by Ryk Brown
“Point of no return in fifteen seconds,” Mister Kellog reported.
Captain Tobas and his first officer gazed out the forward windows of the Morsiko-Tavi’s bridge, as the cargo pods drifted up and ahead of the ship. With each passing second, the distance between the pods increased.
“Initiating turn to a clear jump line,” the pilot announced.
“Ten seconds!”
“If they spread too far apart, half of them will miss the target,” the first officer commented under his breath.
“Five seconds!”
“There’s nothing we can do now but pray,” the captain said, more to himself than anyone else.
“Three……two…”
“Clear jump line!” the pilot reported.
“…one…”
“Jumping!”
Captain Tobas closed his eyes tightly, holding them that way for a full two seconds. When he opened his eyes again, the approaching ship and the planet below were gone, and only the inky, star-filled blackness of space remained.
“Oh, my God,” Connor exclaimed, staring at the Seiiki’s sensor display. “Did they just do what I think they did?”
Josh laughed. “They just tossed a dozen cargo pods at them!”
“Those things must weigh a few thousand tons each,” Connor exclaimed. “You know how much kinetic energy that is?”
They continued to watch the sensor display, knowing that what they were seeing was at least thirty seconds old. The icon representing the Morsiko-Tavi disappeared, leaving only the cluster of smaller icons that represented the drifting cargo pods. Twenty seconds later, the icons for the cargo pods, and the larger icon for the Dusahn assault ship merged.
“She’s still there,” Connor said in disbelief.
Commander Jarso’s canopy cycled back to clear again, as he came out of his jump. A quick glance at his tactical display told him that at least eight of his ships had also jumped in nearby. He did a quick scan of the Dusahn ship, and his jaw almost dropped open in shock. “Raker Leader to all Rakers! Target has no shields, and is heavily damaged! Finish her off!”
“Gio flight, follow me in,” Lieutenant Commander Giortone ordered his pilots.
“Rio flight, right behind you.”
Four more ships jumped in to the commander’s port side. “Sissy! Target has no shields! Follow Rio flight in and let her have it!”
“Hell, yeah!” someone declared.
Commander Jarso turned to starboard, then brought his ship around to follow Gio flight toward the target. “Telles, Jarso! Target’s shields are down! She’s heavily damaged, and her propulsion systems appear to be offline!”
“Raker Leader, Falcon One! Mind if we join in the fun?”
“One, Leader! Join up and follow me in!”
“Jarso, Telles! Finish them off, Commander!”
“With pleasure, General. With pleasure.”
Minutes later, the icon representing the Dusahn assault ship disappeared from the Seiiki’s sensor display, followed by the victorious cries of the pilots who had finally finished her off.
“Hell, yeah!” Josh exclaimed with excitement. He looked over at Connor, noticing that he didn’t seem as happy. “What’s wrong, Cap’n? We did it!”
“All we did was buy a little time,” Connor replied. “As soon as the Dusahn realize what happened, they’ll send more ships. Bigger ships. And when they do, there will be nothing left.”
“Take joy in every victory, for at times they may come infrequently.”
Connor looked at Josh. “That sounds familiar.”
“Some famous person from Earth said it,” Josh replied. “From a few hundred years ago, or something.”
“I didn’t know you were an expert on Earth history.”
“I used to read to pass the time on long recon missions during my time in the Alliance,” Josh explained. “Books you gave me.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Connor Tuplo stood at the forward end of the Seiiki’s cargo deck, watching as Sergeant Anwar, a Ghatazhak med-tech, and Jessica’s brothers placed Jessica on a stretcher, hoisted her up to waist level, and then carried her down the ramp. Her leg was a mess, with armor and flesh fused together. He wanted to go with her, but his responsibilities lay elsewhere.
General Telles walked up the ramp, exchanging respectful glances with Jessica as they passed each other. “She will be fine,” he told Connor as he approached, noticing the concern on his face. “Thanks to you and your crew,” he added, nodding in appreciation to Marcus and Dalen.
“She looks terrible,” Connor replied, unconvinced.
“She has lost a lot of blood, and she will require some surgical intervention to separate her leg from the melted body armor. But her nanites will speed her healing. She should be back to full active duty in a few days.”
“Nanites?” Connor wondered. He knew of the Corinairan nanites. His doctors on Corinair had used them to assist in his own recovery, after the crash. Or, so they had told him. Since the fall of the empire, the Corinairan nanite technology had spread rapidly to other systems, although it was still unaffordable to most. But he had never heard of them being used prophylactically.
“All Ghatazhak maintain therapeutic levels of nanites at all times. It helps prevent illness, and speeds recovery when injured. She will receive a booster, of course, to speed her recovery even further.”
“Don’t they cause pain to non-Corinairans?”
“The Corinairans resolved that issue several years back, thanks to research and development sponsored by Ranni Enterprises.”
