“Captain, his destroyer is moving towards the station. The remainder of his force is following him. They can’t fight through the Bi’isil gauntlet.”
“No, but they can plow through them if no one wants to live to tell about it.”
Piper’s breath caught at the sight of the remaining destroyers, about two dozen of them, no longer firing on the hunter-killers. They all moved at high speed towards the lab station itself, smashing into Bi’isil vessels that didn’t alter course in time. “They’re going to ram the station with the ships.”
“A last-ditch suicide run. They’ve lost anyway. At least the useless bastards will remove that tumor from existence.” Grudging respect infected Nako’s voice.
The hunter-killers surrounded the destroyers, firing in a desperate volley to save the station. Piper didn’t want to watch the horror playing out in front of her, but she couldn’t turn away.
Maf’s voice once again sounded on the bridge. His destroyer tore into the station and was already breaking apart as explosions flared from its triangular length. “Honor and Empire, forever.”
The orgy of destruction that followed finally brought Piper’s hands up to cover her face. She sobbed softly as Ulof rubbed her back, mourning the obliterated lives of wrong-thinking but valiant Kalquorian men.
After nearly a minute of silence on the bridge, Nako finally spoke. “Well, that’s the end of our civil war. Now we have a war with Bi’is. Get Weapons Commander Terig on the com again. Let him know we’re on our way to intercept Admiral Piras—”
Atar interrupted him. “Captain, a large number of ships are approaching from Sector Two-Nine-Six.”
Piper lowered her hands. “More Bi’isil ships?” When would they ever stop coming?
Nako’s fingers flew over the weapons podium. “If it’s part of Bi’is’s armada, they’re flying in from the wrong direction.” He stared at his readings in shock. “Thousands of destroyers and fighters. It’s the whole damned Imperial Fleet. On vid!”
The view switched from the carnage of the demolished lab station and Maf’s vessels to a view of countless Kalquorian craft, hurtling towards them.
“They’re homing in on the Bi’isil forces! Hunter-killers attempting to regroup to meet them.” Nako joined in the with the other men’s howls of delight. “Piras, you duplicitous bastard! You had the whole damned lot waiting to come charging in all along!”
“Do you really think so?” Piper clung to a laughing Ulof, hoping against hope.
“They must have been close to Laro’s sector but kept out of sensor range of the Basma’s fleet. I’m guessing they’d planned an all-out strike against Maf until Piras warned them of the virus. No wonder he and Kila always looked like they were hiding something.”
“They must have shown up at Laro shortly after we left to chase Maf down. They’ve been playing catchup ever since.” Grinning with his fangs down, Atar resembled a happy shark.
“Maf’s attack distracted the Bi’isils. The fleet’s snuck up on them.” Ulof whooped with delight.
Nako sobered. “Even so, we’re still outnumbered. Fuck, this is going to be an all-or-nothing fight.”
He glanced at Piper, his expression torn between bestial violence and anxious hesitation. Though she recognized the odds against him and her own wish to stay, she didn’t make him choose.
She tugged on Ulof’s arm. “Take me to the death ship, and we’ll go to that salvage station with it. Once Nako calls Terig back, this raider has a battle to join.”
The Dramok captain leapt from the weapons console to grab her. His kiss was as fierce and bruising as ever. She returned the embrace with matching intensity.
When they parted, she took Ulof’s hand again. Meeting Nako’s gaze, she demanded, “Come back with your shield, warrior—or on it.”
Doubtless, he had no clue of Earth’s ancient Spartan civilization or one of its more famous quotes, but he got the gist of her meaning. He bowed. “Whether in life or death, I will fight with honor, and I will do so in your name. For Empire and Matara Piper.”
He and Ulof nodded to each other. For them, apparently no words of farewell were needed.
Nako watched them go: his temperamental Imdiko, whom he’d suffer a thousand deaths for, and the woman who fired his soul as combat never had. In releasing him to battle the empire’s enemies, Piper showed she understood him on a level he never thought a female could.
