by Taylor Smith
Chapter 20
Haley watched impassively as her systems registered general hail after general hail. Andy and Cade were relentless, if nothing. At least she hoped Andy was with Cade. During her escape, she’d set the stun-charge and before she was able to round the next corner, it detonated. To her surprise and horror, she’d turned to find Andy and Saundi reeling from the shock before they fell.
It was only moments before a set of guards were on top of the scene, and she had to abandon them. The charge wasn’t meant for the pirates. Hell, they weren’t even supposed to be able to break the locking mechanism she’d put between her and them. Whatever the case was, it was out of her hands now, and she had to get her data to the nearest subspace transmitter. She still had one more mission to complete.
Leaned back with a boot resting on her console, Haley had watched as the Reaper had been abandoned by its sister ships just before the pirate cruiser started burning hard for her position. That had confirmed her suspicion that Strix-9 was being tracked even though she was running in full stealth mode. She wasn’t sure how they did it, but after seeing the great battleship attached to Clew Station, and the use of energy shielding on the Sol ships, she had no doubt that the Alliance was out-classed on the technology stage.
She fingered the small black chip that held the Alliance’s future among its miniature data pathways and was even more resolved to completing her secondary mission. The Alliance may be doomed anyway, but it deserved a fighting chance.
She had to get the chip to her superiors, one way or another. The closest Alliance outpost was a good thirteen hours hard-burn, on the other side of the system. If she could get there, she had the authorization codes to commandeer the station’s subspace array. Then she would find out if it was all worth it.
Her console chirped as it detected yet another general hail. She leaned her head back and wished things could be different. It was unfortunate that she couldn’t allow herself to dream of a life with Cade. She couldn’t afford regret now. Everything had come to a head, and her love and dedication to the Alliance had trumped her love for a man she barely knew.
Haley would always be grateful, however. The pirates had given her the chance to kill the traitor Jonas, and escape to warn her home of the danger that Sol Fleet presented.
A different chime garnered her attention this time, and she sat up to study what her ship was telling her.
Her eyes widened as she double-checked the numbers. The Reaper was pushing far harder than her intel had suggested its top speed was. At the amplified rate at which they were closing, and the speed they’d already built up, she knew that her Strix didn’t have the time to accelerate away before they intercepted it.
She took a deep breath and leaned back. She had a plan for this too, but was hoping not to use it. That plan may reveal more than she wanted to know; questions that she simply didn’t want to know the answers to.
Another chime stole her attention from the pirate cruiser, and she focused on the new contacts her ship had just identified. “Oh no,” she whispered as she gazed at the Allied Battle Group heading straight for her.
She quickly accessed the communications system and acknowledged the last hail from the Reaper, but switched the general channel over to a more secure ship-to-ship system. “Reaper,” she said with a deadly-serious tone. “Break off now.”
Her panel relayed the Reaper’s acceptance of her private channel before Cade’s voice echoed in reply. “I can’t do that, Haley, and you know it. Stop accelerating and prepare to be boarded.”
Haley checked her math again and shook her head. “It’s not going to happen, Cade. I can’t allow the Alliance to be caught unaware of what’s out there.”
“Well then, we’re at an impasse,” Cade replied. “You’re forcing me to do this the hard way, Haley. I don’t want to go that route, but I will if I have to. Hell, I have no idea if my ship’s grapple is going to crush yours before I can get you out.”
“It’ll never come to that, Cade,” Haley replied and rechecked her plot. “Even with that shiny new engine you have, you’ll never reach me before the battle group you can’t see yet intercepts you.”
Haley looked back to the comms panel when Cade didn’t answer. “I know you have no reason to trust me after what I’ve done, but I’m not lying to you, Cade. I’m looking at six cruisers, four heavy cruisers and a battleship surrounded by multiple support ships. They’ll blow past me five minutes before you even reach grapple range.”
