by Ryk Brown
“Jesus!” the driver exclaimed.
“That’s amazing!” Synda declared.
Tony and the other two members of the resistance just stood there in awe, their mouths agape.
“Not bad, huh?” Jessica said with a broad smile.
Corinari troops jumped out of the back of the shuttle, landing on either side of the ramp as it finished lowering. Eight men spread out in all directions, taking up positions to secure the perimeter. One by one, they dropped to one knee, their weapons held ready as they visually scanned the tree line.
One more man jumped down from the cargo ramp and began walking calmly toward them. His stride was composed and confident, and even in silhouette, Jessica recognized him.
“Lieutenant Commander,” Major Waddell greeted as he approached.
Jessica smiled. “Major Waddell.”
“Are you ready to go?”
“You bet…”
The air was suddenly filled with the screech of Jung energy weapons as bolts of red streaked inward from deep inside the surrounding tree line. The Corinari troops immediately returned fire, sending their own bolts of energy toward every flash they spotted in the woods.
Major Waddell instantly crouched, bending at the knees to get low to the ground. He pulled his own weapon off his shoulder and prepared to return fire. “I think we need to leave!” he shouted.
The members of the resistance did not hesitate and quickly opened up with their automatic, close-quarters, projectile weapons.
“Get to the front of the van!” he ordered Tony and Synda, both of whom were unarmed.
Neither of them moved at first. A bolt of energy from a Jung rifle struck the van beside them, burning a hole in the side. Synda screamed as Tony pushed her forward.
The two members of the resistance near the rear of the van found themselves without adequate cover and were quickly taken down with well-placed shots of Jung energy weapons coming from just beyond the tree line.
“We’re fucking surrounded!” Jessica declared.
“No kidding!” Major Waddell retorted. As he continued firing with his rifle, he pulled his sidearm and tossed it to Jessica. “We need to move!”
“What about them?!” Jessica cried out.
“They’re not my concern!” Major Waddell responded as he continued firing into the tree line. He looked to his right as one of his men fell to Jung fire.
“They’ll be interrogated if they’re captured!” Jessica declared.
Major Waddell looked back at Tony and Synda as they huddled together at the front of the van.
“Don’t even think about it, Waddell!” Jessica barked.
Another energy blast streaked past Jessica, striking the driver in the chest and sending him flying backward against the van. He bounced off the front of the vehicle, ending up a smoldering pile of human remains in the dirt.
Major Waddell touched his comm-set, listening to traffic. “We’ve got fast movers inbound!” he announced. “Two out!” The major keyed his comm-set. “Fall back to the shuttle!” he ordered his men. “Grab the wounded! No one gets left behind!” He turned back to Jessica. “Get in that shuttle!”
Jessica glanced at Tony and Synda huddled together and squatting on the ground as blasts from Jung energy weapons struck the dirt nearby. The energy bolts sent chunks of earth and grass spraying over them. “What about them?” Jessica demanded again as she fired at the gun flashes in the woods.
“Captain ordered me to get you out alive, Nash! Now get your ass in that shuttle!”
Another Corinari trooper took a blast in the thigh and fell over, screaming in pain as his pants melted in with his skin.
Jessica reached over and grabbed Synda by the jacket and pulled on her. “Get your butts in that shuttle! NOW!”
“Nash!” the major began to object.
“Shut up and move, Major!” Jessica ordered.
More bolts of energy struck the ground around them as they moved quickly toward the shuttle. They fired their weapons continuously as they shuffled sideways. Jessica spun around, firing in all directions as she tried desperately to keep the Jung at bay. They were completely surrounded, and there had to be at least twenty Jung soldiers firing from behind cover within the woods.
Major Waddell ran behind the shuttle, grabbing one of his wounded men and helping him up the ramp.
Jessica continued spinning around as she ran and fired. As soon as she got next to the shuttle, she kept her back to the ship and fired out in front of her. She heard a scream, causing her to look to her right. Synda was on the ground, and Tony was falling over her. He landed unceremoniously, face first in the grass. He rolled over, pulling his feet and legs off of his friend, who lay unmoving on the grass behind him. “Oh, my God! Synda!” Tony crawled over to her, shaking her briefly as he tried to determine if she was still alive.
Jessica dropped to her knees next to Synda. “Take this,” she ordered, handing her weapon to Tony. “Shoot that way!”
Tony pointed the weapon at the tree line and began firing, red bolts of energy flying out of his barrel and smashing into the trees. With each flash from the Jung weapons, the woods around them were briefly illuminated. He quickly started firing at the brief glimpses of Jung soldiers in the darkness as Jessica picked up Synda and started carrying her toward the back of the shuttle.
After several steps, Major Waddell met her halfway and took Synda’s limp body from her. “I’ve got her! Let’s go!”
Tony fired at another briefly illuminated pair of Jung soldiers in the woods. The very next flash of light revealed only one soldier where two had once been. Tony’s face lit up. “Fuck! I got one!”
“Good shootin’!” Jessica exclaimed as she grabbed his jacket and pulled him toward the back of the shuttle. “Let’s move!”
