Riker grunted. “If you say so.”
Gatticus opened the cockpit door, and Blake and Lisa followed him out, while Ra, Ectos, and Veekara all sat down and secured their harnesses.
Darius laid his head back against the headrest of his chair and closed his eyes, listening as the Osprey’s engines thrummed to life with an idling rumble. Waves of exhaustion rolled over him, but anxiety surged in his veins, keeping him awake. I’m coming, Cass... he thought.
A thunk sounded, and Darius blinked his eyes open to see that he’d dozed off and the Osprey was now back inside the vehicular airlock between the hangar and the landing bay. The doors were opening ahead of them, revealing the launch tube with its flashing crimson lights.
A split second after the door finished opening, a robotic voice said, “Three, two, one—”
And Darius slammed into the back of his chair as the Osprey whipped down the launch tube and out into a glittering sea of stars.
Chapter 27
The dark side of Hades swelled to blot out the stars—a featureless black circle, visible only by the dawning crescent of sunlight illuminating the far right edge.
The cockpit was silent, but for the hum of the Osprey’s engines, and the whisper of circulating air.
But that silence was short-lived. A double chime sounded, followed by another, and then three more in quick succession.
“Kak...” Riker muttered.
“What is it?” Ra asked.
“We’ve got company. Two ring ships and three Trident-class destroyers.”
Darius leaned forward in his chair. “Phantoms?”
“Yes,” Ra replied.
More double chimes sounded, and Darius saw pinpricks of red light prick through the dark side of Hades.
Darius pointed to them. “What are those lights?”
“Ships launching from the surface...” Riker said.
Darius counted eight glowing red specks, growing rapidly larger and trailing tails of fire like comets. “Phantom transports,” Riker replied. “Shadow-class.”
“Have they spotted us?” Ra asked.
“We’re not under active thrust at the moment, so maybe not. I’m shutting us down until we hit atmosphere. If we play it right, maybe they’ll mistake us for a meteor.”
The cockpit plunged into darkness, and the idling hum of the ship’s engines died with the lights. The air grew still, and a ringing silence began.
“I didn’t realize they had ships on Hades,” Darius whispered as he watched the fiery crimson tails of Phantom transports racing toward the distant gray specks of their capital ships.
“Of course,” Ra said. “But they are short-ranged.”
“What is a war fleet doing here?” Riker wondered aloud.
“The Phantoms may have sent for reinforcements when the depot was attacked,” Veekara said.
“They don’t need a whole fleet to put down a band of rebels,” Riker said. “And that doesn’t explain why they would withdraw their transports from the surface. Unless...”
“What?” Darius demanded. “Unless what?”
More chimes sounded in quick succession.
“Motherfekkers!”
Lights sprang back on inside the cockpit, and the Osprey’s engines roared to life with a sudden burst of acceleration that slammed Darius into the back of his chair. Riker abruptly banked the Osprey. The engines roared, and dozens of bright, glowing red specks appeared dead ahead. For a moment, Darius thought they were the Phantom transports evacuating from the surface, but then he noticed that these contacts were getting steadily larger. They were flying toward the planet, not away from it.
“What’s going on?” Darius gritted out against the unbearable weight squashing him into his seat.
Red target brackets appeared around each of the glowing crimson objects headed for the planet. Why would they withdraw their ships from the surface only to send down others? Maybe some of the Phantoms on Hades had gotten bored and decided to leave, while others were coming down to take their place.
A sharp shriek of weapons fire shivered through the cockpit, and twin orange laser beams snapped out from either side of the cockpit, converging on one of the transports headed down to Hades.
“You’re firing on them?!” Darius demanded. “Are you trying to get us killed? You can’t take on a whole fleet by yourself!”
“You have a better idea to stop those missiles?” Riker snapped.
Darius blinked. “Missiles?”
Riker fired again, and this time a blinding explosion ripped through the void. As it faded, so did one of the red bracket pairs and glowing engine contrails. Riker highlighted another bracket pair and Riker fired twice more in quick succession, provoking yet another blinding explosion. This time Darius had the sense to shield his eyes with his hand.
