Syn-En: Pillar World

by Linda Andrews

  Yeah, I’m chasing the cause down. The engineer faded from cyberspace to optimize the engines.

  The war council streamed out of the room.

  Guenoc, the head delegate of the Plenipotans, hovered by the exit. “What is this Plan B?”

  Bei waived his hand. Plan B didn’t officially exist. But those whom he trusted knew they were to wait for orders then to act. And those, he didn’t trust like the elephant eared administrator would just have to wait it out. “It means, we won’t be needing your ship in the first wave of the attack. But you are to wait further instruction for when you are to enter the battle.”

  His gray fingers stroked the quill in his hands. “This shouldn’t have happened. Not ever.”

  “It is war. As a member of the Alliance, you are the Founders’ enemy.” Bei was surprised the attack hadn’t happened earlier. Plenipota was rich in resources, and her asteroid belt had yet to be mined.

  “It shouldn’t have happened.” Guenoc lumbered out. His ears drooped from his bulbous head.

  Bei gave the ET a few seconds head start then headed for the bridge. His private connection with Nell Stafford remained sealed shut. From information requests to his men, he knew his wife was still on board. What he didn’t know was how much more time she would need to work things out.

  Biologics should come with a manual.

  Rome fell into step beside Bei. “Do you think there was another meaning behind his proclamation that the attack on his home world shouldn’t have come?”

  “He is one of the delegates who spread the rumor of my death.” Bei checked the WA. His wife’s signal showed her in their cabin, and her life signs indicated she was sleeping. His gut clenched. There hadn’t been time for a diversion anyway. He paused in front of the closed elevator doors.

  Rome tapped the call button. “They’ve been slow for a day now. We’re moving cargo like crazy. Personnel are taking a backseat.”

  Bei made a note to optimize the movement of ETs and Humans. A few seconds delay in battle could be disastrous. He checked the manifests. The alliance ships had been fully stocked. The last of the torpedoes were being loaded on the Syn-En’s Starflights. The last Skaperian fighter docked in the bay.

  The elevator doors opened.

  Inside, Keyes hugged an electronic tablet to her chest. “Once we have the coordinates of the enemy’s dreadnaughts, I’ll relay them to Pennig.”

  Rome drew his wife against his side. “We’d all be lucky to schedule our ride on the chariot.”

  “He might still survive.” Bei rolled his shoulders. But they’d all calculated the odds. A chariot ride was almost a certainty.

  They finished the rest of the ride in silence. Tension thickened the air on the bridge.

  Pennig sat in the captain’s chair. Multiple fiberoptic cables hardwired his cerebral interface to the computer mainframe. He’d control the Slayers remotely until the bitter end. “I have the Slayers under my command.”

  Rome and Keyes separated. The Security Chief took his position at the tactical hub. Keyes jacked into the port next to Iggy at the communications station.

  “And the Skaperian Ark Royale?” Bei stood behind his executive officer. Maybe he could disconnect Pennig before he suffered critical fatal errors.

  “I’m attaching docking clamps now.” Pennig’s eyes shone like polished onyx. “The bubble engine is ready for jump.”

  “All hands brace for jump.” Bei’s voice echoed in the ship. He dispatched Richmond to wake Nell and move her to the ambulance shuttle.

  The ensign acknowledged his order.

  “Jump.”

  “Jumping.” Pennig’s fingers twitched. On the forward screens, space distorted, then white and gray light surrounded them.

  Bei sent the coordinates for the first drop zone. He hacked into the systems for the reserve ships and ordered them to prepare to leave the Nell Stafford.

  All acknowledged the orders.

  Time ticked down. Richmond woke Nell and led her to the ambulance.

  “First coordinates in five. Four.” Pennig braced his boots on the deck. “Three. Two. One.”

  The ship dropped out of the self-made wormhole. The bridge tilted forward. Bei increased the magnetic attraction in his boots to keep from slipping.

  Iggy’s nails scraped the console as the Amarook struggled to maintain her seat. Keyes set her hand on the wolf-like creature holding her in position.

  “Reserve ships are egressing in order.” Rome sent the images from the docking bay onto the forward screens.

  Bei watched the time. Five minutes. Ten. At twenty-five minutes the last ETs antiquated ships left the bay.

