Stennis (Dark Seas Book 4)

by Damon Alan

  There is another ship, Alarin. Hiding behind the station.

  He didn’t answer her. Probably talking to Sarah.

  “Another ship!” Sarah grunted out between harsh maneuvers.

  “Just what we need,” Thea Jannis moaned.

  “We’re coming clear of the station now,” Navin Harmeen stated. “I’m starting to pick up the hull… looks like a large battlecruiser, maybe something even a bit bigger.”

  “What the hell are the Hive building these days?”

  Hive? She thinks this is Hive? Emille mentioned to Alarin.

  It’s not?

  No. The people on that ship are human. As are the people on the station.

  How many? His tone carried urgency.

  A lot. I don’t know.

  A thunderous sound blasted through the bridge, as a projectile hit the EF-2358.

  Navin Harmeen looked at Sarah, best he could. “Non-critical. Sensor array sheared off. Didn’t work for crap anyway.”

  Emille giggled. That was funny. She liked that guy.

  “Human?” Sarah grunted. Alarin had finally told her.

  “Seto, open a link to the station. Put me on.”

  A moment later Sarah spoke to the people who were attacking them.

  “Royal Korvand supply station Chungathi, this is the Alliance frigate EF-2358.” She paused a few seconds. “We are not your enemy. Stop firing. We’re looking for a safe port.”

  Another few seconds passed, then finally a voice answered them. “EF-2358, this is Korvand Defense Station Chungathi. We have stopped firing. Continue evasive for another two minutes for ordinance already in flight.”

  The small ship continued to gyrate and Emille found she didn’t really care much. Whatever Brantis had pricked her arm with, she liked it. Bored, she expanded her mind to study the other ship. It was huge. But broken in some spots. Sections of it contained no air, and holes spotted the length of the hull armor. All but a small section was cold, allowed to chill to the temperature of space. That small section was near a gangway that connected it to the station, at the front of the great big ship.

  Sarah might want to know this stuff. She put it to memory, then decided she should probably share with Alarin.

  Alarin. Here. She pushed the data into his mind.

  Hey, calm down. That almost hurt.

  Sorry, love-love. She giggled.

  What is wrong with you?

  Nothing.

  “Stop evasion now,” Sarah ordered. “Well, if the Hive didn’t see our sensor burst, they sure as the stars shine will see the torch we just lit for them. In a smidge over twenty-two hours.”

  “What about any Hive headed to where we were?” Thea asked.

  “They should still be in transit,” Sarah said. “They shouldn’t see anything. So we have twenty-two hours to figure out who these people are, supply and then get out of here.”

  Navin Harmeen agreed.

  “Start a timer, Mister Harmeen.”

  “Timer started, ma’am.”

  Emille discovered that if she furrowed her eyebrows and thought seriously about it all, the relaxed feeling would go away for a bit. She did have a headache, however, chaotically throbbing in her mind.

  I feel that too. I think that is the gravity waves they speak of, Alarin thought to her.

  She didn’t like it. But hey, sometimes things happen that weren’t all that likable.

  “EF-2358, you are cleared to approach. Stop at one hundred meters, you will be scanned for infection. Please ensure your weapon systems are all powered off, we do not want to have a misunderstanding again,” the voice from the station said.

  Sarah answered them. “EF-2358 copies. We are powering down weapons and maneuvering for approach. Normally we’d scan you as well, but you shot our sensors off. So we’re going to run on trust here.”

  Trust for you, not them, Sarah wants you to know, Alarin told her.

  Yeah, I get that. She loves me, Peter loves me, you love me… I must be amazing, she replied.

  Alarin laughed.

  “I’m glad you two are having a good time,” Sarah said. “I assume you have no idea how close you came to dying just now?”

  “There is no death,” Emille rebutted. “Only transition. Fear it no more, Sarah, you will be better for it.”

  Sarah glowered at her a moment, then went back to commanding the others.

  What did I say?

  Alarin shrugged. He didn’t want to draw Sarah’s attention, apparently.

  Emille crossed her arms and huffed.

  She’d be patient. It was time to see what this civilization inside the Tapestry was like.

