by Tom Chattle
"Wait, you picked up a weapon?" Moreau asked. "Nobody told me!"
"Right, of course." Chen smacked her forehead. "Everything was a little crazy after that battle. We didn't have time for a proper debrief." She touched the smooth, metal skin of the alien device. "This was in the vault we recovered the virus from. Sina told us her people had been working to develop a compact version of the rift warheads their ships used."
Moreau's eyes widened. "They had perfected rift weapons to the point they were miniaturizing them?" she gasped. "Our scientists have spent decades—"
"I know, I know," Chen cut her off. "The Talamar figured it out long ago."
"Something that powerful..." Moreau whispered.
Chen nodded. "It could be enough to at least destabilize the warp portal, even if it doesn't completely destroy it."
The look of wonder on Moreau's face suddenly turned to grief. "But if we blow it up, we can't study it!"
"They won't be able to study it if we all get killed by a Syrax fleet before we can make it half a light-year back to Earth!" Chen pointed out patiently.
"Right, of course," Moreau nodded and moved toward the device. She placed a hand almost reverently on it. "Does it even work?"
"That's what I need you to find out. If you can arm it and rig it to some kind of timer, we can dump it out the cargo doors and hopefully it will cut the Syrax fleet off from following us through the portal."
Already at work, the ensign popped open an access hatch and frowned. "I don't know that I can figure this out quickly enough to be of much use." She flapped her hands around hopelessly. "I mean it's all in alien. I can't understand what anything says."
Chen closed her eyes. Why she hadn't thought of that, she had no idea. "I'll comm for Sina, but it will take her a few minutes to get down here."
"No need." Sina jogged into the cargo area. "Can I be of assistance?"
"How did you know?" Relief spread through Chen at the sight of the woman.
Sina shrugged. "Once you had left, I came to the same conclusion you had. This weapon is the only hope we have of sealing the portal."
"Sina, ma'am, I would be grateful for your help," Moreau said, an eager smile on her face.
Chen clamped down on a smile. The young woman was still very much in awe of the tall alien warrior.
Sina inclined her head. "Of course."
"Do you think it will work?" Chen asked.
"I am not a tech-seer, but I believe the weapon is functional," Sina answered. "If you have a device to allow remote detonation, the connection should not be difficult to make."
Chen grinned and clapped both women on the back. "Great. You two figure this out and let me know. I'll be back in the command center."
- 54 -
2208.10.23 // 18:25
UVS Valiant
Chen paced behind McCann's command chair anxiously. The Syrax fleet had gained on them rapidly; it would only be a matter of minutes before they entered extreme weapons range.
"Will you just settle down?" McCann snapped, spinning round to face her. His face was lined with tension, and his hands gripped the armrests hard enough to whiten his knuckles.
Taken aback by his words, Chen stopped mid-stride. Her friend was usually the most laid-back person she'd ever met. She bit back an automatically curt response and nodded. She stood next to him and laid a hand on his shoulder "Sorry, Wally. We're all tense."
"We should have heard from Moreau by now," he muttered and tapped the comm on the chair arm. "Moreau, status?"
"Almost there, Lieutenant," she replied. "I got the timer rigged up with Sina's help. We'll be ready to jettison it in just a moment."
"Copy that, Ensign," McCann acknowledged. He glanced up at Chen, and a faint glimmer of his normal attitude snuck through. "You want to light this candle?"
Chen snorted. "I'd love to." She reached over and hit the comm. "Moreau, we're almost at the portal. Deploy the weapon as soon as you're ready."
"Yes, ma'am." The ensign's nervous enthusiasm was palpable even over the comm.
McCann pulled up a view from the rear of the Valiant on his small monitor. The pursuing Syrax fleet was still far enough away to be fuzzy, but it would not be long before their weapons could cross the huge distances involved in interstellar warfare.
Chen reached over his shoulder and flipped the view forward. The maelstrom of energy within the warp portal now took up most of the screen. Crackles of azure lightning, hundreds of kilometers long, stabbed out in all directions from the ring of Talamar technology that contained it. "Let's look forward instead of back," she muttered.