“Speaking of the princess, where is she?” Josh asked as he dropped the last few rungs down the forward ladder behind the captain. “And where’s Loki?”
“They were evacuated only minutes before the attack,” the general replied. “They are safe aboard the Glendanon.”
“For now?” Connor asked.
“The Dusahn are obviously aware of our existence, and they clearly want to be rid of us. Even more so now, I suspect.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure taking out one of their ships pissed them off,” Josh said, a small chuckle added for good measure.
“You don’t seem terribly upset about all this,” Connor commented.
“The loss of life and assets are regrettable,” the general admitted. “But what we have learned about the Dusahn is invaluable.”
“What you’ve learned?”
“They have taken control of eleven systems, and a week later, they can still only afford to send one vessel to deal with a potential military threat. This tells me that their forces are likely spread too thin, and that they expected less resistance after taking control. Their destruction of the Ybaran civilization supports this. The Ybarans were skilled warriors, but they possessed no transportation assets. They were completely reliant on Takaran ships. They were no threat to the Dusahn. The Dusahn simply used them to strike fear in the populations of their newly acquired worlds.”
“How does that help?” Josh wondered.
“It means there is hope,” Connor realized.
A rare smile appeared on General Telles’s face. “You are in there, somewhere.”
“What’s next?” Connor asked.
“The Dusahn will return,” the general sighed.
“How soon?” Josh asked.
“Minutes; hours; days… Impossible to tell,” the general replied. “We must step up our evacuation efforts.”
“You can’t possibly hope to evacuate the entire planet,” Josh argued.
“I have no intention of trying,” the general replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What? Women and children, or something?” Dalen wondered.
Connor shook his head. “Only those with essential skills,” he said with a s
omber expression on his face.
“And their immediate families, for morale purposes.”
“That’s awful!” Dalen protested.
“This is much bigger than one world,” the general explained. “We cannot allow ourselves to think in such limited fashion.”
“So you’re just going to let hundreds of thousands of people die?” Dalen said in disbelief.
“He’s right,” Connor admitted. “This is much bigger than one world. It’s bigger than one sector, in fact.” He turned to General Telles. “What do you need us to do?”
“Allow us to use your ship to ferry our people from the surface to the Glendanon. Her docking arm is compatible with your boarding hatch. This will speed up the evacuation process greatly.”
“We can handle that,” Connor replied. “People only, or do you want to move cargo as well?”
“People,” the general responded. “Cargo is much easier to deal with, and at this point, is less valuable to the resistance.”
The Resistance. It was the first time that Connor had thought of it in such an official fashion. He looked at Marcus.
“I’ll clear the bay to make room for more passengers,” Marcus assured him.
“I can have us ready to take the first load in a few minutes,” Connor told the general.
“Can your crew handle the assignment without you?” the general asked.
Connor looked at Josh.
“Nothing personal, Cap’n, but I can probably fly her better by myself.”
“Are you sure? She really does require two people to manage her properly.”
“I can get her to the Glendanon in one piece,” Josh promised. “Then, I can get Loki to fly right seat again.”
“Very well,” Connor replied. He looked at the general again. “What do you need me to do?”
“We need to talk, you and I.”
* * *
“The number of cargo pods we can take aboard is not the issue,” Captain Tobas explained over the Glendanon’s vid-comm. “You’re asking us to stack class one pods, filled with people, on an unshielded deck.”
“Class one pods are pressurized,” Captain Gullen reminded him. “They have their own life support and shielding.”
“Which weren’t designed for the occupancy level you’re talking about,” Captain Tobas argued. “And their shielding isn’t worth a damn. You know that.”
“But it’s only for a short time.”
“Can you truly promise me that?”
Captain Gullen lowered his head for a moment, staring at his desk. “No, I cannot,” he finally admitted.
“The Glendanon has a closed deck. One that can be pressurized. You also have much better shielding,” Captain Tobas said. “Our deck is clear. Open your bays, and we will pull up alongside. You can transfer twelve of your class three pods that you wish to keep to my deck. That will give you room to accommodate at least a few thousand people. Set the rest adrift, and we’ll come back to pick them up later. Let us haul the gear, Captain. You haul the lives.”
“He has a point,” the Glendanon’s executive officer commented. “We also have greater power generation capabilities. Which means those class one pods don’t have to run on their own reactors the whole time. That gives us more options in the long run.”
Captain Gullen sighed. “Stacks of pods, filled with people packed in like sardines…with no way out.”
“We can rig connector tunnels between the pods,” the XO suggested. “Chain them all together, then to the ship. That will give them access to medical, the galley, the heads, everything. And it will make it a lot easier to move them off the ship through the docking arm later.”
“That will take time,” Captain Gullen reminded him.
“We already have five or six class one connector tunnels aboard, as well as three empty pods. We can stack them at the aft end, and attach the middle pod to the hatch at the second level. That will feed directly into our crew deck.”