Major Waddell handed Synda’s body off to the shuttle’s crew chief just inside the cargo hatch, then turned and took a position at the top of the ramp. He brought his weapon up and opened fire once more, expertly spreading his shots evenly across the tree line in an effort to keep the Jung soldiers from coming up from behind their cover. As Jessica and Tony ran up the ramp, he hollered at the last two of his men to fall back to the shuttle. As he continued firing to cover their retreat, one more of his men went down to enemy fire. As the shuttle’s engines began spinning up to full thrust, the major went to the end of the ramp and helped his last man pull his wounded comrade onto the ramp as it began to swing upward off the grassy meadow.
The shuttle began to rise slowly off the ground as Jung energy weapons slammed into its sides. Fortunately, the dissipative coating on the shuttle’s hull was designed to defend against Takaran energy weapons, which were far more powerful than those carried by Jung ground troops.
The ramp continued to swing upward, sending Major Waddell and his two men tumbling toward the back of the shuttle. As the hatch continued to close, the crew chief and one of the Corinari troops fired a few more shots downward toward the Jung soldiers on the ground, pulling their weapons in just before the ramp slammed shut and sealed off the back of the shuttle.
“We’re closed up back here!” the crew chief announced over his comm-set.
Major Waddell quickly counted his men. Four were unharmed, two were dead, and two were injured, but he had all eight bodies on board. He also had Lieutenant Commander Nash and two Terran civilians.
The Jung troops ran out into the clearing, firing madly at the underside of the shuttle as it continued to rise.
The Jung interceptor pilot looked ahead at the shuttle as it began to accelerate away from the clearing in the woods below. He could see the red energy bolts coming from the Jung troops below as they harmlessly struck the bottom of the fleeing shuttle. It quickly accelerated beyond the reach of the ground troops’ weapons and began climbing more rapidly
as it tried to make its escape. As he skimmed the top of the forest below, the Jung pilot locked his missiles on the shuttle and gently pulled his nose up to stay with the climbing target. He waited for a lock signal, then pressed the release button on his flight control stick. As his missile left its launch rails, the target disappeared in a brilliant flash of blue-white light.
* * *
Jumper Two rolled into the Aurora’s main hangar bay, her engines spinning down as she came to a stop. Three medical rescue teams, along with Doctor Chen and Doctor Galloway, ran to the shuttle from the equipment elevator corridor on the side of the bay.
The cargo ramp came folding down from the back of the shuttle, already more than halfway down by the time the shuttle stopped. Two Corinari troops came down the ramp carrying one of the wounded comrades, followed by two more carrying the second injured man.
Nathan came through the forward hatch of the hangar bay, Sergeant Weatherly following behind him. Nathan was slightly winded after having run down from the bridge at the shuttle’s call for a medical response. He ran out across the massive hangar bay toward the shuttle at the aft end as the Corinari troops placed their wounded brothers on the first two medical gurneys. His pace slowed as he spotted Jessica and Major Waddell carrying a wounded young woman that he did not recognize. They were followed by a young man who was dressed as the young woman was, in civilian Earth attire. He could tell that both Jessica and the young man were upset, as was the major. Something had obviously gone wrong.
Jessica and Major Waddell placed the young woman on the third medical gurney. The medics pushed the civilian man aside as they went to work, calling for one of the doctors to help them tend the seriously injured young woman.
Doctor Galloway turned away from the Corinari trooper with the leg wound. Seeing the condition of the young woman, she turned to the medics and issued instructions before moving to her side.
“She is from Earth?” Doctor Galloway asked Jessica as she assisted the medics in cutting away the young woman’s clothing.
“Yes, yes, she’s from Earth,” Jessica exclaimed, uncharacteristically rattled by the extent of Synda’s injuries.
“The nanites,” the doctor said as she held out her empty hand to one of the medics. “They will cause her great discomfort.” Her statement was intended to be one of warning to Jessica. The medic slapped a preloaded pneumo-ject into the doctor’s open hand.
“Will they save her?” Jessica asked.
“I do not know,” the doctor admitted. “There is some hope, however.” The doctor placed the pneumo-ject against the inside of Synda’s exposed thigh and pressed the button, injecting millions of Corinairan nanites into Synda’s femoral artery. “Without them, she will die. This I know.”
“Fuck!” Jessica exclaimed, her right hand going up to her forehead.
“Is she going to be all right?” Tony demanded as he tried to stay as close as possible to Synda without getting in the way of the medics and the Corinairan doctor. He looked at Jessica. “These nanites, they’re going to save her, right?” He looked around in despair, hoping someone would reassure him. His eyes darted back and forth, up and down, taking in the details of the foreign environment of the Aurora’s main hangar bay. The enormity of where he was and what was happening to him and his friend was beginning to overwhelm him. “Please! Tell me she’s gonna be okay!”
Jessica turned away, unable to face the young man.
