* * * *
“He’s not dead.”
Piper’s gasp joined that of Clan Nako’s. She gaped at the exhausted Zo, who’d emerged on a wave of agonized screams from the crowded medical department. “Ob’s okay?”
“I didn’t say that. The bolt didn’t hit him squarely in the eye. But it hit close enough that it destroyed it and shocked his brain. He’s still unconscious.”
Nako moved closer to Zo, as if to intimidate him. “Will he live? What can you do for him?”
“He’s a Tragoom, Captain. Completely out of my skill set. Besides, I have plenty of our own men to treat here without wasting time and resources on that creature.”
“That creature is the only reason you’re still walking around and talking shit,” Ulof snarled.
“He’s right. Ob saved our asses, and I expect you to do what you can to save his,” Nako ordered. “If you ever wanted to fuck with me on anything, Doctor, it’s not this. I fucking guarantee that.”
Piper wiped her streaming eyes, finding some good in the awful situation. Nako, Terig, and Ulof would do their best to make sure Ob had a chance. Despite her grief at his injury, a warm glow filled her being to witness such ferocious compassion.
Zo glowered, but it was clear he knew he shouldn’t push his luck with the seething captain. “The truth is, there isn’t much I can do for him. Our mandate has always been to kill Tragooms, not save their lives. For fuck’s sake, that’s the attitude of every sentient race we know. All our information on their physiology is based on how to exterminate them!”
“What can you do for him, Doctor?” Piper put a hand on his arm and poured silent appeal into her gaze.
He eased down, even managing a tired, if put-upon smile for her. “I can make him comfortable. Keep him on fluids so his system doesn’t weaken. I don’t know enough to do anything more. It’s really up to him as to whether or not he’ll recover.”
“Thank you for whatever you can manage.”
Zo nodded and patted her hand before pulling free. He shot one last black glare at Nako before returning to Medical. The door opened, releasing the groans of the injured men inside to the corridor, then shut them out again.
Ulof took Piper’s hand in his shaking grip. He bowed his head so that hung down, letting his hair hide his face. On her other side, Terig had kept silent, his fierce countenance doing his talking for him. She thought he might be trembling too.
Nako gripped her shoulders and turned her so that she faced the silently waiting men, over two dozen Nobeks who’d trained with Ob. The captain’s steady voice helped Piper find calm.
“Whether or not Ob dies, he saved our ship and our lives. We can never repay this debt. We can only thank the ancestors for sending him to us.”
“He deserves some sort of reward,” someone muttered. “If he makes it, he should know we’re grateful.”
Terig finally vented some of his feelings, his voice was hot with wounded anger. “Tragoom eyes are so damned small! It was a one in a million chance a bolt would have found its mark like that. It shouldn’t have happened! I wouldn’t have allowed him to go in if I’d thought it would.”
Piper gripped the Nobek’s arm. “It’s not your fault. Ob wanted to help. If he doesn’t make it, he’ll be proud to have gone out regarded as a hero.”
Nako addressed his men. “Ob’s injury is the result of actions by an asshole who deserves no respect. At this very moment, Maf is on his way to ruin more innocent lives. Get to your stations. Let’s hunt a traitor.”
Growls of assent greeted his order. The crew marched down the corridor, hurrying to their duty stations.
When Ulof, his head still hanging, began to follow them, Terig grabbed him. “Oh no you don’t. Get it out of your system before you have to deal with anyone else. Right here.” He poked himself in the chest, his fingers thudding against the armored uniform.
A shriek erupted from Ulof. His head came up, his eyes burning purple flames of rage. But his face was a mask of sorrow and fear such as Piper had never seen.
She could have wept anew at the misery Ulof felt over Ob being harmed. Instead, she yelped when his fist flashed out, crashing against Terig’s breast. Another punch followed quickly, knocking the Nobek back a couple steps. One more, nearly taking Terig off his feet. He grunted, wincing despite being protected by the armor.
