by Ryk Brown
It gave them hope.
* * *
Luis watched through the shuttle window as ground crews outside scurried about, urgently attending to the various cargo transports, personnel shuttles, and fighters as they all prepared for action. Tanker trucks were everywhere, as were ordnance loaders and pilot shuttles. It was amazing to watch, amazing that no one ran into each other.
He cocked his head and looked up at the afternoon sky. Already, dozens of ships were leaving the spaceport in orderly fashion. Large transports rose slowly and made their way forward down the aerial exit corridors. Personnel shuttles rose more quickly as they pulled away at various angles, each heading to their appropriate destinations. Fighters rose from the deck, pitched their noses up, and blasted straight into the sky on their way to orbit in order to rendezvous with orbital tankers and top off their fuel tanks before breaking orbit to position themselves between the Earth and her approaching enemy.
The shuttle’s flight tech swung the hatch closed and activated the locking mechanism. He tapped his headset. “Hatch is secure, sir! We’re ready back here.”
“Finally,” Kyle said.
The shuttle’s engines came to life. A low rumble at first, the pitch and intensity rose as she brought her air-breathing turbines to full power and lifted off the tarmac.
Luis watched through his window as the shuttle rose quickly, pivoted to port, then rolled slightly toward her port side before pitching up and accelerating skyward. She, too, was headed for orbit, but not for the orbital tankers. They were headed for the Orbital Assembly Platform where they would meet up with their new home, the Defender-class warship Intrepid. He only wondered how long their new home would survive.
Luis and his friends were pushed back into their seats as the shuttle accelerated up and away from the spaceport.
“There’s no turning back now!” Tilly exclaimed. “We’re headed for the shit for sure!”
Devyn slipped her hand under Luis’s, taking a firm hold. Luis looked over at her and saw that her eyes were closed. She looked afraid, unsure. He couldn’t blame her. He took hold of her hand and held it tightly. “We’ll be okay, Devyn.”
* * *
Lee Thornton weaved his way through the crowded hospital emergency department. The department was doubly staffed at the moment, with extra personnel being called in due to the public panic that had already begun to sweep across the globe. He had been on duty for most of the day which, until an hour ago, had been a relatively calm shift.
As he approached the ambulance bay doors at the end of the hall, he could see that the sun was already high in the sky. He should have been at home with his family, sitting down to eat lunch together. Instead, he was trying to find a quiet spot from which to tell his wife he could not come home when she needed him most.
The ambulance bay doors burst open as a team of medics urgently rolled their patient into the corridor from outside. Doctor Thornton spun to his right, rolling away from the oncoming crew, slipping through the doors as they swung back in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much quieter outside at the ambulance dock. Radios blared from the ambulance cabs, and backup alarms sounded as new rigs arrived carrying patients who had been injured or had become ill during the initial wave of panic. As the doctor pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed the speed dial button, he wondered how much busier the emergency department would become if the Jung really did attack his world.
“Where are you?” his wife’s voice called from his phone as he raised it to his ear. He realized she must have been waiting for his call.
“I’m still at the hospital, Miri,” he told her as he plugged his other ear with his free hand to hear better over the noise of the ambulances and their crews.
“Haven’t they found you yet?”
“If you mean the protection agents, then yeah, they found me.”
“Then why haven’t you left?”
“I can’t leave, Miri,” the young doctor said. “They need me here.”
“We need you here,” Miri told him.
“I know, Miri. I know. But you and the kids are safe. They’ll get you to your father. You’ll be safe there.”
“What about you?”
“I’m fine,” he told her. “Two of the agents have agreed to stay here with me until I can leave.”
“And when will that be?”
Lee sighed. “I don’t know, Miri.”
“I need to know you’re safe, Lee.”
The young doctor looked back toward the ambulance bay doors. Two men in plain, black suits stood there, watching him. “I’m safe,” he insisted. “I’ve got two agents following me around. Besides, it’s not like they’re going to attack hospitals.” The phone went silent for several seconds. “Miri?”
“Call me when you can,” she told him.
“I will.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“I love you,” Miri told him.
“I love you, too,” Lee answered. “Kiss the kids and tell them I love them.”
“Doctor Thornton!” a voice called urgently from the ambulance bay doors. “We need you inside!”
“Gotta go,” the young doctor said as he clicked his phone off and headed back into the hospital.
* * *
Technicians rolled the heavy carts quickly down the corridors between the racks of the Data Ark’s data cores. Eight carts made their way down the main row, stopping in front of their respective equipment stacks.
