Fire, Dee! Fire!
Dee was flung through the air with neck-jarring force, but somehow she managed to have the presence of mind to bring her HVAR up with her left hand and fire into the alien’s tendril grasp. The rounds spittapped out fast, leaving blue ionized plasma vortexes behind as they tore into the tendrils, cutting Dee free from the alien’ s grip as she came crashing across the water against a tree that was half fallen over into the river. The alien screeched as if in pain and turned toward her, tracking across the swiftly moving water with some sort of automatic plasma weapon. The blue bolts of energy hummed and splashed into the water around her, throwing up vapor and steam and debris as they hit. One of the bolts hit the tree she had crashed into, and bits of charred wood splintered just above her helmet. She ducked and instinctively fired her M-blaster with her right hand while twisting around the tree trunk for cover in a backwards handspring. She splashed down hard behind the fallen tree immediately bringing the HVAR up with her left and firing hundreds of hypervelocity rounds at the nearest alien. The rounds lit the Chiata’s shields up for a brief instant, but in a blur it moved and was firing back at her.
Dee kicked her jumpboots against the bottom of the muck, and fortunately they homed on what must have been a boulder at the bottom. Unexpectedly to both her and the aliens, Dee was shot upward out of the water and more than five meters into the air, somersaulting almost out of control. Dee tightened her core muscles and pulled her knees in to control her vault.
Don’t fail me now, Buckley! Dee prayed that her armored suit shields would hold as the other nearest two Chiata tracked their weapons at her across her vault’s trajectory. Fortunately, the aliens were surprised enough that they missed.
Deanna bounded back and forth across the water from rock outcropping to tree trunk and back again with her HVAR in her left hand and her M-blaster in her right, all the while firing both two-gun mojo style on full automatic. Her suit enabled her to hold the weapons steady and fire them both precisely and simultaneously. The blaster bolts caught the lead Chiata in the chest, knocking it off balance, with a ripple of light from its armor, forcing it to stagger backwards and lose its balance in the water. But her advantage didn’t last long as suddenly the creature moved so quickly that all Dee could see was a red and green blur.
Fuck, they’re fast! Dee thought. Find a way to track their motion and predict their paths.
Working it! Bree replied, and just as quickly ran billions and billions of calculations in the blink of an eye. One aspect of the AICs was that they were quantum bit-based processors and could perform quantum superposition based reduction of data, which meant trillions of instructions per fractions of a second. Your best option is, fire at the energy curve predicted locations, Dee. Fast or not, they still must follow the laws of physics. Their trajectories will still follow ballistic paths. Lead the paths instead of tracking behind them.
Roger that! Dee fired both weapons as fast as she could, leading the aliens’ motion based on predictions appearing in her DTM mindview. Several times she shot into empty air with the rounds or blaster bolts zipping off into the trees or into the water. But, at least about thirty percent of the time Bree’s calculations were correct and she hit home against one of the aliens’ body armor and shielding.
The fourth Chiata had joined in almost as instantly as the action had started. As soon as Dee splashed down from her jumpboots’ powered leap, the fourth alien landed on top of her feet-first, pulling his weapon up to her face and knocking the M-blaster free. The magnetic tether-holster pulled at the blaster and it affixed itself to her right thigh. Deanna managed to sideswipe the barrel of the alien’s weapon with the barrel of her HVAR as they both fell backwards beneath the water. Dee grasped one of the tendrils with her right hand as the thing twisted about her wrist like a snake. She squeezed the squishy, amorphous structure with all the might of her gauntleted and power-assisted hand until it popped and went limp. The alien flinched just long enough for her to punch it in the gut with her right hand while she fired several rounds at point blank against the thing’s chest armor with the HVAR in her left. Red and green barrier shields flickered, and then the alien moved away so fast that she couldn’t track it. And almost as soon as that one had moved out of the way, one of the others shot a tendril into her leg armor. The shields held for the moment but that tendril wrapped about her leg and began to squeeze, straining the suit’s barrier field generator.