Then Ulof spun around and dashed himself against the wall. He banged his forehead into the unforgiving surface.
“Not that.” Nako grabbed his Imdiko, wrapping him up in his arms. “Enough. Breathe, Ulof. Breathe. Remember, Ob still has a chance. It’s not over.”
A gut-wrenching moan rose from the distraught Imdiko. Then he relaxed in his Dramok’s grip, the storm passing.
As he calmed, Terig, seeming none the worse for wear, embraced Piper. “Better to let him vent this way than cratering some random asshole’s face for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“He’s done worse. I’ll be okay.”
“Maybe we all will.” Piper snuggled against him as Nako mussed Ulof’s hair. The Imdiko not-so-playfully elbowed him in the stomach. The Dramok laughed.
Terig chuckled too. “Ancestors know, after what we’ve been through, we deserve to be all right. We deserve more than we’ve allowed ourselves to have.”
Piper thought maybe he was right. It was possible that she did deserve better. Perhaps she even deserved her own clan of hell-bent warriors.
But do they want someone like me?
* * * *
“Maf’s fleet has come up on long-range sensors.” Terig reported from his station on the bridge.
Nako’s heart sped up. “We’re catching up to them.”
“We’ll overtake them in two hours and twelve minutes.”
“At which point we’ll be seen and fired on, because we don’t have the juice to maintain speed and phase.”
The Nobek’s remaining fingers flew over his console. “If they maintain their current pace—I’m assuming they’re adjusting velocity for their slower vessels so they can attack in a sustained wave—we can also slow down enough to engage the phase and still outpace them.”
“Switch on phase as soon as we get within viewing range, Helm.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Then we’ll try to do the impossible.” And die in the process. Nako berated himself for not forcing Piper and Ulof to stay behind with Piras’s crippled battlecruiser, but the pair had been adamant. Ob’s death had wounded Ulof to the point that his temper remained on a hair-trigger, and it had galvanized Piper to a level of determination that left her earlier shows of strength in the dust. She was currently in the training simulation chamber, learning how to properly use a blaster in case the raider was boarded.
“I’m not leaving you guys. You’ll be sorry if you try to make me.” She’d caressed her knife as she glared at Nako.
“We’re probably going to our deaths.”
“I didn’t fight this hard to be left behind. Besides, I owe the Bi’isils a few more fatalities.”
What could he say to that? Nako was not the kind of man to stand in the path of any warrior’s right to vengeance. Even if the warrior was a woman his culture insisted he protect at all costs.
I think I love her.
“I have an idea.” Terig left his station to join Nako at his.
“Good, because my supply has run out.”
“I’ve talked to Girek, who helped Piras’s chief engineer install the phase on our raider. He believes he could install it on the death ship.”
A grin tugged at Nako’s lips. “Which when activated, would render it invisible and safe from Maf’s assault.”
“I need a small team to lead. Girek and several of my staff have volunteered for the mission.”
“You’re chancing exposure to the deadlier virus.”
“Which Piper’s version may have inoculated us all against. Someone’s got to test Dr. Zo’s theory.”
Nako stared at Terig, feeling the weight of command. He’d told Maf he’d face the fatal virus himself, and he’d meant it. Yet it was hard to chance his Nobek on that same scenario.
But Terig was ready to lead once more. Nako didn’t dare take that from him. They were all likely dead in their fool’s errand of a mission anyway. Once more, he regretted bringing Piper and Ulof along.
Yet he was also strangely glad they were all together, sharing in this probable glorious end. They could step from this life into the next as a clan. Though Piper was not his Matara, Nako would have happily made her so, had they more time.
I hold her in my heart as my warrior mate. Come what may, we are bound together there.
He bowed to his Nobek, proud of his clanmates who had come so far in spite of their problems. “Do it, Weapons Commander.”
Terig grinned. He rose from a return bow as Girek said, “Captain, we’re coming up on a debris field. Recent weapons signatures on the scans.”