With effort, he shook the spell off. A smile remained etched on his face. “As soon as Terig and whatever crew is needed return, we’ll join our fleet and give this old bird a proper send-off.”
The four men on the bridge yelled fit for twice their number, beaming with anticipated glory. They had an appointment with almost certain death, and they couldn’t have been happier. They, like any raider crew worth its reputation, were warriors. They lived for the right to become legends.
For Nako, it almost made up for not living long enough to grow old with Ulof or to clan Piper. The slight discontent wouldn’t have to be lived with, however. The blow to his honor for turning away the battle to come was another matter. It would eat at his soul and become a permanent blot on his conscience.
No, he had to fight. It would cost him the sweetest reward, but he could not do any differently.
Terig and Girek arrived and took their posts. Nako scowled at his Nobek. “You didn’t wait for the order to return.”
“Did I need to? I arrived in time to say my goodbyes to Ulof and Piper as they boarded their shuttle.”
“Good. As soon as they’re clear, join the fleet.”
“Their shuttle has departed. Weapons—well, the three arrays you left me—are ready.”
“Be grateful I repaired the one I could. All stations, report.”
“Weapons maintenance and repair crews standing by.”
“Helm ready.”
“Navigation and com ready. The medical department reports they have floor space only for casualties.”
“Zo won’t need it. You can’t cure the glorious dead, and they wouldn’t want it anyhow. Let’s do this.”
They joined the forward ranks of the Imperial Fleet as it arrived. Moments later, the battle began.
For the next hour, Nako’s whole being centered on destruction. Directions were called, shots fired, and the raider swooped in and out of enemy lines, doing the job it had been made for. It was hit numerous times by glancing fire, taking damage but not stopping. Nako directed Girek through the narrowest of paths, Atar relayed orders from Fleet Command, and Terig sent blaster fire and percussive shots into the unending waves of hunter-killers.
Part of the Kalquorian Imperial Fleet once more, they took down their foes, blasting huge holes into Bi’isil ranks. Unfortunately, the hunter-killers kept arriving, a vast invasion force no one had suspected Bi’is had built. The ceaseless tide of enemy vessels proved beyond any doubt that their ancient enemy was bent on erasing the Kalquorian Empire from existence.
The fighting raged, even well after it became clear that the Imperial Fleet could not win. Nako supposed those in command had realized that there was no choice but to resist until the last destroyer was shattered, until the last warrior perished. They had to obliterate as much of the Bi’isil armada as possible, to hold them off in the hope that some vestige of Kalquor and its people might survive.
An explosion rocked the raider, nearly throwing Nako off his feet. Flames burst from several power panels, setting off the suppression systems. Alarms were muted so that Nako could shout orders over them.
“That peeled our hull back a little,” Terig chortled. “Meet death, you big-eyed bastards! That’ll teach you to remodel my raider.”
“We can’t take many more hits, Captain,” Girek called. He was obscenely cheerful, laughing as they all did, delighting in the fight to their graves. “Especially flying in the thick of the battle as we are.”
“We do not die! These gurlucks do not deserve to claim our blood. Take them! Send them all to oblivion!”
<
br /> They fought on, though the raider’s power became intermittent, sending the bridge into moments of darkness. And on, though weapons reserves dipped toward critical. No man suggested they leave the war, though the fleet’s numbers steadily decreased. They were the crew of raider RD-1202, heading into glory. It was everything they’d ever wanted.
There was no better way to go out than in honorable battle, waging war for the survival of the empire at the side of a fellow warrior. Nako glanced with pride at his Nobek as the lighting stuttered again and the engines’ steady hum cut out for an instant. Terig had reclaimed his place and was all the Nobek a Dramok could ask to be clanned to.
Better yet, Nako had rejoined his fleet, coming to terms with old hurts. Ulof would live to realize his terraforming dreams with Piper’s help. With the new clanning laws in place, they could remain together, helping each other heal the wounds of the past.