Haley waited for a response and leaned back in attempt to clamp the nervous feeling that now crept up her spine. She leaned forward again and ran a tactical analysis against the Reaper and her own position and speed. Her shoulders dropped slightly at the results. “Cade?” she asked. “Cade, please break off.”
No response.
“Cade,” she pleaded, her voice becoming shaky. “Yes, you can get into weapons range before that group’s intercept, but by then you’d be committed to an engagement.” She waited for a moment and was again greeted by silence.
She double-checked and found the Reaper was still accelerating after her. Her hand slammed down on the panel. “Cade!”
“Remember when we first met?”
Haley drew back in confusion and scrunched her face up before saying, “What?”
“What was it that you called me?” Cade asked whimsically. “Pirate pig?”
A quick laugh escaped her lips at the memory. “Saundi called you a pirate pig. You don’t want to know what I called you behind your back.”
“Oh, right,” he said as if deep in thought.
“Cade, please. Break off,” she begged again. “I don’t want to lose you.” She was mildly surprised at what she’d just admitted, but it was the truth. In love or hate, Cade was always part of her thoughts, and she didn’t want to see his end.
“You lost me when you launched that ship, Haley. I didn’t want to believe that it could have been you. Saundi tried to warn me. But knowing you’re in that ship… it’s damning. All of it: Jerry, Criss, the Neese tomb. I ripped myself up for years for failing you on Adara, just to find out that I didn’t fail. I didn’t fail you. It’s a relief, really. You’ve unburdened me.”
Haley’s hand went to her mouth as her worst nightmare unraveled before her. Hearing those words was the moment that she’d dreaded ever since that first encounter with Jerry on Yanna.
Besides,” he replied a moment later. “We just passed the line.”
Her eyes shot to the tactical panel, and she heard a groan of misery flow from her throat. He was right. Even if he reversed course now, there was no avoiding running head-long into an overwhelming attack. Cade was a dead man, along with everyone aboard the Reaper.
“Cade?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too, Haley,” he replied before the channel was closed from his end.
Her system suddenly belched an angry alert as it registered a weapons lock along with the launch of ten missiles in her direction.
She leaned back with a sigh and swiped a tear from her cheek. He actually did it, she thought, as she watched the deadly weapons soar gracefully through space toward her ship.
Chapter 21
Cade held a darkened gaze at the missile plot, watching the tiny digital pinpoints of death speed toward the woman he thought he’d lost three years ago. She’d forced his hand, he thought. There was nothing else to do but wait. He couldn’t break off his pursuit until the confirmation came in that Haley’s ship was dust, just in case he’d be forced to fire another salvo.
The missiles swept closer and closer, and Cade watched as several winked out of existence, surely victims of Haley’s point-defense and ECM systems. Seven missiles were still alive. Six… five… four missiles survived as they entered their engagement envelope.
Three warheads detonated against the recon ship’s hull in an unimpressive flash that dissipated as soon as it began. Cade checked the scanners to find small
bits of debris and the failing aura of super-heated gases, acknowledging the destruction of a small craft. He felt a sudden pang of anger at it all; he’d expected a more dramatic end to the woman who he spent years mourning.
Also, now pervading his screen was the multitude of small blips that indicated a force of oncoming ships. Cade lowered his head and said, “Cancel acceleration and warm-up the Leap-Frog system.”
Beck turned to Cade with a worried look. “Engines cut. But I’ve never used the L.F. system before, Captain.”
Cade’s gaze turned to Beck and calmly said, “Look up the procedure in the system. Check the status of the acceleration compensators, along with the reactor and the Interstellar Drive. If something doesn’t check out, get with Finn and tell him what to look at.”
“Yes, Sir,” Beck replied, and then turned back to his station to get to work.
“Captain,” Wards chimed in. “I’m reading new contacts bearing one-eight-three mark twenty.”
Cade almost ignored the report of new contacts as some random insignificance due to Wards’ overly calm demeanor. He finally realized what his tactical expert had said and raised his head in curiosity. “Say again?”
“Sir,” Wards replied confusedly. “I’m reading IFFs for the No Quarter, Tyrant, Jackknife and Dark Tide.”
