by C. M. Kane
He knew this whole situation was partially his own fault, he should have realized that Radnor needed more time to adjust to the terran girl’s personality, after all, he was still red eyed. If Radnor was anything, he was unquestionably loyal, he quashed his anger at both the vampire and himself.
‘As soon as this fight is over we will find her, Radnor. I don’t care if we have to scour every cesspool planet in our realms. Do you understand her importance to me?’ he asked, surprised at the question himself. Somehow, in such a short time, Tae had managed to make herself an essential element in his life, one he wasn’t giving up without a fight.
‘Yes, my lord. I will begin enquiries immediately, so we have a place to begin once hostilities are over.’
Loki sighed again, frustrated. ‘Zeus will meet us on the bridge in a couple of hours. Please try not to insult or lose any more of my staff in the meantime.’
‘Yes, my lord. I shall meet you shortly.’ Radnor closed the com-channel and sat in thought for a moment. He had got off easy, he knew, far easier than he thought he deserved, perhaps because of everything else that was occurring at the moment. Still, he had never known Loki to take such an interest in any female before. If it were the last thing he ever did he would find this woman. Honor demanded he rectify his error, but more importantly, so did Loki.
Chapter 18
As Tae headed back towards the portal she realized she could be headed directly into some serious trouble. If Ares really was hiding in Cassandra’s swamp, then there would more than likely be ships waiting in ambush on the other side of the portal she was about to fly through.
She could be flying straight into a trap, but how could she get through?
Bluff my way, she thought. Maybe it was worth a shot. If she were convincing enough they may wait to see if she were simply an advance scout first before attacking, thus giving her time to make it to the nebula.
It’s what she’d do anyway, and if that’s how it panned out she needed to rely on her mother’s lessons again. She grinned to herself. She had never dreamed anything her mother had taught her in those lessons she’d endured so long ago would ever come in handy, yet here she was using them left, right and centre.
A little bit of bluff coupled with a whole lot of lie. She gritted her teeth and went through the opened portal with renewed determination.
Nothing was in the space in front of her. So far so good, she thought. She began scanning her surroundings carefully, it took her just over five minutes before she detected a small drone orbiting the far edge of the near-by planet. There was no sign of any ships, but if the drone was there, that meant any ships could be hidden behind the planet out of sight. They could also be getting all of the sensor information the drone collected relayed to them so they could remain in hiding. If that was the case then she didn’t have much time, she thought fast. If her suspicions were correct, and they came after her now as she was just starting to accelerate towards the nebula, she would be either caught or destroyed before she made it. Fortunately the portal was located on the far side of the sun closest to the nebula and away from the planet. That small bit of luck might just afford her enough time if her luck held.
She opened her com-channel, setting it to short range. If there were ships hiding behind the planet, and someone was listening in on her, she might, with an ounce of luck, be able to buy herself a little time.
‘Jumper Shalia to Olympus, nothing sighted as yet, I’ll just take a closer run by the nebula as ordered and report back in sixty standard minutes. Please standby.’
She shut her com-channel off, hoping her ploy would work and they wouldn’t tip their hands until they saw what other ships might be coming through. She programmed the shuttle to continue at full acceleration, letting the jumper scoot forward at full velocity, continuously building speed while she kept a close eye on the com-screen in front of her.
Forty minutes crawled by, then sixty. The nebula was now so close that she had to begin her deceleration. She began to think she might make it, if she could just gain a little more time; she activated the com-panel again.
‘Jumper Shalia to Olympus it looks like it’s all clear, I’ll continue on and do a sweep across the nebula, you can come through at any time, Shalia out.’
She prayed that her last message would buy her the time she needed If anyone was hiding behind the planet, then hopefully she’d given them a reason to stay hidden for a little longer as they awaited the arrival of the Olympus.
Another five minutes crawled by as she drew closer to her destination. It was after another twenty seconds that she finally caught sight of movement, this time seven ships appeared from behind the planet.
Her bluff had just been called, big time.