My regrets are few. It is a good day to give my life for my empire.
“More ships heading in from Sector Two-Nine-Nine! Damn, just when we were making a real dent in these bastards’ forces.”
“Two-Nine-Nine? Give me an identification on those ships.”
“It’s a massive fleet of Adraf, Dantovonian, Alneusian, Cadnid, Tratsod—Captain, I think it’s the Galactic Council’s Allied Forces!”
Nako could hardly believe it. But as the vid filled with vessels of every kind, he remembered his conversation with Piper, that with Kalquor exterminated, Bi’is would potentially be unstoppable.
The Imperial Fleet must have sent out a call to the Galactic Council of Planets, warning them that Bi’is was on the verge of tipping the balance of supremacy. With the safety of its other member planets at stake, they had charged in to fight at Kalquor’s side. The Bi’isils didn’t have a chance against the combined defenses.
They knew it, too. The hunter-killers began to pull back, moving in retreat.
“No! You do not get off that easy! Weapons Commander, keep firing on Bi’isil ships! Kill every big-eyed bastard you can before they surrender!”
Terig happily complied and managed to demolish three more hunter-killers before Rear Admiral Hobato personally ordered Nako’s raider to stand down. With a curse, Terig fired off a last blast at a fleeing enemy.
“Sorry, my Nobek. I think the war is over.”
“Damn. Just when it was getting fun. Now we have to live with peace again.” Terig kicked his weapons podium in a fit of temper.
The joyous mood on the raider dimmed as the men realized they would not be joining the heroic dead. Nako wondered if they realized there were battles yet to come, the kinds they wouldn’t enjoy, those fought before tribunals with words instead of weapons. They still had to answer for desertion, and there was no honor in that.
He and Terig had an extra fight ahead of them. Since they were stuck among the living, there was that matter of vying for the right to a woman’s love. Nako thought that might be the most daunting battle he’d ever have to tackle.
Chapter 24
Nako stood on a balcony overlooking Kalquor’s largest ocean. He inhaled deeply, taking in the salt-tinged scent, staring across the expanse of green waves that extended all the way to the horizon.
It had been years since he’d set foot on his home planet. When on leave, he’d rarely returned, opting to relax on space stations where he could gamble or fight or indulge in pleasures not found on board a raider.
Nako hadn’t gotten much out of the layover thus far. Most of the last month had been spent at Fleet Command Headquarters. He’d had endless bouts of questioning to get through in the first week, especially because he’d had to explain his sudden disappearance following Bi’is’s defeat. The board of inquiry had been less than enthused about Nako taking advantage of the confusing aftermath of the war to abandon the fleet again. The hunt for the second death ship to rescue and quarantine the Earther women in its cargo hold had kept them from chasing after his raider—though he’d come into port later and turned himself in voluntarily. Certainly, they hadn’t appreciated Nako’s decision to ferry a Tragoom to his new home, or the week spent helping Ob find decent lodging and a position as the personal bodyguard to a wealthy Dantovonian, the richest one on the planet.
Nako grinned when he thought of Ob, fully recovered and proud in the smart uniform his new employer had supplied him with. A gem-encrusted eyepatch had been the Tragoom’s first purchase from his advanced wages and a collection taken up by the raider crew. The jolt he’d suffered had left him with a constant ringing in his ears, but otherwise, the tough bastard had woken up fine less than a day after the big battle. A tearful but jubilant Piper had promised to visit Ob in a year when she’d said her goodbyes to him. Nako hoped the rest of the clan would be able to swing the holiday as well.
During the second week on Kalquor, he and his crew had been allowed time to wander the nearby capital city. They’d been convicted of desertion, but sentence had been suspended for all, with the exception of Nobek Sesin, due to their service in stopping Bi’is from attacking the empire. They were once again members in good standing of the Imperial Fleet.