  Chapter 45 - Refugees

  11 Febbed 15330

  The airlock hissed as air rushed between the sliding doors.

  The atmosphere greeting Sarah’s boarding party was stale, probably from centuries on the station and having been recycled thousands of times.

  Alarin and Hamden stood behind her.

  Hamden in a full battlesuit.

  Alarin… well, he needed no such thing.

  Sarah had a fléchette pistol strapped to her side.

  One pressure suited person stood on the other side of the door to greet them. Sarah was unable to see into the faceplate. The person had no weapons, but a device strapped to the suit’s torso blinked green.

  Sarah realized what it was. A bomb.

  For a moment, nobody moved. Like an Adarian standoff.

  Finally the figure raised a portable scanner and activated it for a few seconds, then put it on a shelf next to the airlock door. Reaching up to unseal the suit helmet, a middle aged man was exposed as the figure dropped the helmet to his side in his left hand.

  He extended his other. “Handal Matoos. I’s leader of sorts here.” His diction was a mixture of an accent she’d not heard in ages and Galactic Standard.

  “You’re Zelani?” Sarah asked.

  “Good ear, lass. And you be?”

  “Admiral Sarah Dayson.”

  “An admiral? Well, we’s looking up ain’t we? No mere enlisted folk for us, now is it?” Handal said. He looked Hamden and Alarin up and down, before concentrating on Alarin. “Ghost walk true ye?” Handal’s accent picked up a bit when he was nervous.

  “This man is human,” Alarin said, declining to answer Handal’s question.

  “Alarin is my—” she paused moment. “Cultural specialist,” she finished.

  “’Tis so?” Handal asked, it wasn’t really a question. “Don’t recall his accent none.” He looked back toward Hamden. “If yer man might refrain from shootin’, I be gon to disarm this.” He pointed toward the device on his torso.

  “If we were Hive, you were going to blow up the gangway? With us all in it?”

  “Can’t have the bits eatin’ up these people, now can I? You people finally beat the Hive back ‘n free Korvand from the scourge?”

  “No. We’re here to recover any unused supplies. We didn’t expect to see you,” Sarah answered. “The Hive still control this system, and now they’re on their way to this place.”

  “So not much a rescue then,” Handal replied.

  Sarah clipped the strap on her pistol in place. As a gesture of peaceful intent. “Hamden, secure your weapons. Alarin, your appearance is going to get some notice. It’s normal for people to wonder.”

  Alarin smiled, his demeanor at ease. “You forget, I read their intent at least as well as you do, Sarah. He bears us no ill will, and in fact seems somewhat relieved to see us.”

  They arrived at the interior airlock of the gangway, which Handal had to wait for someone inside to open.

  Sarah didn’t bother mentioning that if the Hive found this station, all of these precautions would be meaningless. They’d simply nuke it, but paranoia makes humanity take irrational action.

  Eight people were on the other side of the second lock, Handal only bothered to mention two. “This’n Sarnali Matoos, my wife, and this’n Baxton Howe, my XO.”

  “A p
leasure,” Sarah said.

  “We are so happy to see you,” Sarnali said. Perfect Korvandi inflection on her syllables.

  Sarah switched to a language she hadn’t spoken in decades. “I never expected to hear the voices of my world ever again.”

  Sarnali grabbed her, holding her close. “She’s one of us, Handal. She’s one of us.”

  Tears streamed down the woman’s face, and soon, Sarah’s as well.

  “I am,” Sarah said as she patted the woman’s back. “I truly am.”

  The two men spoke to Alarin, and Hamden stepped in as the women embraced. Sarah listened even as she comforted the grieving woman.

  “You’re a white one,” Baxton said.

  “He’s albino,” Ensign Hamden said. “On his world, it’s common. So what’s the deal here? Is that your ship outside, sir?”

  “That’s Entalia, such as she is. We took some close nukes heading out from Korvand. Nearly sterilized the ship.”

  Sarah’s head perked up. “Entalia? The Queen’s flagship?”

  “Same,” Baxton replied. “We waited for Her Majesty in orbit on that day, but she never made it. We fought our way out past two Hive fleets alongside the Third Flotilla.”

  “I was Third Flotilla,” Sarah said. “RKV Chimera.”