  Rome slammed the doors shut behind them.

  Pennig guided the Nell Stafford away from the cloud of Alliance ships, then engaged the bubble engine.

  Bei’s armor hardened. “Plan B commences upon my mark.”

  The ship’s cannons confirmed they were loaded. The energy weapons hummed with power.

  Pennig stiffened in his chair. A multiplanet star system filled the viewers.

  Three Scraptor dreadnaughts grew like cancers on the screen. Smaller craft hovered around them like a debris ring.

  Bei smiled. Good, they had used the ships that Keyes and Shang’hai had stolen the blueprints for at Sentinel. “Rome, target the soft points with your drones.”

  “With pleasure.” The Security Chief leaned over his tactical station. Twenty-four spheres appeared on the infrared sensors. “Here, Scraptor, Scraptor. Wanna play ball?”

  “Keyes, lock onto the dreadnaughts’ positions.” Bei sent the order to detach the Skaperian warbirds clamped to his hull.

  Ugu appeared on the viewer relaying the battlefield. “We’re ready on your mark.”

  “Clear a path for the rest of the reserve ships.” Bei wiped her from the screen.

  The enemy dreadnaughts rocked. Sensors indicated a barrage of missiles on an intercept course with the Nell Stafford.

  Bei hated a predictable enemy. “Ugu, take out those weapons.”

  “With pleasure.” The Skaperian leader left the channel open as she instructed her warriors. Energy beams flashed through space. Missiles exploded.

  The dreadnaughts stopped dead in space.

  Keyes shook her head. “Sending coordinates, now.”

  “I’ll be waiting for you on the other side.” Pennig transferred command of the Nell Stafford to Bei and turned his undivided attention to remote-controlling the Slayers. “Don’t be in a rush to see me again.”

  Energy surged through Bei’s ship. A shudder shook her, then another.

  Rome threw the images from their cargo hold onto the screen. Contained balls of light wrapped the Slayers as the bubble engine kicked on inside the Nell Stafford.

  “I’m sending command overrides onto the dreadnaughts.” Keyes clutched her fiberoptic cable. “The Slayers are in. I repeat, the Slayers have jumped inside the enemy ships.”

  Pennig arced in his chair. Blue light danced across his teeth. “Overloading the fusion reactors now.”

  He jerked once. Twice.

  Cracks appeared in the dreadnaughts. The hulls bloated as the ships Pennig commanded exploded. Veins of molten metal glowed red in the blackness of space. A moment later, the dreadnaughts erupted into ribbons of shrapnel hurtling through the star system.

  Bei jerked out the cable connecting Pennig with the destroyed Slayers. Cascade failures consumed the executive officer’s systems, then his cerebral interface went offline. Pennig slumped in his seat and didn’t move again.

  Bei swallowed the lump forming in his throat. He would mourn the man properly, later.

  A hunk of bridge slammed into one of Rome’s probes, crushing it.

  Rome cracked his knuckles. “Yeah, I thought that one was a bit overkill. Now, let’s see what havoc I can do.”

  The spherical probes splintered into hundreds of tiny missiles. The warheads closed the distance between themselves and the fleeing enemy. Rome leaned to the right as he
sent a dozen rockets after an enemy ship fleeing toward the jumpgate.

  One missile exploded when it collided with the enemy craft.

  “Let me in, babe.” Rome glanced at his wife.

  Iggy yipped. “I have the codes.”

  Keyes grinned. “Codes sent. The idiots won’t know what hit them.”

  The missiles pierced the hulls of the enemy craft, turning them into colanders. A moment later red flames spewed from the holes.

  “Well done.” Bei authorized the Skaperians to search for survivors.

  Iggy howled in outrage. Her ears flattened against her head. “The enemy has landed ten thousand Scraptors on Plenipota. They’re heading for the Titanium mill.”

  Rome pushed away from his station. “Let’s go remind the Bug-uglies of what happens when they fight the Syn-En in hand-to-hand combat.”

  Bei authorized his reserve ships to move forward and directed the first wave he’d dropped off to guard the jump gates. “Alpha and beta units prepare to land.” He included the Skaperians in the ground battle. “We’re taking the fight to the enemy.”