There had been no pardon for the captured Feyom. She’d been thrown into a psychiatric ward for criminally insane Mataras. Word was, no one in her clan was in any hurry to petition for her release. Kalquor’s attitude, on the whole, was one of good riddance.
Despite finding some initial fun after being granted his freedom, the capital’s diversions had lost their appeal early on for Nako. Kalquorians were his people, and to some extent, so were the Earthers who had joined them. Yet those who lived on the planet had become as alien to him as Joshadans or Plasians. They were quieter than he remembered. Mannerly.
Too damned proper. They stared at him and Terig with their battle scars as they moved about the marketplace, the restaurants, the beach. Even the Nobeks who lived on the planet, who bowed with the greatest of respect—and obvious envy—to Nako and his clanmate, were a different sort.
They were civilized.
Nako could tell he had no place among them. Standing on the outside of the ocean-bound military installation, fleet shuttles buzzing over his head, he stood with his back to the distant cliffs of the busy capital city, staring instead into the seemingly limitless space of ocean and sky.
Especially the sky. The blue atmosphere teased him, masking the deep black beyond. The infinite reaches where a man set his own course and made his own way. Though Nako had been used to living within the structure of the fleet, much of his raider service had allowed liberty to forge his own path. He’d been lucky that his objectives had coincided with that of his superiors: keep the empire safe. Keep it whole. Keep it alive.
Nako closed his eyes and let his mind rest for the few precious moments of solitude he’d been granted. With the empire at peace once more, the public had a frantic need to celebrate. To commemorate. To welcome heroes home. An orgy of memorials and galas had erupted, and Clan Nako had been expected to be present at most. This had been the sole day to take a break from all the festivities in the past week.
Piper had headed out to shop in the company of Admiral Tranis’s young Earther Matara Cassidy. Terig was visiting his parent clans’ home, allowing them to revel in his restored honor with a party he didn’t want to attend. Nako chuckled. He’d barely managed to fend off such a fete from his own parent clan, convincing them to settle for a quiet, intimate lunch at Fleet Command’s dining hall. His mother and Dramok and Nobek fathers had left an hour before.
And Ulof—well, considering Nako hadn’t been called by law enforcement to arrange for legal counsel, Ulof’s interview with The Terracreations Company was still going on. Maybe even going well. Being part of a crew instrumental in the war’s end had opened doors for the Imdiko that he’d previously had no hope of walking through. He’d hesitated to take advantage of his newfound status, but Nako, Terig, and Piper had urged him on.
Nako basked in his momentary aloneness. The hum of shuttle traffic, the sigh of the bre
eze, and the lapping of waves against the bulwarks of the artificial island quieted his mind. He felt something within him settle, a mote of tranquility in the usual storm.
“Hello, my son.”
The quiet shattered before a sudden onslaught of ancient grief and rage. Nako had expected the reaction, however, and he grasped a sliver of serenity before it could escape. He clasped it to himself, holding it prisoner as he turned to confront a man he hadn’t acknowledged in decades.
Imdiko Enhik was just as Nako remembered him, youthful despite the years that had passed. But he’d only been thirty when Nako was born, and forty years hadn’t lined the philosopher’s face much. His straight black hair hung to his trim waist. Enhik might have been mistaken for Nako’s elder brother.
Except his eyes were old. Old and sad, as if he’d seen far too much. They held little of the hope Nako had expected. Enhik didn’t come rushing up to him, displayed no delight to have been summoned by his long-estranged son.
He gave up on me letting him into my life. But then, why did he come if he believed there was no chance?
“I’m glad you came.” Confused, Nako dipped a bow. He straightened and stared at the man who had been the first to hurt him. Despite having rehearsed what he would say at that moment, he couldn’t utter a single word.
Enhik managed a smile. He came close, but instead of touching Nako or uttering platitudes in an attempt to bridge the years, he looked out on the seascape that had invited the Dramok’s attention earlier. “It’s astounding, isn’t it? Such vastness, all that sky and ocean. You’d imagine it goes on forever.”
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