“Those are planet-busters,” Ra explained as Riker highlighted his next target. “They evacuated the planet and now they are trying to sterilize it.”
A spike of dread lanced through Darius. “What? Why the fek would they do that?”
More lasers snapped out from their Osprey and another missile exploded.
Double chimes sounded in quick succession once more. “They’re launching fighters!” Riker said. “Someone get down and man that turret!”
Ra got up and hurried down to the gun turret below the pilot’s chair.
Ectos hissed and Veekara cursed in an unfamiliar language. The chimes of new contacts sounded endlessly.
“Forget the fighters! They’re launching more missiles!” Riker said. He fired on another, and another, and explosions flared like fireworks, each one as bright as a sun. Darius’s eyes ached and teared, and he was forced to look away.
“We have to turn back,” Ra said quietly.
“If we turn back, everyone in Karkarus is dead!” Riker replied. “Just one of those missiles is packed with enough antimatter to turn the whole town into a crater! We have to intercept them all.”
“You cannot shoot them all before those fighters reach us!” Ra growled. “We need to turn back now, before it is too late.”
“We’re not going anywhere!” Darius replied, fumbling for the release lever of his harness. “And if you’re not going to use that turret, then get out and let someone else do it.”
“I am sorry,” Ra replied. “Veekara—”
Darius released his harness and jumped up just as Veekara stood up beside him—gun in hand. He lunged toward her, but she saw him coming and her pistol swung into line with his chest. A bolt of blue fire screeched out and slammed into him with a searing wave of pain. His mag boots malfunctioned in the same moment, and he went flying into the cockpit door. His head hit with a heavy thud, and he lay there, paralyzed with twitching muscle spasms, watching as Veekara shot Riker in the head with a bright blue flash of light.
Darius’s vision collapsed into dark tunnels, and he fought against an overwhelming urge to pass out. Veekara checked on Riker, nodded to herself, and then turned back to find Darius watching her. Scowling, she aimed her pistol at him and fired again. The cockpit flashed electric blue, and then plunged into darkness.
Chapter 28
Cassandra was right there in front of him, her brown hair shining gold in the moonlight. A pair of Ghouls were carrying her away. She was kicking and screaming. “Let me go!” she said, and kicked one of them. She may as well have been kicking a wall. Her eyes found his. “Dad! Help me! They’re going to send me through the Eye!”
Darius tried running to her, but he couldn’t. He was inexplicably paralyzed. He tried to scream instead, hoping to distract the Ghouls carrying her, so she could get away, but his voice was barely a whisper.
“Isn’t it a father’s job to protect his kids?” Cassandra asked. “Guess you missed the mark there, huh Dad?”
The world flashed white, and the ground shook with a titanic explosion.
Darius’s eyes snapped open, only to see that the explosion was real. A spreading wave of light rippled out, tearing through e
mpty blackness and leaving raw orange flames in its wake. A massive cloud of glowing smoke and debris mushroomed up.
Darius blinked, and then another missile hit with another blinding flash of light, followed by half a dozen more, forcing Darius’s eyes shut. He reeled, disoriented and confused. A muffled roar shivered through his bones, and he felt himself being pressed hard against an unyielding surface. A split second later he remembered: the missiles headed for Hades, the Vixxon shooting him and Captain Riker with some kind of stun weapon...
Suddenly, he realized what he was seeing. He was watching those missiles hit Hades.
“NO!” he screamed, and his eyes flew wide open just in time to be dazzled by another explosion. “Cass!” he screamed, and fought against his harness.
A strangled scream split the air. “I’m going to kill you, Ra!” Riker said.
“I am sorry, my friend. It was the only way. There was nothing you could do.”
“Fek you!”
When Darius was finally able to open his eyes again, they were streaming with tears. He battled against the high Gs they were pulling to find the release lever for his harness, but it wasn’t where he expected to find it, and he wasn’t in the cockpit of the Osprey anymore.