Cade’s eyes flew to the tactical screen to find the inbound blips of the four Clew ships. “What the hell,” he whispered and checked the numbers as they closed on the Reaper from behind. They were travelling almost a quarter again faster than his ship, which was already moving much faster than normal.
He slammed the command channel activation and shouted, “Reaper to No Quarter, break off!”
The response he received was obviously Saundi, but she held a tone he’d never heard before. “Negative, Reaper. Engage the enemy. That’s an order.”
Cade reeled back from both Saundi’s tone and the command she’d just given. He’d never known Saundi to be extraordinarily serious about anything, and whatever it was that had gotten into her to start ordering him around, it shouldn’t be there. He double-checked the plot and said, “Saundi, listen to me. We’re headed straight into an Allied battle group that we will not survive. I was about to order a Leap-Frog and take my chances. You’re supposed to be on your way home!”
“Cancel the Leap-Frog. The plan has changed, Cade.”
“Saundi! Haley’s been stopped! Clew is safe! You have to get yourself and Andy home! Nothing else matters now!” Cade shouted back, wishing he had hair to tear out.
“Andy didn’t make it, Cade,” she said in almost a whisper.
The Reaper’s bridge fell silent, all eyes turning to Cade, who’s eyes glazed over at the news.
He felt like he was falling. Every nerve screamed out as his vision darkened and his heart thudded once and then skipped a beat. Andrew Neese was gone, ripped from his life just as quickly as his parents had been. His best friend, his brother, the leader of his people, was gone.
Somewhere in Cade’s mind, he matched that news with Saundi’s attitude. Saundi, the flamboyant girl, the misfit sister, was now responsible for all the people of Clew. And she had just ordered him to his death.
Like a lifting veil, he realized Wards was speaking to him, now with some urgency.
“Captain…”
Cade didn’t realize he hadn’t taken a breath until his lungs filled with a loud influx of air. “No Quarter,” he said through a haze. “Understood.”
“Captain, five minutes until weapons range,” Wards repeated. “The No Quarter is fifteen minutes behind us. One minute until they’re committed to engagement.”
Cade nodded and turned back to the command channel. “Saundi, I’m sorry,” he said respectively. “We have less than five minutes until we engage the battle group. We won’t survive it.”
“Accelerate hard, it’ll make you a harder target to hit. You just have to survive the initial pass. Damn the guns, put everything into defense, and you have a chance,” she said with confidence. “If you use the Leap-Frog system, we’ll never find you, and there’s far too much Alliance traffic in this system to push for a blind jump like that.”
“But Saundi, that battle group –“.
“Let me worry about the battle group,” she said, cutting him off. “Trust me.”
Cade shook his head. That battle group was going to tear through their measly fleet, laughing as they flew by their wrecked hulls. But Saundi’s order should be obeyed just as if Mallian or Andy had given it.
He took a deep breath and nodded. He couldn’t believe he was about to say this to Saundi. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll do our best. As soon as we’re past, we’ll arc back and burn everything we’ve got to join you.”
“Good. No Quarter out.”
Cade leaned back and thought about the abrupt change in an already desperate situation. Instead of evading contact with the enemy, he was now supposed to simply survive first contact with an enemy that could easily smash his ship in a single pass.
They had to survive just to turn back around and engage them, to be swatted down like a fly. He shook his head hoping Saundi knew something he didn’t. Even if they survived, the Reaper would limp back into a fight he knew he couldn’t win.
“Captain,” Beck reported. “Everything checks out for the Leap-Frog system, but I don’t have direct access to run a diagnostic on the Sol reactor they installed.”
“Forget it, Mr. Beck,” he said with a wave of his hand. “Cancel the…” he paused at Beck’s mention of the Sol reactor. “Hold, Beck!” he said excitedly and turned to Wards. “Time to engagement?”
“Just over two minutes,” Wards replied.
“Finn!” he said hurriedly into the ships comm. “Finn!”