McCann nodded and turned to look at her. "Well, whatever happens, it's been a hell of a ride."
An alert chimed that indicated Moreau had released the rift warhead. Chen hoped it would be close and powerful enough to damage enough of the portal to stop the Syrax armada from following through. If it didn't, they wouldn't have long to wait given how fast they had caught up.
They approached the portal as fast as the Valiant's battered engines could propel them. McCann waved a hand. "Go on, you give the order."
"You have the bridge." Chen resisted the urge to take control when McCann had been in command of the ship for so long.
"I'm just keeping it warm for you." McCann smiled.
Chen flashed a grin back at him. "Vega?" She straightened. "Take us in."
The Valiant plunged toward the swirling vortex. The ripples across the vast disk now filled their entire forward arc. The ship shuddered violently, then several times more in quick succession.
"Syrax ships firing at range," McCann grunted.
Before any more shots could hit them, the alien tractor beams that had taken them here in the first place latched onto them. The subtle hum of the engines changed, and the Valiant was dragged into the bright light ahead.
The ship lurched violently, making Chen stagger forward. The transition back to normal space was far more jarring than normal rift-travel. The journey through the portal had seemed almost instantaneous, but yet, somehow, it felt like significant time had passed, as well. She shook her head to try to clear the ache that lingered and grabbed the back of McCann's chair.
Another blast rattled the Valiant. More beams of energy followed them through the portal and streaked past into the asteroid field that surrounded it. Vega banked the injured ship into a tight turn and brought the remaining weapons to bear. The crew waited in anticipation of what would follow them through, tension filling the air.
Chen's eyes locked on McCann's screen, and she hoped the sensors would register some trace of the explosion and nothing more. If the Syrax fleet made it through, standing and fighting was the only option. Better to go out head-on with the enemy, weapons blazing, than to be immolated from behind while they limped away.
The doors to the auxiliary bridge opened, and Moreau and Sina entered. The young ensign puffed as though they'd run non-stop from the cargo bay. While Sina stepped forward beside Chen, Moreau immediately ran to her console, and her eyes darted across the readouts. "No, no..." she muttered.
"What is it, Ensign?" McCann asked, jaw clenched.
Her cerulean eyes flicked up. "The timer should have gone off by now."
"Could the Syrax have disabled or destroyed it?" Chen asked.
"No," Sina answered. "Leonamoreau cleverly set any tampering or damage to immediately detonate the device."
"Guess we're all out of luck." McCann straightened in his chair, ready to fight.
As though they heard his cue, the raptorial prow of a Syrax warship pushed through the vast puddle of light ahead, quickly followed by several more. Obviously far more prepared for travel through the portals than the Valiant, the ships began to fire the moment their weapon batteries were clear.
"Void shields full forward!" McCann commanded moments before an aurora of violet energy washed over them. The Valiant's battered void shields were strained to their limits.
Moreau returned fire, but the crippled weaponry had no effect on the incomi
ng warships. Rail cannon emplacements rumbled through the hull, and their hypersonic kinetic loads burned through the void toward the flood of enemy vessels that emerged from the swirling maelstrom.
Chen gritted her teeth and prepared for the end. They were massively outgunned. The void shields were moments away from collapsing in on themselves to expose the bruised and battered hull to the full force of the Syrax barrage.
More than a dozen massive warships had now broached the portal, the weight of their fire so extreme that Chen had to stabilize herself to stay upright. Vega had banked and weaved the Valiant away from the portal and ducked them behind an asteroid that was instantly annihilated in a blast of rocky shrapnel, but they were still well within the range of the enemy guns.
Warning sirens blared from a dozen different systems, and smoke and sparks streamed from seemingly every console while the crew tried their best to hold the ship together. Chen placed a hand on McCann's shoulder. He took a deep breath and nodded, then stood and stepped forward, his hand on a railing for support. "Vega, line us up. We're not going out being chased down like animals."
