Kama was startled to see Admiral Chang step back onto the bridge. He was wearing a flight suit and his arm was in a sling, but he looked totally in command of the ship. For a moment, Kama thought Alice was going to leap at the man as she had done before, but she looked into his face with an expression of peace. He stepped closer to her, reaching out to gingerly hold her damaged hands. She looked back into his eyes and smiled.
“When this is over,” she said, “I’m going to kill you. For now, Kama is in your seat.”
20
Somewhere Else
Nothing felt different. Then, just as he tried to take a breath, a great force pushed him against his seat, shoving the air from his lungs. He felt his ship tumble as it approached the exit portal. The cockpit viewer flickered and shut off, leaving Lee in darkness and fear. The ship screamed as the forces outside tried to tear the ship apart. He felt a searing heat along his back just before he slipped into painful unconsciousness.
“You entered the great membrane without protection,” the voice said. “Your species cannot withstand that pressure, and yet you did.”
“Get out of my head.”
“I am not in your head, Pearce,” replied the voice. “We are standing beside your body.”
“You don’t have the right to do this.”
“We are the superior species. It is the right of the conqueror to examine the vanquished.”
“We aren’t dead yet.”
“You and your kind will be soon,” it said again with something like a sigh. “Once we have arrived, we will take what should be ours from your space and be the conquerors there as well.”
“Go to hell.”
“We will conquer that place as well,” replied the voice. “In due time.”
The pilot angled his ship over on its port wing and turned to face the alien head on. The enemy ship did not waver from its trajectory towards the Princess. He could only assume that he was too small yet to even be seen. He oriented himself back to a plane that was similar to his adversary. The pilot reduced power to his magnetic drive, slowing the cycles of electromagnetic energy that propelled the ship through space, and armed his boosters.
As he came to within a few kilometers of the enemy craft’s port side, he fired up the chemical boosters. Despite the inertial dampening system, he was pressed back into his seat from the acceleration. Too late, the alien fighter started to turn towards him as Pearce unloaded all six barrels of his energy cannons into the armored beetle-like hull.
An explosion of ruptured metal and oxygen burst from the Ch’Tauk fighter. It listed onto its starboard side, leaking atmosphere and debris. He shut off the rockets and turned hard to starboard. The mag-drive twisted local space and turned the little fighter hard about. Once again, the pilot could feel the inertia pushing away his breath.
“Whatzamatter, you couldn’t find anything new on? That is a rerun so dated it isn’t even funny anymore…”
“Your technology is insufficient to defeat us,” replied the voice. “You are using chemical fired weapons on your ship.”
“You should see what I plan on shoving up your ass.”
“I do not believe I understand your reference,” it replied. “You will not do anything. As soon as we have what we need, we will dispose of you.”
“How did I get here?”
The blast wave struck him from behind. The ship had been pushed to the limit and was traveling nearly the speed of light when the wave struck him. He was flung against the controls of the cockpit and everything went dark. The face shield on his flight suit refused to illuminate at his command, so he tried activating one of the independent cockpit lights. The ship must have been moving at incredible speed away from Sol. He could feel the universe shifting around him even as he blacked out.
“What are you looking for? Maybe I can help.”
“We are evaluating,” replied the voice. “You cannot help.”
“How did I get here?”
“We found your ship adrift along our course,” replied the voice. “It was obviously new to this universe. It was an inferior design.”
“It made it this far.”
“It will not make it any farther. We destroyed it.”
“That’s too bad. I liked that ship.”
“We need to evaluate your experiences further.”
“Well, don’t let me stop you. I can watch this stuff all day.”
The scout had begun to advance towards the damaged fighters. All five of the Peregrines met and formed up in a defensive line. Surprisingly, she had the least damage of the group, so she took the lead position with the pilot sliding in to her right. The five pilots watched as the alien ship approached. It now had five escorts of its own, but the smaller fighters were moving towards them. The pilots waited.
The scout ship opened fire on the smaller fighters. Lee and Aztec flipped out of the way of the powerful bolts while she, Fluffy, and Wizard accelerated straight towards it. The human fighters loosed their weapons at the scout, but the bolts just scorched the armored hull. They evaded the return fire and tried to regroup with Lee. Alice was hit as she turned to evade another blast, twisting her around and making her hull leak red fire.
“I’m hit,” she screamed over the radio. “I’ve lost engine power!”
“Who was that?”
“You do not know?” asked the voice. “She is obviously important to you. Your cardiac system is nearly overloading. It is an inefficient system. Weak.”
“Was that an insult? I really can’t tell.”
“Why did your heart convulse when you thought of her?”
“I’m bored with this conversation. Let’s change the channel.”
“You resist this?”
“I’m a prisoner with no clothes and I don’t know where the hell I am. I’m resisting.”
“Do you wish to see more of the female?”
“I wish to get up and get out of—”
“I usually eat alone up here before my shift starts,” she explained. “It’s kind of my private dining room.”
He looked inside the ship to see a small tray with a cup and plate. The ship was small, but had a spacious cargo area behind the pilot station where Alice had set out her tray. There was a blanket set on the floor of the cargo area. It appeared that Alice slept in the little ship.