  Chapter 24

  Bei lifted Pennig’s lifeless body from the captain’s chair. The old man could have released the Slayers’ systems long before the engines reached critical mass, but he’d stayed. He’d wanted to ride the chariot. The proof was in the lightness of his obsolete prostheses.

  Keyes rushed across the bridge. The fiberoptic cables at her neck trailed down her back. “He shouldn’t have done it.”

  Leaving the tactical station, Rome joined his wife. “You know he wasn’t the same after Amazon died.”

  Keyes smoothed the fringe of white hair around the old man’s head. “We still need him.”

  Bei drew Pennig tight to his chest. “We’ll have the funeral after we clean up the Scraptors.”

  Seated at the communication station near the forward screens, Iggy thumped her tail. “I will monitor this station, but who will captain the ship?”

  Who indeed? The old man’s experience at the helm would be hard to replace. So would finding someone Bei trusted implicitly. He glanced at his friends.

  Keyes shoved her brown curls out of her eyes. “I’ll stay.”

  She jacked in the port on the side of the chair but didn’t sit. “Send in Mumbai for tactical. He handled our away mission on Sentinel well.”

  Entering the WA, Bei authorized the transfer. “We’ll see you after the clean-up is finished.”

  “Do not bring me any souvenirs from your trip.” Iggy shifted on her seat. “Scraptors are inedible.”

  Rome snorted. “Ugly. Inedible. And dumb as a rock. We’re doing the universe a favor by squashing the Bug-uglies.”

  “Don’t get cocky.” Bei’s implants itched. “This mission could still end badly.”

  “For the Founders.” After pressing the elevator call button, Rome rolled his shoulders. “Do you think the ETs really collect souvenirs from war?”

  The elevator chimed then the doors eased apart. Apollie sauntered onto the bridge. “You mean Humans don’t collect trophies? How do you remember your kills?”

  “All too well.” Bei tapped his head. Their memory chips recorded every moment. There was no forgetting. Ever. He marched into the elevator and ordered it to the hangar deck near the sick bay.

  “We’ll send you pictures, if you’d like.” Rome blew his wife a kiss as the doors shut.

  The lift bounced before descending.

  That was the second glitch today. Bei didn’t like it. Nell’s idea to train the refugees circulated inside his head. Perhaps, she was right. He would consult his repair staff when he returned. They would best know the attributes of a good biologic mechanic.

  Nell…

  He accessed their private line in the WA. The door connecting them remained shut. Damn.

  Rome whistled a jaunty tune. “I know that look. You’ve got woman trouble.”

  Bei hardened his armor to level five, four times as hard as the Scraptors had encountered. “Any words of wisdom?”

  “Not when it comes to Nell Stafford,” Rome snorted. “I don’t even think there’s a Hollywood movie that covers anything close to her.”

  “Remind me not to ask for your advice. Ever.” The lift coasted to a stop. Twisting at the waist, Bei exited sideways. He frowned at Pennig’s weight. With Bei’s advanced upgrades, he shouldn’t even notice an extra hundred kilograms or two.

  The short corridor to the morgue was empty. Good, Bei didn’t want anyone seeing the old man like this. He deserved to be remembered as strong forever.

  “I have found that with women, the best thing is to just apologize. Promise to never do it again. Then, grovel.” Rome loped ahead and authorized the stainless steel morgue doors to open. “You’re lucky. You can toss in some chocolate and Nell will be happy. My wife wants books in foreign languages. Books as in paper. Who makes such antiquated things anymore? No one with any technology.”

  “The Plenipotans still make them.” Bei crossed to an empty gurney and laid out Pennig. Legs straight. Arms at his side. Eyes closed. The Executive Officer could be sleeping. The room reeked of decaying biologics and disinfectant, hardly a fitting place for a nap.

  Rome draped a black cloth over the body. “You don’t think this will set a precedent do you?”

  Bei tucked the edges under Pennig’s shoulders. “He was the last of his cohort. There are still many of us left.”

  “But we’re a dying breed.” Rome rested his forehead against Pennig’s covered one. After a moment, he sniffed and straightened. “There’s talk among the support crew. They won’t be enslaved by the Scraptors.”