“On main vid. Scan for identifiable wreckage.”
Nako studied the view, his few hopes for a successful foray against Maf fading. The drifting forward hull of a raider, bent and twisted, slid past.
“Material analysis confirms it’s the raiders from Piras’s group. All three of them. Also fighters assigned to those vessels. No sign of their shuttles. No signs of life.”
“Any of Maf’s fleet?” It seemed like a large amount of debris for three vessels and their fighters. Nako wanted to know Uls, Mostar, and their men had taken their share of traitors with them.
“A large number of fighters, at least three dozen. And two destroyers.”
Nako saluted Piras’s team in his heart. “Two destroyers? That’s a hell of a score for three raiders. One would have been impressive. No doubt Uls and the rest are enjoying a hero’s reception among the ancestors as we speak.” He bowed to the warped and distorted pieces filling the vid. “Congratulations on a well-fought battle. You have served with distinction.”
Somehow, the loss of such brave warriors invigorated Nako’s crew. Pride in the brotherhood of fighting filled every face on the bridge. As Weapons Commander Mostar had said, there wasn’t any better means to serve honor.
“Damned right. For honor and Empire. Let’s get to that death ship and kick some ass of our own.”
Chapter 22
For the following two hours, anticipation grew. Girek kept an eye on their route while simultaneously reviewing footage of the installation of the phase device on the raider. Nako had ordered the remains of the engineering crew to commit it to memory as well, and the most able would join Terig’s team on board the Bi’isil transport.
Fifteen minutes from the rear of the enemy fleet, Terig reported signs of battle ahead. Maf had reached the hunter-killers guarding the death ship. Fighting had engaged.
At last, the invisible raider reached the traitor’s armada. Nako’s craft was not challenged as it swept through the fight, flying through destroyers and hunter-killers, seeking the most direct route to reach the large transport hiding behind its defenders.
Even with them racing as fast as they could go while remaining in phase, it was clear Maf’s fleet was getting the worst of it. However, his strategy was just as clear: concentrate the attack at a single point in the Bi’isils’ barricade and blast a path to the death ship. Willing to suffer absolute devastation to destroy the virus, Nako believed Maf would succeed.
The moment his raider reached the transport, Nako ordered, “Take us out of phase. Get that device dismantled and ready for transfer.”
Girek hurried from the bridge to assist the engineers. Atar left the com station to take his place.
“Boarding party to the shuttle. We’ll get that bucket phased and out of harm’s way.” Terig grinned at Nako, looking for all the world as if he was off to a party rather than potential death.
The captain returned the smile, proud to see his clanmate the Nobek he was meant to be. “I will see you again soon.”
“In this world, or the next. Thank you for not giving up on me.”
Nako couldn’t answer past the lump that rose unexpectedly in his throat. He watched Terig leave the bridge, allowing himself to feel with all his being the love he could never speak of to the other man.
* * * *
Terig and his men jumped out of the phased shuttle, phased themselves. Nonetheless, they were ready to fire on the Bi’isils and enslaved Tragoom crew within the transport’s bay.
None took notice of their arrival. Peering at the three-man phase installation team waiting in the shuttle, Terig signaled they were clear.
The transport was laid out as captured intel had promised. Surrounded by Terig’s security force, Girek and the engineers hurried to carry out their mission, hauling the phase device’s parts in backpacks through cargo holds and into the engine room.
Terig’s nose wrinkled at the sweetish odor that emitted from the various pieces of machinery. It mixed disgustingly with the stench of Tragoom.
Girek looked over the transport’s defense shield generator, the Bi’isil mechanism which seemed most likely to integrate the phase device. With no enemies around to see them, he and the others unphased and began yanking off the generator’s casing.
“Will it work?” Terig kept his tone controlled, though he worried about the now-visible raider flying around in the midst of the battle.
“It’s exactly what we expected and ran simulations for. We’re ready to install.”