“There is only one plate,” he said. “What am I supposed to eat?”
As he turned back to her, she pressed up against him. He felt her lips on his. Her tongue began to caress his lips, probing and searching for entry. He returned the kiss, at first, slowly and carefully, but with building passion. She threw her arms around him, pushing him back into the shuttle. He tripped on the edge of the door and they both tumbled into the ship. As she pushed herself up, straddling his waist and looking down to him, another giggle escaped her.
“I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”
“Why’d you stop that?”
“Your heart rate accelerated,” replied the voice. “Your entire organic structure is changing. Why?”
“Keep showing me that and I bet you’ll find out.”
“We do not believe this will be productive.”
“We’re on a ship, aren’t we?”
“How do you know this?”
“I can feel it moving. Ships breathe no matter which universe we’re in. I can feel it.”
“Your senses are not that attuned.”
“Where are we going?”
“This is none of your concern. When we arrive, you will be disposed of.”
“Taking out the trash?”
“Your body is toxic to us. The waste products you exude will contaminate our resources.”
“Where are we?”
The question hung in the air. The pilot could feel the mask, still on his face, convulse as the voice uttered a sound he could not identify. The voice was in his mind, but he could still hear, and this sound came from outside. He blinked open his eyes. The creatures holding him had kept
him in a dream state. It was apparently the only way they could communicate with him. The verbal utterance was strange enough to have roused him from his slumber.
“Who are you and why are you holding me?”
There was another sound from his captors, this time closer. He tried to turn his head to see beyond the circle of light around the cold table, but there was nothing. Each time he had tried to peer past the stygian blackness, he had been put back under. This time, he willed himself to stay awake. This time, he kept the dream image of the woman in his head as he felt the probing of the creatures in his mind. As if he had taken a strong sedative, he could feel his legs fading from his perception. His arms became numb and he could sense his breathing slowing under the living breather mask. At the moment he would have fallen into unconsciousness, he pushed the image into his brain. She was blond, with sharp features he knew better than his own. He could hear her laugh on the sound of recirculating air. He could feel her tears on his bare shoulder as she cried. As he held on tight to the sensation, the dream faded. There was another growl but it didn’t stop him. He needed to know who she was.
“I’ve got you now,” he said. “You can’t take her away like the others.”
There was a deep crack and a slow series of clicks he almost recognized. As he imagined the woman near him, he reached out for her in the darkness. Even under the spell of the captors, he could feel his arm rising, straining under the forced daze to regain the life that was being stolen. He forced his mind to remember the feel of her skin next to his. For a long moment, he could sense the shudder as their bodies became entwined, before it was suddenly taken away again. Pain flared inside his mind as the memory was ripped from him. He tried to pull back from it but it only intensified.
“Give it back!” he shouted. “I want that back!”
“You resist in the face of death.”
“I’ll spit in your eye if you get close enough. You’re afraid of me.”
“You are weak,” the voice replied. “We have no fear of you or your species. We are the conquerors.”
“You fear me, and that’s why you took it away. You can’t handle it, can you?”
“There is nothing you possess we cannot take.”
“What about this?”
She was over a kilometer long, with a rounded body that ended in a blunt tail. Her engines had been upgraded during the past few months and the hull was enlarged to accommodate the larger M-space field generator. Flattened projections from bow to stern allowed her passage into the membranous area between dimensions; her thick hull plating could withstand multiple hits by plasma cannon. Resolute was ugly compared to other ships in the new fleet, but she was still his ship and he thought she was beautiful.
As he flew past the battleship, he saw one of the two Zeus class carriers drifting outside the asteroid zone. The Alliance vessel Baal had been saved from destruction two years ago by the pilot while it was being captained by the crazed Admiral Hathaway. It survived more battles than a carrier should have because of the shortage of warships in the fleet. The ship was double hulled and took up much of the visible sky as he circled around to his ship. He could still see the outlines of repairs and welds on the massive ship’s hull. He believed she was still one of the sturdiest and best commanded ships in the fleet.
“It is outdated and will be easily destroyed when we arrive.”
“I doubt that. That ship has survived worse than you.”
“Are you referring to our ancestor-cousin? If it were not for the Emperor-Bridge, we would have destroyed them as well. All your races are weak.”
“Then why are you so afraid of me?”
“We do not fear.”
“Then kill me now. If there is no fear, you shouldn’t bother with taking me home.”
“Your body is contaminated. It is not fear, it is self-preservation.”
“Same thing, different name. Let me go and I will go home on my own. Where’s my ship?”
“The vessel you arrived in was primitive. It was destroyed.”
“It wasn’t so primitive when I shoved it down your wormhole.”
“You could not have designed the closure. Who assisted you?”
“Say please and I’ll tell you.”
He was startled, though, as a smaller set of shadows began to slowly descend the ramp. They were humanoid, with thin arms and legs that seemed too small to hold up their heads. Pale white skin glistened in the bay lighting, pale eyes stared back at the Princess’ crew. They had long, thin strands of hair that flowed down to the center of their back and covered part of their wide, noseless faces. The gray tunics they wore scraped the floor as they walked to join each other. They chittered among themselves for a few moments before one of them ran back up the ramp.
