable alien sympathizer is the last person who should be in charge here."
"Fuck you, Bennett," Chen yelled, unable to quell her anger. Her nails dug into her palms, and she struggled to resist the temptation to grab one of Sina's swords and gut the man.
Bennett gave her a cold, reptilian smile. "Point proven."
Chen stepped between Bennett and the captain's chair. "I'm taking command of my ship."
Bennett snapped his fingers and strode forward. He stopped just before Chen, his taller stature allowing him to tower over her. His guards joined either side of him at the command and drew their sidearms. "I don't think so."
Passive up until now—happy to let the humans fight amongst themselves—Sina finally moved from her position against the far bulkhead. She slid forward to stand by Chen, hand ready to unsheathe her swords. Bennett hesitated briefly. His eyes flicked between the three women confronting him, but his resolve held.
"Stand down, Chen, now. You'll be confined to quarters until we are safely back home, then you will pay for your reckless insubordination."
"Make me," Chen spat. An electric tingle spread through her fingers, and she hesitated. She glanced down at her hands, and the distraction provided an opportunity for Bennett.