“We’ll divert the crew.”
Leaving two guards with the engineers, Terig phased and led the other seven warriors to the opposite side of the chamber. They took cover behind the main power grid, a bank of machines that would offer some protection when they opened fire.
“Take them out!”
At Terig’s yell, his team unphased and set blasters ripping through the Bi’isil crew. Most of the spindly aliens fell in the first volley. The rest raced for the door, seeking escape.
Only one did. The rest fell in midflight.
“Good work. Set up to welcome any arriving opposition. You know your places.” Terig took a moment to check on the phase installation’s progress as his men hurried to cover the three entrances to the engine room. “Girek, what’s your status?”
Girek and the two junior engineers were intent on their work, their hands flying in blurs as they assembled the phase. “We’re on target. Five minutes. Connecting the phase to power couplings now.”
The sentries he’d assigned to defend them were racing to set up four perimeter emitters around the shield generator where the team worked. Terig grimaced as a volley of blaster fire sounded from the room’s main entrance.
“Get that containment field operational. Every second counts.”
He hurried around a partition to check on the defenses just as a couple of Tragooms bullied through his men’s shots, shrieking in pain as the blasts shredded skin. Their hides, as impervious as Ob’s, were too thick for the distant shots to penetrate.
Howling, Nobek Lopdod burst out of cover to shoot pointblank in the lead Tragoom’s face. He fired a second blast before he was knocked flying. The second Tragoom dropped, its skull shattered like the first. An instant later, Lopdod landed at Terig’s feet. Wheezing, blood bubbling from his lips, he grinned up at his commanding officer.
“Trained by the best,” he gasped. “Honor to Ob.” He gasped again, then breathed no more.
“Honor to you, warrior. Ob would be proud.” Terig crouched to close the staring eyes.
I led him to his death.
But it was different from before. This was not a mission set up to fail. Even if they all died, as Terig suspected they would, as long as they saved the women on board, they had succeeded.
Thinking about those Earthers, Terig’s gaze wandered to the air vents set in the engine room’s ceiling. He wondered if the virus was potent enough to reach his squad through the system. Not that it mattered.
The rest of the attackers came at them
more cautiously, not risking a full-on confrontation. As blasts were traded, Terig checked on Girek’s status. The phase device looked fully assembled, with the team working on connecting it to the shield generator.
“How long?”
“One minute.”
Shouts rang from the defenders at the rear of the room. Terig ran to check on that access, where firing had begun seconds before. Tragooms were trying to get in, forcing their way through the opening too tight to admit more than a pair at once. The three Kalquorians defending had been reduced to two. Terig joined them in the fight, piling up enemy bodies until the entrance was blocked. The Tragooms retreated.
Nako’s voice sounded from Terig’s com. “Weapons Commander, can you report on your progress?”
Terig smiled at the overt worry in his Dramok’s voice, at the proof his clanmate was still alive out there. “Still here, Captain. We’re almost ready. How are you doing?”
“Ducking and running. They’re more concerned with Maf’s strike than us. His fleet is cut in half, but what’s left is bearing down on the death ship. You’re running out of time.”
Girek’s shout brought Terig running to the engineering team. “Phase is ready!”
One of the guards tapped the air between himself and the shield generator, making it shimmer. “Containment is operating, sir.”
Terig reported to Nako. “We’re going into phase, Captain.”
“Good luck.”
“Be careful, my Dramok.”
Girek’s triumphant report followed. “The transport is phased.”
Ancestors, keep my clan safe. Nako, Ulof, and Piper flashed through Terig’s mind’s eye before he told the Nobeks guarding the cheering engineers and Girek, “Remain here and keep the Bi’isils from shutting down the phase.”
He barely acknowledged their replies, running to gather the rest for a glorious assault on the vessel’s crew. His blood sang at the prospect of killing as many of his enemies as he could find.
Nako was right. This was what he’d been meant for all along.
Alien Outcast Page 23