“I’m. Getting. Tired. Of. This. Fucking. Shit!” she shouted gutturally at the alien, and fought it back with a flurry of splashing punches, kicks, and shots from the rifle and blaster. The Chiata moved as fast or faster than the AEM suit enabled Dee to move, so she had to anticipate the creature’s movements to keep up. That proved very difficult. Very difficult.
Dee squirmed and kicked against the alien with all the might of her armored suit and only barely managed to duck the barrel of the alien plasma rifle as it lunged at her face. She twisted her armored torso and palm-heel struck the midsection of the weapon just as blue bolts of energy buzzed past her faceplate. The bright beam caused the autodim feature of the visor to kick in just in time to prevent her from being blinded. Holding on to the alien weapon, she spun backwards toward the alien, smashing it in the nose with her left elbow, and then with all the speed and strength in the suit, drew her blaster and shoved the barrel through the creature’s left eye, and at the same time, she pulled the trigger. The back of the alien’s head exploded with a splatter resembling a bursting water balloon.
Dee didn’t have time to admire her handiwork as the other three continued after her. Without removing the barrel of the blaster from the alien’s well-ventilated skull, she tilted the heavy, limp body while continuing to fire at the other attackers. Using the alien’s dead body for a shield, she ducked as blue bolts snapped against its backside. Dee fired several more rounds through the red and green glowing muck that was oozing out of the alien’s skull all over her, and then she withdrew the blaster, pulling with it alien gray matter.
She kicked her boots again, tossing her upward against one of the large trees along the marsh bank, and then she kicked them against the tree, jumping to over forty meters out into the deeper and much faster-flowing water. She tucked and rolled into a dive, splashing loudly into the raging water. For whatever reason the Chiata didn’t follow her out; instead, they stood near the edge of the water firing at her. Dee ducked her head under the water and kicked out deeper as best she could. The weight of the suit was pulled to the bottom by the planet’s near-Earthlike gravity. Each time Dee reached the bottom she bounced with the current. Blue blasts of alien plasma fire tore through the water around her, vaporizing the water and causing steam bubble explosions. One of the rounds hit her in the back, pounding her face first into the deeper water and stunning her, but while the Buckley shields flickered, they still held.
Shields generators at forty-seven percent, Dee. We can’t keep taking hits, Bree warned, all while more of the blue bolts peppered the water around her. Another one hit her on the shoulder, tossing her into a forward roll into an underwater rock outcropping. The vortex of whitewater whirling about it caught her and rolled her up to the surface feet first. Dee managed to land her left foot against the rock and triggered her jumpboots, rocketing her back downward into the water’s depths.
Deeper, Dee! her AIC told her. It is twenty meters deep here. Go deep.
Right.
Then the AIC highlighted a path underneath the water toward faster-flowing vectors. Arrows appeared in Dee’s mindview, showing her the flow fields of the now roaring waters. Dee did her best to kick off the mucky bottom and into one of the underwater currents highlighted in her mindview. The blue bolts of energy continued to tear through the water all around her. Another bolt hit her on the left thigh plate, spinning her about under the water and causing her to lose her bearings.
Shields at twenty-seven percent!
Dee finally hit the currents that were so swift the flowing force wa
s enough to grab her and take her away. Although she was being tossed head over heels and tumbled about by tons and tons of rushing water that was bottlenecking and speeding up and rapidly approaching the falls, which seemed bad, the distance between her and the Chiata search party continued to grow. Dee could see through her multi-sensor amalgamated image that the aliens were taking to the trees, hoping to get a high-ground shot at her. Dee did her best to right her tumbling motion and hug the bottom of the river.
We’re going over, Dee said. Maybe we can get some distance between us and them.
That’s a forty meter fall, Dee! I hope the water is deep enough at the bottom. Bree sounded concerned. I don’t have enough data to know.