“We’ll need security to keep them from flooding into the ship and interfering with ship’s operations,” Captain Gullen said.
“Surely we can get a few Ghatazhak to provide security?” the XO suggested.
“I’ll ask General Telles,” Captain Gullen agreed.
“Have his people check to see if there are any more connector tunnels on the surface. The more the better,” the XO added.
“What do we do if the Dusahn show up?” Captain Tobas asked over the vid-com.
“Not if, Captain,” Captain Gullen replied. “When.”
* * *
“This is the first time I have ever watched my ship leave without me,” Connor commented, as he watched the Seiiki disappear behind a blue-white flash in the waning daylight of Burgess.
“An unusual feeling, I am sure,” the general said. “Walk with me?”
Connor and the general walked across the debris-strewn flight operations ramp, toward what was left of the Ghatazhak hangar. All about them were craters both big and small, scars of the battle they had just won.
“What was it you wanted to speak to me about?” Connor asked as they walked.
“I think you already know, Captain.” After a few more steps, the general continued. “You see those people?” he began, pointing at the group boarding one of many cargo pods lying in the spaceport.
“Yes.”
“Do you know why they are willing to climb into a giant metal box and go into space?”
“Because they have no choice?” Connor surmised.
“Precisely. Because the Dusahn left them no choice. They are being punished because they welcomed the Ghatazhak to their world. They welcomed warriors who had been cast aside by the worlds they defended. They did so not because they were warriors, but because they were people. People who needed a place to call home. Nothing more.”
“And why are you telling me this?” Connor wondered.
“Because they are the ones who need Na-Tan,” the general said, coming to a stop. “Not the Ghatazhak. The Ghatazhak follow me, because that is what they are sworn to do. They do not need hope, because they have courage. They have the courage to stand up and fight. They have the courage to do horrific things, when such things are necessary. The Ghatazhak do not fight to protect the weak, or to right injustices. We fight to protect our own. We fight to protect one another. We fight to protect our interests. We fight because we cannot live in a galaxy ruled by thugs and dictators. The Ghatazhak will never truly know peace until all such threats have been eliminated.”
“I was under the assumption that the Ghatazhak were programmed to remain loyal to a particular person, or civilization,” Connor said.
“We once were, it is true,” the general admitted. “But that practice ended years ago. We now decide who, and what, we fight for. Today, we choose to fight for you.”
“Me, Connor Tuplo, or me, as in Nathan Scott?”
“Technically, both. You see, we understand the power of an inspirational leader. And it is a power that we will desperately need in the coming days. The Ghatazhak now number only three hundred and forty-seven. The Dusahn likely number in the tens of thousands, at the very least. We will need them,” the general said, pointing to the people boarding the cargo pods, “and others like them—thousands, if not tens of thousands of them—if we are to defeat the Dusahn.”
“So, you want me to be some sort of symbol for your rebellion?”
“No, I want you to lead this rebellion.”
“But I am not qualified. You and I both know that.”
“Connor Tuplo may not be qualified, but Nathan Scott is. In fact, he is uniquely qualified.” General Telles looked at Connor. “If you go through with the transfer, you will be even more qualified than Nathan Scott ever was. For you will have the memories and experi
ences of both men. Nathan Scott, and Connor Tuplo.”
“But Connor Tuplo is just a cargo ship captain,” Connor replied.
“One who has plied the outskirts of the Pentaurus cluster, as well as those systems that surround it. Because of this, you have a unique insight into this area of space. That, combined with Nathan’s training, experience, and his ability to read a situation and react on instinct, are what we need. We need a natural-born leader, which is precisely what you are.”
“Me, Connor Tuplo, or me, as in…”
“You know precisely what I mean, Connor,” the general said.
“Yeah, I suppose I do.” Connor stroked his beard, feeling unsure. “I’m just not sure I’m what everyone thinks I am.”
“Why did you come back?” the general asked.
“Uh… I guess I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”
“That is what makes you the right man.”
* * *
“I hear you’re looking for a copilot,” Loki said, as he climbed up the ladder into the Seiiki’s cockpit.
Josh turned in the pilot’s seat to look aft, a big smile on his face. “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon.”
“Don’t you mean ever?” Loki corrected, as he climbed into the copilot’s seat.
“Something like that,” Josh agreed, returning his attention to his console.
“You didn’t cycle the APUs again,” Loki scolded him.
“I was going to.”
“Right,” Loki replied doubtfully, cycling the auxiliary power units himself.
“I’m surprised your wife let you out of her sight, considering all that’s happened the last week.”
“I assured her we would just be doing simple passenger transfers. Nothing risky.”
“And she believed you?” Josh laughed. “Has she forgotten who I am? All the adventures we had?”
“She doesn’t know about most of those, Josh, and I’d like to keep it that way,” Loki warned, casting a stern glance Josh’s way.