“What?” came the senior engineer’s harsh reply.
“That mini-reactor,” he said quickly. “Can it handle all the Reaper’s compensators if we light the ISD?”
“Not even close, Captain,” Finn replied bluntly. “Anyone not on the bridge would be turned into soup the moment we began ingress into subspace.”
“Not even just for a split second?”
Several seconds of silence were finally broken when Finn asked, “you mean for an L.F.?”
“Not even that,” Cade replied excitedly. “Just long enough to jump us just behind that battle group.”
Another pause ate at Cade’s nerves as he waited for the response. “Time’s ticking, Finn.”
“Give me a second,” came the grumbled response. “You’re talking about a two millisecond jump. Yeah, it could handle that, but it would probably kill the reactor in the process.”
“But just the Sol reactor, not blow half the ship’s systems in the process?”
“Yeah…” Finn replied hesitantly. “Shouldn’t damage anything else. But Captain, that reactor is for the new drive system. I don’t know how –“.
“Set it up Finn!” he interrupted. “You have less than a minute!”
Cade cut the channel and rubbed his palms together in attempt to calm his nerves. “Time!”
“One minute!” Wards shouted back, his earlier calm a distant memory.
“Beck, be ready to engage the L.F. the moment I give the order,” Cade said while he glared at the tactical screen and the clump of red angriness barreling toward them at full speed. He could only imagine the firepower of that group of ships. He’d had the opportunity to witness a similar Alliance battle group in action three years earlier. And they were fighting alongside Clew. He really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that hammer.
“All hands,” he said into the ship-wide link. “Brace for a Leap-Frog jump. Forget any cleanup, brace now.”
Cade watched the time tick down and activated the comms system again. “Finn?”
No answer.
“Enemy ships are slowing to engagement speeds!” Wards shouted.
“Finn, we really need you to hurry.” He looked at the tactical panel again and saw the ten second mark laughing at him. �
�Finn…” he grated out as the count reached five seconds. “Finn!”
“Okay, damn it! It’s done!”
“Beck!” Cade shouted just as the counter reached three seconds.
The ship shuddered violently, the lights overhead flared and a deafening, rising whine attacked his senses. Every screen on the bridge seemed to twitch as the deck bucked once, and sparks erupted from behind them as the ship broke away from, and skimmed the outer edge of normal space for far less than a second.
Cade was pressed into his chair and, seemingly at the same time, was thrown forward. A loud explosion reverberated through the Reaper’s hull. He shook his head to ward off the disorientation. His insides felt like slush as he shouted, “Status! What blew?”
“All systems reorienting, Captain. Jump complete. We landed in their wake, and they’re now exiting weapons range,” Wards replied. “We lost a starboard maintenance compartment, and I’m reading damage to our ventral hull… I think that was the explosion, but I’m not sure what it was. No casualties.”
“Beck, bring us about as fast as you can,” Cade ordered before accessing the ship’s comms system and pinged engineering. “Finn. Good job. What happened below?”
“That reactor blew!” replied Finn over the shouts and racket of engineering. “Reapers got a new six meter airlock on her belly! The area’s sealed, but our new drive will be at sixty percent on top of the damage to engine two.”
“Do what you can, Finn,” Cade said, wincing at the report of a hole below, but amazed that there wasn’t more damage. The last time they’d activated the Leap-Frog system it had destroyed half the ship’s systems. “We’ll be re-engaging soon.”
“Aye, Captain,” Finn said and closed the comms link.
Cade switched the channel and announced, “All hands. Jump complete. We’re making our turn to engage the enemy with the help of some friends from home. It’s going to be a rough fight, but I trust each of you to focus on your jobs.”
He paused a moment and thought about what to tell his crew and what not to, but as a dent, he’d always hated being in the dark. “It’s my regret to share with you the demise of Captain Andrew Neese. I don’t have any information, other than the fact that we’ve all lost a leader, friend and brother. Maybe today we can pay a bit of that loss back to the bastards who took him from us.”