Well, we’re dead if we stay here! Dee replied as she continued to tumble. She did her best to stretch out her arms and legs to control her tumble, but the currents were too strong. Another wave of blue bolts ripped the water up all about her but she was deep enough that their energy was dissipated before it managed to make it to her armor. With one last foothold on the bottom, she kicked her jumpboots at full power, launching her up and out of the water into a long arching ballistic trajectory over the edge of the waterfall. The view was amazing. The large lake of swamp behind her had to be kilometers across and was being bottlenecked by the natural terrain and forced to flow to the falls. Large boulders lined the cliff, and downed and washed-up giant trees dammed and constricted the flow even more. Water rushed over the edge of the natural dam with the raging sound of a thousand hovertanks. Blue beams tore about the sky around Dee as she reached the apogee of her dive. A bolt pounded into her abdomen armor plate causing the shields to flicker and flash and inducing a spin and a roll into her dive. And then Dee felt the weightlessness of falling over a cliff.
Chapter 14
February 19, 2407 AD
U.S.S. Sienna Madira II
Hyperspace, 47.5 Light Hours from Target Star System
700 Light-years from the Sol System
Monday, 2:45 P.M. Ship Standard Time
“He won’t leave, sir. I’ve tried everything I can to convince him that we have things under control here.” Chief Petty Officer Sarala Amari stood behind the control panel displays for the hyperspace projector. Alexander could see from the look on her face through the visor in transparent mode that the CPO was truly concerned for the CHENG’s wellbeing. Looking across the mangled structures, bulkheads, wires, and conduits that could only be described as the mess that the Engine Room had become, he could see Buckley several meters away, standing near the vortex projector. Buckley’s suit looked like hell. Most of the right shoulder was missing and his arm was gone. There was a blob of organogel and seal-layer material that had formed a scab over the suit’s wound. Moore double checked the blue force tracker in his mindview and the CHENG’s vitals were stable. The suit was functioning properly and keeping Joe alive and well.
“He ain’t going anywhere as long as we’re in hyperspace, sir! I can’t budge him,” Fireman’s Apprentice Rogers added. “To tell the truth, I’m not sure if I should without a med team.”
Moore nodded and surveyed the engine room again from end to end and top to bottom. It was more a shambles and torn to hell and gone than he’d seen it in some time. There was a giant melted hole in one wall and the projector energy conduit was blown out. What was left of an armor suit looked to have been welded to a bulkhead and incinerated in place.
What happened there? Moore asked his AIC.
Commander Keri Benjamin, second CHENG, was hit by the conduit plasma leak and killed instantly there. The medical teams have had a difficult time removing all the remains as they are fused to the bulkhead wall. It was quite gruesome, sir, Abigail replied.
Alexander turned away from the sight and focused on Buckley’s current situation. Nearest Joe, there was a giant cable vibrating in midair, connecting a conduit coupler to the projector input. The cable was flashing ionized sparks and was humming like a lawnmower. Firecrews were scrambling madly about and repair bots were skittering to and fro with various and sundry tasks that Alexander likely wouldn’t understand anyway without Abigail explaining them.
“Thank you, Ms. Amari. Thank you, Mr. Rogers. I appreciate you looking after him. We need to figure out our plan of attack for getting engineering back up to speed,” Alexander said solemnly and clanked into the room. There were occasional puddles of green coolant liquids and other blobs of molten materials that he couldn’t identify. Automatic radiation sensors in the suit pulled his visor down and the barrier shields were brought up to full.
Sir, the cable humming about in midair is acting as a small particle accelerator and the whirling aurora about it is putting off dangerous levels of gamma radiation, his AIC warned him.
Are we safe? Moore brought up his suit health image in his mindview.
Oh, yes, sir. The suit and the shields are more than enough protection, but the visor must remain down while in the engine room or you’ll need antiradiation treatments.
Understood.
He walked cautiously over to Commander Joe Buckley Jr. who was standing before the hyperspace projector, waving his one remaining arm about in the air. He was clearly running some sort of simulation or performing some other engineering task. The blue force tracker view of him was still up in the forefront of Alexander’s mindview right beside his own suit health page.