  Baxton and Handal stared at her for a moment. “Saw your ship take a nuke, miss,” Baxton said.

  Sarah and Sarnali broke their embrace. “We survived. I didn’t see you in that mess. My crew thought we might be receiving the Queen. We waited in orbit, hammering the Hive fleets, trying to help her escape.”

  Handal nodded. “’Twas the plan. You knew it. Three different yachts off from Royal Airdrome, but each to a different ship. None knew where was the Queen. So had she made it to orbit, might have had ‘er on your decks.”

  “Didn’t matter, did it?” Sarah asked. Tears flowed on her face, and Alarin rested his hand on her shoulder. It surprised her how much emotion she had for her now dead home world after so long.

  I am with you, if you need strength.

  “No, didn’t,” Handal said. “Saw your fleet jump away, right surprised it happened you’s so torn up. After Hive done hittin’ the Third, more debris than ships.”

  “You’re telling me,” Sarah said as she wiped her face.

  “Our escorts, they din’t make it. Two fine light cruisers. The Hive blew one, then another,” Handal continued. “Our jump ship, he never got there. We fought ‘way from Korvand, finished off the two fleets that killed you folks.”

  “Finished off?” Sarah asked. “By yourselves?”

  “The Entalia, she ain’t only for the show. She slings a bite. A big bite. Didn’t make a difference that day, however,” Handal said. “Bite or no, we had tails tucked.”

  “It was a losing fight,” Sarah agreed. “How’d you get away?”

  “Don’ know. We was scrapped, low on munitions. Then they backed off and headed on a vector to somewheres.” Handal paused, then shrugged.

  “They didn’t come back for us,” Baxton said. “We burned away from the planet at maximum thrust, for several hours. The Entalia, she’s fully stealth coated, so once we turned off our engines maybe they couldn’t find us again.”

  “Maybe,” Sarah said. “But that’s not like them. Machines don’t forget they left a ship out there as a future threat.”

  “No, same thing I said,” Handal added. “But here we is. Makes no sense.”

  “And you’ve been here since then?”

  “It’s all there is, Admiral. No way to jump out system, we need to eat. This station is for fleet resupply. We one ship, and only a few survivors at that. We gots centuries o’ goods.”

  “You went civilian it looks like. Gave up your ranks?”

  “I was Second Officer of the Entalia,” Handal replied. “Commander Matoos. Baxton was Navigation Chief. We didn’t need that anymore.”

  “What happened to the Captain and XO?”

  “Bridge spaced by a rail round. All command but me either shredded or blown out to the void. Aux con still intact, where I was.”

  “Fair enough,” she replied. “We’re going to try and get you out of here, because I’m not about to leave you here to die. They have to know you’re here after all that fire and the noise we made evading you.”

  Handal sighed. “Yep. Thought you was the Hive.”

  “I’d have done the same,” Sarah said. “You had no reason to expect friendlies. I’m pretty glad your shooting was rusty, though.” She looked around. Two hallways circling away from the hatch in opposite directions. “How many people do you have?”

  Sarnali counted on her fingers. “We had eighty-nine survivors when we got here. Eight of those died. Twenty births since we arrived.” She counted silently. “One hundred and one. You’d think I’d have known that.”

  “We’re not all going to fit on EF-2358,” Sarah said to Alarin. “How often can Emille jump?”

  “Your machines gave her something to keep her from panicking, which has dampened her abilities a bit. I’m certain she will recover judging by what I sense from her, but it will be close,” he answered.

  “We have to factor in the time it would take to get shuttles, unload people and come back for more,” Hamden added.

  “Good thoughts,” Sarah agreed. “So let’s avoid that problem. We’re taking the Entalia.”

  “She ain’t FTL,” Handal said. “You only brought one ship? Ain’t you admiral?”

  Sarah grinned wryly at the irony. They hadn’t wanted to risk a bigger ship or more people, and now they were putting everyone at risk with their initial hesitation to bring a cruiser. If Emille can’t jump the Entalia, then they’d have to fight the first Hive response to the scene.

  I should have brought the Stennis like my instincts bellowed at me.

  “Can the Entalia move at all?” she asked.