Tony watched in anguish as the medical staff intubated his friend and started intravenous lines in order to replace the patient’s lost blood volume with synthetic substitutes. He looked toward the shuttle as the Corinari troops carried their two dead comrades down its cargo ramp, setting them on the additional gurneys that had been rolled in.
Nathan could see that Jessica was in no condition to comfort the young man. Neither was Major Waddell, who seemed rightfully more concerned with his deceased men.
“They’ll do everything they can for her,” Nathan told the young man as he pulled him aside to prevent him from interfering with the rescue teams. “What’s your name?”
The young man looked at him, tears in his eyes. “Tony.”
“Tony, I’m Captain Scott, commander of this ship. What’s your last name?”
“Ship? What ship?” he wondered, confusion on his face.
“You’re on board the UES Aurora.”
“What? The Aurora?” He looked even more surprised. “You mean, she wasn’t making that stuff up?” he asked in disbelief.
“I expect not,” Nathan assured him.
“Where are we? Are we near Earth?” He looked at Synda. “Maybe we should get her back to a hospital.”
“No, we’re not anywhere near Earth at the moment, but our doctors are far more advanced; believe me,” Nathan promised.
“We were only on that thing for a few minutes,” Tony insisted. “How far could we be?”
“Quite a ways, actually.” Nathan smiled. “It’s a long story,” he told Tony, pulling him farther aside as the medics began rolling Synda’s gurney toward the hatch at the forward end of the hangar bay. “I’ll explain it to you later,” Nathan promised, noticing an argument starting between Jessica and the major. Nathan signaled one of the security personnel standing nearby. “Escort Tony here to medical, and see to it that someone takes care of him.”
“Yes, sir,” the security guard answered.
Nathan leaned in closer to the guard. “And keep him isolated from everyone for now.”
“Of course, sir.”
Nathan turned back to Tony. “Tony, I’d like you to go with this gentleman. He’ll take you to medical so you can be near your friend. I’ll check on you later, all right?”
“Sure, I guess,” Tony answered, looking as if he had given up and was resigning himself to the situation.
Nathan turned toward the shuttle and headed off Jessica and the major at the bottom of the cargo ramp.
“You were gonna shoot them!” Jessica said to the major as Nathan approached.
“I should have,” Major Waddell insisted. “If I had, those two men might still be alive…”
“Oh, that’s bullshit, and you know it!” Jessica exclaimed.
“What’s going on here?” Nathan asked as he came up to them.
“You let an emotional attachment to those two noncombatants cloud your judgment at a critical moment…”
“More bullshit! If they had been captured…”
“Which is precisely why we should have killed them,” the major reiterated.
“Nobody is killing anybody!” Nathan yelled over them.
“I think you’re forgetting who’s in charge around here, Major!” Jessica insisted.
“I’m pretty sure I am!” Nathan said. “And I’m ordering you both to take it down a notch!”
“Captain, XO,” Cameron’s voice called over Nathan’s comm-set.
“Go ahead, Commander,” Nathan answered.
“Jump drive is fully recharged, sir, and flight ops reports ready for red deck. Are we clear to make our next jump?”
“Yes, Commander,” Nathan answered. “Set the deck red and execute the next jump.”
“Aye, sir,” Cameron answered over the comm-set. After a brief pause, she asked, “Is everyone okay?”
Nathan looked at Major Waddell. “Casualties?”
“Two dead, two injured,” the major said, his tone somewhat more restrained.
“And one wounded civilian,” Jessica added.
“Two KIA, two wounded, and one wounded civilian,” Nathan reported over the comm-set. “Nash and Waddell are fine,” he added.
“Very well, sir. Second jump is complete. Seven hours until the next jump.”
Nathan looked at Jessica. “What the hell happened?”
“We were ambushed at the extraction point,” Jessica told him. “We were completely surrounded.”
“How the hell did they know where the extraction point was?” Nathan asked.
“I’d like to know that myself,” Major Waddell added.
“I don’t know.” Jessica sighed. The adrenaline coursing through her body was taking its toll on her nerves. “They must have followed us. The Jung probably already knew about the resistance base. Galiardi must’ve cracked. They could have been watching us for the last week, for all I know.”
“How did they get so many troops into position so quickly?” the major sneered.
“We were there for about ten minutes before you showed up,” Jessica explained, ignoring the major’s tone. “If they did follow us from the hideout, they would have had to deploy pretty quickly. To do that without being noticed, they had to be well trained.” She looked at Waddell, an accusatory look on her face. “What I want to know is how those interceptors found us so quickly.”
“Interceptors?” Nathan asked.
“One of them was trying to put a missile up our ass. We barely jumped away in time.”
“They probably detected us on our first jump,” Major Waddell said. “We had to jump in over the north pole, then jump again down to the extraction point. Our approach angle was unfortunate. Your planet’s moon was in the way of a single, direct jump. To get around it, we had to jump first to high orbit, then to the surface. We had hoped the interaction between the charged particles in the solar wind and the planet’s electromagnetic field would mask our jump flash.”
“What?” Jessica said.
“I believe he’s talking about the Aurora Borealis,” Nathan said, smiling.
“You’re kidding.”