“All right!” Yanni yelled at the dozen technicians gathered in the room. “There are eight carts, each with eight storage boxes. Each box is designed to hold eight data cores. That’s five hundred twelve cores. Each slot in each box is clearly marked, as are each box and each cart. It is important that every data core goes into the proper slot. So check your carts and make sure you’re parked in front of the correct stack.” Yanni watched as four people moved their carts to exchange places. “Really?” he asked. “Come on, people! Get it together! We need to be rolling out of here in ten minutes! This is all of humanity’s knowledge from before the plague! That’s several thousand years of science, history, and culture we have to protect, so let’s not screw anything up! And remember, be sure to wait for the light on your stack to turn red before you start pulling cores. Understood?” Yanni looked out at the faces of the technicians gathered around the carts, waiting to begin their task of pulling cores from the data stacks.
Every single face looked exactly like he felt: terrified. He raised his hand to his comm-set and tapped it. “Take them all offline,” he ordered. A few seconds later, the green lights at the top of each of the eight data stacks began to switch from green to red in succession. As each one changed, the technicians at the stack began pulling out data cores the length of their arms and inserting them into their specially designed transport cases. He had no idea where the cores were being taken to, only that he had been ordered to go with them, wherever that may be, in order to ensure they were handled properly. He wasn’t certain he was ready for the task, and he was confident he didn’t want to know where they were going.
* * *
“Turn complete, Captain,” Ensign Stewart reported from the Reliant’s helm. “We’re at full burn. We should overtake target one in three minutes.”
“Roll onto our port side as we approach,” Captain Yahi ordered. “I want to bring as many guns as possible onto the target.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Tactical. Open fire with all rail guns as soon as they have firing solutions on target one,” the captain added.
“Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Calloway answered.
“Combat, Captain,” the captain called over his comm-set.
“Yes, sir,” Commander Denker answered from the Reliant’s combat control center.
“Let’s send some missiles at the other targets. If we continue to harass them as well, they might not catch on to our strategy.”
“Yes, sir,” the commander acknowledged.
“We’re now running with our topside facing the upcoming target, Captain,” Ensign Stewart reported.
One by one, the Reliant’s forward rail guns opened fire again as the Jung cruiser at the far end of the line came into each gun’s field of fire. Within a minute, all of the Reliant’s guns had come into action, pounding the target with hundreds of projectiles with every passing second. As her guns engaged, so did the enemy cruiser’s guns, exchanging projectiles with her attacker at more than half her rate.
“All rail guns are engaged with target one,” Lieutenant Calloway reported. “We’re taking fire from target one’s rail guns. Missiles are firing on the other targets, but they’re knocking them down with their point-defenses.”
“Targets are moving, Captain,” Lieutenant Legasse reported. “They’re changing formation.”
“One minute until we’re fully alongside target one,” Ensign Stewart reported.
“Changing formation?” Captain Yahi asked.
“Targets two and four are climbing relative to the ecliptic. Targets five and six are descending,” Lieutenant Legasse elaborated.
“They’re trying to get a firing angle on us,” the captain surmised.
“They figured out our strategy?” Lieutenant Calloway wondered.
“More likely they’re just trying to overwhelm us with rail gun fire,” the captain noted as the ship rocked from the incoming enemy rail gun fire.
“Missile launch!” Lieutenant Legasse reported from the sensor station. “Multiple launches, from targets two and five!”
“Combat! Mini-rail guns to point-defense,” the captain ordered over his comm-set.
“Aye, sir,” Commander Denker answered.
“Captain, with our minis on point-defense, we’re not going to put enough firepower on target one to take her out quickly.”
“Understood,” the captain said.
“Targets are still changing formation,” Lieutenant Legasse said.
“Best guess?” the captain asked.
“I think they’re trying to surround us, sir.”
“Flight, recall our fighters,” the captain ordered. “Tell them they need to get on board quickly before we leave them behind.”
“Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Fudala answered.
“Combat, Captain,” the captain called over his comm-set.
“Go for combat,” Commander Denker answered.
“Commander, I’m recalling our fighters,” the captain explained. “As soon as they’re aboard, I’m going to full burn to put some distance between us and the Jung. We’ll fight a running battle until help arrives. Stand down the missiles for now. They’re just picking them off with their point-defense systems anyway. Meanwhile, concentrate our guns on the ships closest to us. Target their point-defense systems, as well as their heavy guns. If we can weaken them enough, we might be able to slip in some nukes and take whole ships out.”
“Aye, sir,” Commander Denker answered.
The captain held on to his chair as the Reliant continued to shake from the incoming rail gun fire.
“All surviving fighters aboard, sir,” Lieutenant Fudala reported.
“Helm,” the captain called. “Full burn. Let’s see if we can get some distance between us and them.”
“Full burn, aye,” Ensign Stewart acknowledged.
The captain braced himself as the ship began to accelerate. For her size, the Reliant could still accelerate at a respectable rate. Unfortunately, they had no idea how well the enemy ships could perform. “How many did we lose?” he asked Lieutenant Fudala at the flight operations station.