  “Hasn’t in two decades, but should still be operational,” Baxton said. “I’ll get a crew and go fire up the fusion plants. She’s cold, we’ll be warming her for a while.”

  Sarah gave him a thumbs up, then turned to Alarin. “Can we jump both ships?”

  His face went blank, a sign he was talking to Emille. “That is a good question, and we don’t know the answer. I’m not sure this situation is a good time to test for that ability. We both think we should stick with one for our escape.”

  I can’t leave the EF-2358 behind to be captured, the AI has too much information the Hive would find useful. By the stars, I hate AI’s. I’m going to rip Brantis’s CPU out and put him in a walking cargo loader.

  Sarah jabbed her commlink. “Dr. Jannis. Prepare to move the people and contents of the EF-2358 to the other ship. We will be taking our new discovery home.”

  “Are you serious?” Jannis asked. “That piece of junk?”

  “Dead serious. We have less than twenty hours to get this done. Dock with the station, and get our people unloading supplies. No breaks, we can rest once we’re done. They will work with a local named Baxton Howe.”

  “Got it,” Jannis answered.

  “Oh, and hey, rig the ship to explode, grab all the tech you can. We can’t have that frigate falling into Hive hands. Pull Brantis’s CPU.”

  A pause told Sarah what her friend thought of that order. They’d lost enough ships already.

  Handal touched Sarah’s arm. “How long that ship?” He gestured toward where Sarah had entered the station.

  “The one we came in? About fifty meters,” Sarah answered.

  “We put it in the yacht storage. Entalia made to carry the Queen’s yacht,” he said.

  Sarah’s face lit up. “Handal, you’re brilliant. Thank you.”

  Sarah needed warships, and hated to leave one behind. Handal might have saved her that loss with his comment.

  “Doctor, cancel the last order. Move the EF-2358 alongside the other vessel, and wait for orders. We will stow our little frigate internally.”

  “Should have been your first plan,” Dr. J
annis answered.

  Sarah snorted and severed the link. “Let’s get this plan rolling.” She grabbed Hamden’s hand. “Son, get that power suit working.”

  Hamden saluted and turned to Handal. “Where do you need me sir?”

  For once we’re saving lives instead of losing them. Feels good.

  “What sort of drive are you using that you can transfer it to the Queen’s flagship?” Sarnali asked.

  “What did you do on the Entalia?” Sarah asked.

  “Engineering,” the woman answered.

  Sarah laughed. “Then you’re going to love what I’m going to show you when we leave.”

  “A new type of drive?”

  Was that what it was? An FTL drive? Maybe Peter should name it. “I’m not sure if I believe it myself, and drive might not be the right word. Wait and see.”

  Sarnali’s eyebrows furrowed, but she said no more about it. “This way, Admiral. Do flag officers move cargo?”

  Sarah rolled up her sleeves. “In my fleet they do.”

  Chapter 46 - Admiral’s Personal Log

  AI Lucy82A recording, Admiral's personal log, personal archive: Galactic Standard Date 14:38:17 11 FEBBED 15330

  Personal log entry #1430, Admiral Sarah Dayson, origin Korvand, Pallus Sector.

  Current Location: Chungathi Station, Deep system orbit, Korvand System

  In a twist of events that even I find hard to believe, I’ve found Korvandi survivors alive a decade after we lost the battle here. Not only survivors, but the Entalia, the Queen’s flagship. After the Queen was killed on takeoff, the ship’s crew decided to retreat from the battle, and strangely enough, the Hive let them go.

  Maybe there was a better target, something with more military value.

  The Entalia is a dinosaur, built for the protection of diplomats, couriers, and royalty. It’s huge, a few dozen meters over a kilometer and a half long. Unlike Alliance vessels, it’s also massive. Not the long thin spars I’ve grown used too, but a substantial hull with the sort of internal volume usually reserved for carriers. In a sense, it is a carrier with armor. It has a bay for the Queen’s yacht, now empty. It has bays for a dozen shuttles, currently occupied. Luxury transports, we will put them to use after they’re gutted and refitted. Add in the bay for the escorts, and we have even more potential for this ship. Of the twenty-four grapplers the ship is designed to carry, it has four on hand. The kind I used to navigate.