This was a much bigger space, with many more chairs. In front of the chair where he was seated were consoles with an array of glowing displays, dials, buttons, and levers. All around them, the walls, floor, and ceiling appeared to be transparent, or maybe invisible was a better word. Darius had the unsettling feeling of being utterly exposed to vacuum. Yet somehow he could still breathe. His control console and chair were obviously bolted to something, as were all of the other chairs and consoles.
That sparked his curiosity, but only for the briefest second. The details of his surroundings faded as his mind burned with a solitary purpose.
“We have to get down to the surface!” he said, yelling to be heard above the roar of engines.
“It’s too late!” Gatticus replied from where he sat in the center of the invisible deck.
“The fek it is!” Darius said. “I’ll fly down there myself!” He heard someone’s muffled sobs, and turned to see Captain Riker in a control station across an aisle from his. The man’s cheeks were wet with tears, and his face was contorted in agony. Darius recalled something Ra had said about Riker having children on the surface. They must have been in the Grotto with Cassandra.
If Riker was sobbing like that, he must have thought they were dead, and that meant that Cassandra—
Darius shook his head vigorously. No. She wasn’t. Not after everything they’d been through. Not after she’d begged him to take her with him. Not after he’d left her there. She wasn’t. She couldn’t be. Somehow, she’d made it, and he had to get down to the surface to find her.
“How long before we’re free of the planet’s gravity?” a gravelly voice asked. It was the same voice Darius remembered hearing over the comms from the exiles’ ship.
“That depends how much longer we intend to burn the thrusters,” Gatticus replied. “The longer we can keep this up, the faster we can get clear and execute the jump, but I do not wish to kill you all in the process.”
“Passing out is the least of our concerns with those fighters chasing us,” Tanik said. “We really don’t want to get boarded by Phantoms with such a small crew to fight them. Set for eight Gs and sustain that thrust as long as you must to keep from being boarded.”
“As you wish,” Gatticus replied.
“Hey, speak for yourself,” Lisa said. “I mind passing—”
It felt like they slammed into a wall. Suddenly it was all any of them could do just to keep breathing. Talking or moving was out of the question. Darius’s lips parted in an involuntary grimace. His face felt like it was going to peel away from his bones, and his eyes were drilling deeper into his eye sockets. His vision blurred, and dark spots danced. He heard Gatticus, Ra, and Tanik continue talking, as if the acceleration was nothing to them, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying through the rush of blood roaring in his ears.
There was nothing he could do but sit there and wait. He cursed his own powerlessness. Cassandra was down there on the surface still. He was sure of it. The Grotto was dug out of solid rock, like a bomb shelter. Surely it had survived the attack. Or maybe the missiles had missed Karkarus.
Those thoughts spun through Darius’s head as the terrifying pressure of acceleration went on and on. At some point he realized he wasn’t breathing, and he forced down a gulp of air. His ribs ached sharply as his lungs inflated, and he used the pain to fight back the tide of darkness creeping in at the edges of his vision. He glared at the back of Gatticus’s head, furious that he refused to go back and check for survivors. Then his gaze slid away, searching the bridge. He found at least four strangers sitting with them. Tanik Guhain and his so-called exiles?
The pressure on Darius’s chest didn’t ease and his breathing was becoming increasingly labored. His vision narrowed swiftly and he realized he was about to lose consciousness.
He heard Tanik’s gruff voice again, and he committed the sound to memory. Riker was right. Tanik was to blame for this. He’d provoked the Cygnians, and he was going to pay.
Chapter 29
Just before Darius could actually pass out, the acceleration lifted, and he sucked in a sudden breath. His heart was pounding, and his whole body ached, but he was alive.
Gatticus spoke, “Establishing warp bubble in three... two... one.”
The transition was oddly soundless, and the starry blackness of space vanished in a blinding flash. As it faded, an equally blinding circle of light appeared dead ahead, surrounded by a pure black void on all sides.