His vitals are stable, sir, Abigail told him. Although he will need several days of recovery to get his arm replaced and to come off the stims and painkillers.
I’m not sure we have several hours, much less several days.
“I’ve seen engineering in much worse shape, Commander. But I’m not sure when.” Alexander placed a glove on his remaining shoulder. “Joe. Thank you. You saved the ship and her crew with it.”
“At what cost, sir? I hope this mission was worth it,” Buckley replied. “Hope we got what we came for.”
“It’ll be okay, Joe. We can get you to medical and get you fixed up,” Alexander started, but the CHENG interrupted.
“Sorry, sir, I’m not going anywhere until we get the drive up and running. And with all due respect, General, I wasn’t talking about losses I suffered. I’ll be fine, hell, I’ve been a lot worse. We lost a lot of people. My second down here was killed instantly when the conduit failed. She was damned near irreplaceable and I don’t look forward to writing the letter to her family. She had seven great-grandchildren, you know.” Buckley seemed to zone out for a second and reached up into the air and moved an imaginary object. Alexander could see that the CHENG was very distracted or perhaps in shock. “And who is still back there? How are we going to get them out?”
“I assume you know the answer to that question, CHENG, so I won’t answer it. We’ve yet to determine if we got what we came for on this mission. That was always the second wave’s mission, not ours. Ours was to soften and distract. I do have to admit that they responded with more numbers than the Ghuthlaeer intel suggested they had there.” Alexander sighed. Normally, he would be more aggressive at answering such questions and showing anyone doubting his decisions who exactly they were talking to. But, Alexander could see the CHENG was likely in shock from his injuries and losses as well as being preoccupied with whatever it was he was doing.
“Uh, yes, sir.” Joe continued to move objects about in his mindview. Then Alexander was certain he stopped to talk with his AIC briefly. He wasn’t sure if the CHENG was being insubordinate in not paying him full attention, or if Alexander himself was distracting the CHENG from keeping something on the ship from exploding or flying apart, or if the CHENG had just lost it altogether.
What is he doing, Abby?
I’m not sure, sir, Abigail replied in his mind. Do you want me to inquire with his AIC?
No. I’ll just take the direct approach.
“CHENG. What are you doing?” Alexander motioned to the distracting movements, doing his best to sound genuinely curious rather than overly stern. He wasn’t sure he’d gotten the inflectio
n he was going for, but the CHENG didn’t seemed to notice.
“I’m orchestrating the bots on emergency repairs and keeping that damned cable from popping sooner than we need it to.” Joe turned to the General briefly. “By the way, sir, how long do we need it to last? I mean how long do we need to stay in hyperspace?”
“Uh, well, to the first rendezvous point at two light hours out. That would give us at least four hours before the Chiata could detect us and then get to us, assuming the intel of their top speed is seventy-five times lightspeed.” Moore hesitated a bit then asked, “Will that be enough time for repairs to the drive?”
“No, sir. It will not.” Joe continued his thousand-yard stare into his DTM mindview and waved pages in and out and moved invisible objects. Alexander wasn’t annoyed, but it was damned distracting. “It will take on the order of seven hours minimum to replace that conduit and then another three to realign the projector once we bring it down. Add in an hour or so for general contingencies and you’re talking about eleven or twelve hours, sir. And I’m being very optimistic.”
“Even with the bots, Joe?”
“Even with the bots, sir. Well, unless . . .” Joe seemed to drift off again into his DTM and it looked to Alexander like he filtered through several pages until he found what he was looking for. “Unless, well, maybe . . .”
“Unless what, CHENG?” Alexander did his best to hold his patience. He’d never seen Buckley this way before. He was pretty sure the engineer was in shock and needed medical attention.
“Unless what I’m building in virtualscape will work.”
“So you are doing more than just repairs?” Alexander’s gut instinct was right. Buckley was up to something as usual.
Kill Before Dying (Tau Ceti Agenda Book 5) Page 14