  “Doc has been asked for cyanide tablets.” Bei released a jagged breath. “But it won’t come to that. Today is another victory for the alliance. That should silence much of the talk of suicide.”

  “Speaking of the Bug-uglies, can we go kick their scorpion asses now?”

  “Yes.” After one last look, Bei led the way out of the morgue and took a sharp right. His boots scraped the metal grating as they jogged down the corridor.

  They plunged through another set of double doors. Human, Skaperian, and Syn-En medics waited in line to board the ambulance shuttles. Others prepared the triage centers for incoming wounded. Guenoc and other Plenipotans prepared their quills and books to list the injured and dead, to be reported to their loved ones.

  Two squat ambulances lifted off and glided out of the docking bay. In orderly rows of two, the rest began their egress.

  Bei increased his stride and bounded up the ramp. If Richmond had obeyed his orders, his wife should be on this ship.

  Nell stood at the opposite end of the shuttle and practiced attaching and releasing the clamps holding the stretchers.

  Davena and Doc Cabo stood by her side, both wore black Syn-En uniforms. Nearly fifty combat ready Syn-En filled the space. None planned a return trip in the ambulance.

  Nell jerked her finger out from under the NDA handle and stuck it into her mouth. Her gaze caught his.

  Rome paused beside Bei. “Apologize, grovel, promise and chocolate.”

  “Take us down, Brooklyn.” The ramp closed behind Bei. He kept his gaze on his wife.

  Nell removed her finger from her mouth and walked toward him. Uncertainty blazed in her blue eyes.

  He opened his arms.

  With a cry, she darted forward and slammed against him. “I hate it when we fight.”

  He folded her in his embrace. “We didn’t fight. We had a difference of opinion. We see things from different perspectives. That makes us unbeatable. Besides, it turns out we didn’t need anymore allies.”

  She snorted against his shoulder. “I love you, you know. And not just because you’re telling me I’m right.”

  The shuttle lifted off. It glided across the bay then the portside engine sputtered. The shuttle tilted to the right. Nell’s legs slipped out from under her.

  Bei caught her with one arm and clamped a hand onto a secured stretcher. With a
thought, he increased the magnetic attraction in his boots and stuck to the deck. These damn upgrades were monkeying with his mission. He demanded a diagnostic on the engines. “Just don’t be mad at me if there’s no one left to treat once we’re dirtside. Our offensive is proceeding better than anyone had planned.”

  The ship leveled off and they sailed toward the opening in the hull.

  The diagnostics returned nothing awry. Obviously, he needed to do a diagnostic on the diagnostics.

  “Actually, I think having no one to heal will be a blessing.” She set her hands on his chest and leaned back to look up at him. “I think the pregnancy is affecting my abilities to deal with them. But I won’t let you down. I’ve uploaded the whole triage library. It’s all here.” She tapped her temple before relocating her finger to the base of her skull. “Or rather here, just waiting for me to need it.”

  “Do you have room for anything else here?” Bei tried not to push her on their connection, but he’d focus better if he could check on her anytime he wanted.

  Her nose wrinkled. “I tried to open it earlier, but the door seems rusted shut.”

  Things didn’t rust in cyberspace. “Do you mind if I try pushing from my side.”

  “Mind?” She blinked. “I’m almost ready to insist. I worry less if I know you’re alright.”

  The shuttled dimmed as he entered cyberspace. Leaping over the rivers of data, he stopped before the shut door. Rust crusted the hinges. What the hell?

  Admiral, Brooklyn waved to him from the command room. The Skaperian fighter shuttles are almost at Plenipota. Ugu wants to speak to you.

  Acknowledged. Bei would ponder the rust later. He kicked in the door. It sprang open then crumpled into sparkly dust.

  There you are. Smiling, Nell beamed at him from the other side. Go and make my job easier.

  Bei brushed his lips across her forehead. Releasing her, he marched to the shuttle’s cockpit.

  Brooklyn sat in one of the two seats. Blue light pulsed along his fiberoptic cable and his eyes were pitch black. “I don’t think our technology is playing nice with the ETs.”

  “So I see.” Bei claimed the empty seat. He called up maps of the Titanium mill and grafted the telemetry from the scout probes covering the area on it.