No longer pinned to his chair, Darius found the lever to release his harness and he burst out of his seat. He stalked up to the control station beside Gatticus’s, to the man he’d tentatively identified as Tanik, and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Mr. Gurhain?”
“Yes?” the man asked in that gruff voice of his. He rotated his chair to face Darius, revealing a lumpy, scarred face, a bald head, intense yellow-green eyes, and lips twisted into a permanent snarl by one of his scars.
Part of Darius was disappointed. It would be more satisfying to smash up a pretty face. “This is for you,” he said, and slammed his fist into the man’s face as hard as he could.
Darius’s hand erupted in pain, but he drew a satisfying crack from Tanik’s jaw. The man didn’t even blink, but his lip split, and gushed bright red blood down his stubbled chin.
“Do you feel better now?” Tanik asked. “Or would you prefer if I fought back?”
Darius gritted his teeth and pointed a shaking finger in Tanik’s face. “Are you mocking me? This is your fault!” Turning to Gatticus, he said, “Take us back. Right now. We need to go look for survivors.”
Gatticus’s chair turned. “There won’t be any survivors,” he said quietly.
“You don’t know that!”
“I do. One of the missiles hit Karkarus. They each carry ten kilograms of antimatter. That’s equivalent of about four hundred megatons explosive yield.” Gatticus shook his head. “Even if that did not collapse the Grotto, the extreme heat and radiation would be enough to kill anything within several hundred kilometers of the blast.”
Darius felt suddenly cold and weak. Despair clawed in his gut, but he steeled himself against it. Cassandra’s voice echoed inside his head: Can’t kill a rock. “You don’t know that there weren’t survivors. You’re not God. They could have jumped in the ocean to survive the blast.”
“The water would boil them alive, and even if it didn’t, the radiation—”
“Take me back!”
“I am sorry,” Gatticus replied. “Even if your hope were justified, we could not go back. There simply aren’t enough of us to fight a fleet the size of the one the Phantoms sent.”
“It’s Tanik’s fault,” Riker growled, stumbling over to them with balled fists and puffy red e
yes. “Get up you miserable vagon!”
Tanik regarded Riker with one dark eyebrow raised, and a small smile on his snarling lips. Chairs turned and suddenly all eyes were on them, waiting to see what would happen next.
“If that is what you wish,” Tanik agreed. He opened his own harness and stood up. A long black jacket fluttered around his knees like a cape as he stood up in the zero-G environment.
Riker didn’t even give him a chance to fully rise before he rushed in with fists swinging.
Tanik seemed to anticipate each blow, and he deflected them easily. Riker charged, and Tanik slipped around behind him, giving him a kick in the rear to send him sprawling.
Tanik strayed too close to Darius, and he took his chance, delivering a swift kick to the back of the man’s knees.
But Darius’s foot swept through empty air as Tanik jumped over his leg and somehow spun around to deliver a kick of his own. A heavy mag boot cracked against the side of Darius’s head, and he blacked out.
He awoke a few seconds later, dazed, still standing thanks to his own mag boots, and with his head throbbing violently.
“That’s enough!” Ra growled.
“Are you okay?”
Lisa’s voice. Darius turned to see her standing beside him. She winced and reached up to touch the side of his head.
He brushed her hand aside irritably. “I’m fine.”
She nodded slowly, uncertainly, but gave no reply.
“Where are we going?” Blake asked as he joined them in standing.
The four strangers scattered around the bridge also got up and strode over to Tanik. Darius glared at each of them in turn.
“Deep space,” Gatticus said. “We need to stay away from inhabited systems and registered trade routes until we can figure out our next move.”
“And what exactly is our next move?” Ra asked.
“We have hundreds or maybe even thousands of people in cryo,” Lisa said. “We should find a habitable planet that the Phantoms haven’t discovered yet, and go start a colony there with them.”
Broken Worlds: The Awakening (A Sci-Fi Mystery) Page 17