There was a shudder through the breathing mask again and he woke. The light above had intensified, causing his mind to convulse. Pain lanced across his skull and he tried to move his hands to his head. He could hear his own voice through the mask, screaming against the pain. As the pain intensified, he arched his torso from the table, feeling the air on his back for the first time in an eternity. He was no longer being held down by the mind of the observer. Now they were clicking and screaming in his head.
“What was that about fear?” he said to the darkness.
There was a roar from beyond the darkness. He held tight to his skull as the pain seemed to reach out to take hold of the rest of his body. Instead of resisting, he embraced the pain. He used the sensation of life to force his body against the weakness and will of his captors. He turned his head using his fists and fingers instead of his neck to look towards the sound. He could feel the aliens trying to get back in. He could sense the edges of reality closing back around his vision.
“Not this times, you bastards,” he cried through the mask. “You made a mistake and now you’re going to feel the pain of it all. I know your fear now. You want me? Come get me!”
There was another roar from the darkness, followed by clicking and tapping. The silence that followed was unnerving, but in an instant the pain was gone. They had released him. He shook away the memory of pain and swung his legs over the side of the table. If they were going to take him, he wanted to be on his feet. As he felt the cold metal of the deck below him, he felt the vibration of a ship in flight. The muscle memory was good and opened up his memories of self. In a burst of understanding, he knew more about himself than he had since arriving. His fists clenched and he stood naked and vulnerable before the oncoming storm.
“From now on,” Lee Pearce said to the darkness, “you call me captain, you Gizzeen sons-of-bitches.”
The response was immediate and fearful. A figure appeared, larger than Lee would have guessed, engulfed in a luminescent white armor shell. Two sets of eyes stared back at him from over spiked mandibles. There was an odor in the room which made him think of a lion or a shark. His mind twisted around the sight. The Gizzeen was spreading a set of wings behind it, showing Lee the power and brilliance of its body, but his mind refused to accept it. Armored skin pulsed and refused to accept a single shape where arms or legs should have been. The beast screamed in rage as it closed in on Lee. It stopped just short of touching him but continued to roar.
“Shut the hell up,” Lee replied quietly. “I don’t want to play anymore.”
21
Alliance Carrier Trinity
The twin tendrils of energy leached from the body of Glory and rejoined a larger pool carried in twin tanks set along the wall. The process lasted a few seconds, but Henry felt as if it took a lifetime. He looked back at the android he had begun thinking of as a woman and felt a sense of loss. She had been unemotional as any machine, but there had been an element of caring in her actions. With the loss of the twin energy creatures, the android who had named itself Glory seemed more an empty shell than his companion. He looked back at the grinning face of Connor Jakes and felt the urge to strike the man.
“Why are you making her do this, Jakes?” Henry
asked. “She was fine where she was.”
“It needs to split back and rejoin the whole every so often, chief,” replied Jakes, stepping closer. “They grow pretty fond of the shells and sometimes we gotta remind them of where they come from. Don’t worry, she’ll be back. You sweet on her, Henry?”
“Get away from me,” Henry replied as the man tried to put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m a married man. I just didn’t … I just didn’t really understand what she was.”
“That’s okay. Neither do I,” Jakes said, moving closer to the android shell as the last of the golden fluid arced across into the containers. “I’ve been travellin’ with this stuff for a while now and I still don’t understand ‘em. The biomimetic chassis responds well to their isomorphic nature so … well, that means they fit into these things real good.”
“What are you doing on this ship, Jakes?” Henry asked, challenging the pirate. “She’s derelict and no good for hijacking.”
“I ain’t here to hijack this ship so much as steal it right from under the noses of the damn bugs,” Jakes replied. “The admiral sent us in and I wasn’t doin’ anything right away so I said I’d—”
“Admiral Chang is a traitor who gave up our freedom to the Ch’Tauk,” Henry replied, slamming his hand into a nearby wall. “If he had done his job, the fleet would already be here and Earth would be free.”
“Speakin’ of that, how did the battle go?” Jakes asked, stepping closer again despite Henry’s anger. “I ain’t heard nothin’ since we’re all cut off an’ all. I kinda hoped Cap’n Pearce woulda charged in guns blazin’ by now.”
“I don’t know,” Henry replied. “I … I left before the battle was finished.”
“Left? You mean you abandoned and ran, didn’t you?” Connor said, stepping even closer. “Why, Henry, I think you’re one of us now. Welcome to bein’ a pirate.”
The fist that slammed into Jakes’ gut should have been enough to rupture organs. Henry was a well-built man who, despite nearly a year of alcohol-fueled rage, had stayed in good shape. He had reacted without thinking, and while Jakes doubled over, losing his breath and stepping back from the angry Henry, he didn’t fall. Henry realized he had held back his punch and knew the reason why. Jakes had been right. He had abandoned the fight and his friends.
Resolute Glory (The War for Terra Book 8) Page 16