“Twenty-eight of fifty,” the lieutenant reported, a grim expression on his face.
“Damn,” the captain said. “Their defenses are good.”
* * *
Yanni and his fellow technicians quickly rolled the loaded carts out of the cargo elevator and down the corridor to the Data Ark’s loading dock. As he and the first cart reached the open loading dock doors, Yanni stepped aside and let the other technician push their cart on his own. He looked back at the train of seven carts moving slowly down the corridor. “Quickly!” he ordered, waving them forward with his arms. “The truck is waiting!”
“Yanni!” a voice called from outside on the loading dock. “Yanni!”
“What is it?” Yanni asked as he stepped out onto the loading platform.
“Where is the truck?” the other technician on the first cart asked.
Yanni looked about the brightly lit loading dock, as well as the adjacent parking lot, finding no signs of a waiting truck. “Where is the truck?” he asked over his comm-set.
“The cores are not being transported by truck,” his supervisor answered over the comm-set.
Yanni was about to speak when a black, unmarked shuttle swooped down over their heads, coming to a hover directly over the loading dock parking area, her turbines screaming. The shuttle immediately began taking fire from the guard towers located along the Data Ark facility’s inner fence line.
Yanni covered his face against the dust and debris thrown into the night air by the shuttle’s turbines as he backed away quickly, retreating through the loading dock’s large cargo door. He peered out beyond his fingers, shielding his eyes against the swirling dust as he saw two ropes drop out of the aft cargo door of the shuttle. It rotated to put its nose toward the nearest guard tower. No sooner had the bottoms of the ropes hit the pavement than men in black combat gear slid quickly down them. Men standing in the shuttle’s side doors fired energy weapons, the likes of which Yanni had never seen, at the guard towers, blowing them apart and killing the men in them with ease.
“We’re being attacked!” the technician on the loading dock exclaimed as he followed Yanni back inside. “They’re trying to steal the…”
Yanni flinched and ducked behind the first cart of data core cases as three points in the technician’s chest burst open in rapid succession, sending blood and tissue flying out the exit wounds in the man’s back and cutting him off mid-sentence. The man’s body shook with each impact, and he fell to his knees, a look of shock on his face as his body fell backward.
“Yanni!” the supervisor’s voice called over Yanni’s comm-set as it hung loosely around his neck. “What’s going on there?”
Yanni turned his head to see the two technicians manning the last cart of data cores holding guns, one of which had fired the shots that killed the man. The two men then turned their weapons on the rest of the technicians, picking them off one by one as they tried to flee. Two of them ran toward the shooters, having nowhere else to go, and were instantly cut down. The others ran out the loading dock cargo door straight into the sights of the attackers who had descended from the black shuttle still hovering over the loading dock parking lot. They, too, were cut down with ease, but with energy weapons fire.
Yanni remained crouched behind the first cart, frozen with fear and confusion as the battle outside between the attackers and the approaching security personnel raged on. The two technicians on the last cart, the ones who had killed all his coworkers… They’re Jung spies? Yanni couldn’t believe what he was thinking, yet the evidence lay before him, bleeding out in the hallway and on the loading dock.
“Give me the codes for the cases!”
Yanni nearly screamed, his hands shooting up in the air from his position behind the boxes. “Oh, God! Please don’t kill me!” he cried out.
“Stand up, Yanni!” the man called.
Yanni stood slowly and found himself staring into the intense eyes of one of the technicians who had killed his coworkers. He knew the man as
Dolph. He knew both of the men, as he had been their direct supervisor for several months now. “Dolph, what are you doing?” Yanni asked, stumbling on his words.
“Give me the codes, or I will kill you where you stand,” Dolph added coldly.
“You’re working for the Jung?” Yanni asked. “Why?”
“The codes, Yanni,” Dolph repeated. “I will not ask again.”
“Just give him the codes, Yanni,” Dolph’s partner begged.
Yanni could sense a different tone in the second man’s voice. “Why would you do this?”
“Our families, Yanni,” the second man pleaded, “for the safety of our families.”
“But if you give them all our knowledge, you will make them invincible…”
“Oh, wake up, Yanni!” Dolph insisted. “The Jung have already conquered the entire core. They are already invincible. Do you really think the EDF can stop them with four ships? The Jung have dozens of worlds and hundreds of ships. Sooner or later, they will conquer the Earth as well.”
The second man could see the pleading in Yanni’s eyes. “Please, Yanni, you have to see the truth. Life under Jung rule will not be so bad…”
“ENOUGH!” Dolph screamed, raising his weapon higher and taking aim at Yanni’s face. “You have three seconds……two……”
Yanni closed his eyes and tried to keep from crying, from begging for his life.
“One……”