Without hesitation, the ensign complied and banked the creaking ship into a hard turn to point their crumpled prow toward the enemy fleet and the Talamar portal. The entire bridge crew braced for the inevitable when the forward shields collapsed in an explosion of light. Hull plates evaporated and spewed molten metal into the cold depths of space. A massive shock wave hit the Valiant, and the power flickered and went dark.
Chen flew back, hit the bulkhead hard, and collapsed to the deck. The entire ship lurched violently, and debris flew through the bridge at the momentary loss of power to the grav-plating. Suddenly, all was silent. The only noises that filled the bridge were the muted alarms and sparks that hissed when they hit the deck plating.
"What the hell happened?" McCann demanded while everyone picked themselves up.
"Moreau, we need visuals of some kind." Chen coughed out a lungful of electrical smoke.
The ensign clambered off the floor and tried to make her systems work while the power surged in and out. "Trying!" she grunted.
Systems slowly came back online, and Chen grabbed a monitor to make sense of the readings. "Sensors must be down," she growled. "All we're getting is garbage."
"It's not garbage," Moreau said, and external images finally flickered back onto screens. "Everything is...gone."
"What do you mean, gone?" McCann asked.
"The portal exploded," Moreau gasped. "The warhead must have gone off finally, but it was far more powerful than we expected."
Chen peered at the small images on the screen. What had once been a vast ring, energies raging within, was now a broken arc. Massive pieces spun off into the void to join the shattered remains of the asteroids around it. The Syrax warships hadn't fared any better. Hulking pieces of alien technology span through space, and powerful fires raged while the atmospheres within rushed out. Lights sputtered and engines dimmed as they disintegrated, utterly obliterated by the massive explosion.
"We did it," Chen muttered in disbelief and steadied herself against the bulkhead. The portal was destroyed, and the immediate threat of the Syrax evaporated as quickly as the fluids that boiled off the wreckage of their fleet.
"For now." Sina brushed cobalt hair from her face. "This gate may be destroyed, but there are many others across the galaxy. If the Syrax are determined for retribution, they will find a way."
"How long?" Moreau picked her way through broken equipment.
"It may not be for years," Sina shrugged. "With only the limited data I could bring with me, I cannot list every portal." She stared wistfully at the fuzzy image of the expanding cloud of debris that had been her only sure way back to her people.
Chen moved beside her and rested her palm on the woman's arm. "We'll find a way to get you back there, I promise."
Sina nodded, gratefully squeezing Chen's hand.
"Whatever happens with the Syrax, we have a whole mess of other problems waiting for us back on Earth," McCann said.
Chen took in the battered interior. Control panels and access hatches still spewed smoke. "We have to get there first." She crouched down and brushed the dust off a plaque with the Valiant's name and hull number inscribed upon it, along with an etched image of the ship. She straightened and propped it up against the bulkhead. "Vega?"
"Aye, ma'am?" the ensign responded.
Chen strode forward to the middle of the auxiliary bridge. "Give us best speed, don't push the engines more that Cartwright lets you."
"Course, ma'am?" He spun back to face his console.
With everything they had uncovered, all the corruption and conspiracy dug up by Wilde, what awaited them hardly seemed better than facing off with the Syrax fleet. Bennett and his guards dead, powerful people in danger of being exposed—the chances of success weren't great. But if they didn't try, then all of this was for nothing, and humanity would remain in the dark about the largest threat they had ever faced.
Chen took a deep breath and placed a hand on Vega's shoulder. "Take us home, Ensign. Take us home."
****************
Auri Chen and the crew of the Valiant will return in Wrath of Syraxis!
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Syrax Wars
Volume 1 - Shadows of Arcturus
Volume 2 - Ruins of Talamar
Volume 3 - Wrath of Syraxis (Coming soon!)
Crystalline Earth
Volume 1 - The Parnassus Initiative
Volume 1.5 - Raider's Hollow
Volume 2 - Sons of Prometheus (Coming soon!)