She looked to her sensors for confirmation. One Orion class battle cruiser and six smaller, but much quicker to accelerate, Khopesh class destroyers.
Damn it! Tae looked to the nebula, almost there, just another twenty or so minute’s.
Frustratingly, she realized she’d be there already if she hadn’t had to worry about deceleration, but going hell for leather into an unknown nebula was simply asking to be destroyed. To be sure she would be reasonably safe when she entered she had to make sure her speed was down to a veritable crawl. As it was the dense clouds of gas and dust were cutting her sensor readings to around one hundred and twenty meters. Despite her inner self wanting to increase her speed again at the sight of her pursuers, the thought of flying directly into an asteroid, or whatever else was hidden in the dense cloud that marked the nebulas edges, stopped her cold. The com-screen now showed the six destroyers had already cleared the planet’s main gravitational well and reached open space, they were accelerating toward her at a phenomenal rate. This was going to be close.
As time ticked by with agonizing slowness she watched the space being eaten up between her little jumper and the closest destroyer, she was getting very close to the Nebula now, but they were gaining at a frightening pace. Finally she saw the lead destroyer start heavy breaking maneuvers; obviously they had no intentions of entering the nebula. Tae took a deep breath and thanked Ganesh, one of the Gods associated with good luck; this meant she just might make it after all.
It only took another minute before her screen flashed red; despite its heavy breaking, the first destroyer had entered long distance firing range. Tae immediately started to move the Shalia in a zigzag course while the jumpers speed continued to bleed away.
Still, she was now proving much harder for the destroyer to lock its weapons on her; with relief she noticed the rest of the ships had also begun their breaking procedures. Obviously none of them had any intentions of entering the Nebula. She was unsure whether to take this as a good sign, or just something else she had to worry about. She pushed it from her thoughts; she’d worry about it if she survived the destroyers. All she had to do was keep them from locking onto her before she reached safety, and that meant continuing her erratic course.
The destroyer fired anyway. A lethal bolt of plasma sped past her starboard side, missing her by about fifty meters.
Holy Shit! She thought, as she saw what would have been her death shoot past her. That was definitely way too close for comfort! Someone very clever was obviously analyzing her maneuvering to get that close.
She finally hit the nebula just as another bolt lightly grazed the side of the jumper’s force field. A large section immediately turned black, unable to bleed away the lethal energy it was trying to dissipate. Under the sudden onslaught a small section partially collapsed. Energy from the plasma beam immediately went straight through, sideswiping the jumper’s engine just as Tae swung the small craft to port to try to avoid the kill shot. She tensed as she was jolted forward in her seat; the engine started screaming in protest as the bolt scorched its delicate systems, overloading and melting vital components.
Tae was beyond terror now, she was operating purely on instinct, her mind was now reacting automatically as each new problem surfaced. She shut
the engine down immediately, relying on the jumper’s inertia to propel it forward. Her view screen flickered but stayed up as her artificial gravity stopped functioning. She was maneuvering down and to starboard when another bolt lightly grazed the top of the jumpers now battered force field. Once again it turned black, before partially collapsing and letting a small amount of the blast through. Tae was bounced around violently, but the Shalia held steady as it continued deeper into the safety of the surrounding nebula. She checked the sensors again, not much, but enough to navigate, fortunately she still had maneuvering thrusters. The force field was slowly turning from black to dark brown then red as the excess energy inflicted upon it slowly bled away, it also started to expand again and plug the holes that had appeared in it.
Luckily it was still viable enough to keep out the surrounding radiation and rubble, or Tae knew she’d be in even worse trouble then what she was now. She knew she’d been exceedingly fortunate, if any of those ships had continued to follow her into the Nebula for even an extra minute, she was pretty sure she’d be toast by now.
Locating a small asteroid ahead of her she used the maneuvering thrusters to move behind it for protection as she continued to slow the Shalia’s forward momentum. She’d made it this far, she didn’t want to screw this up now, so she was going to play it as safe as possible from now on. Once her forward momentum had slowed to a more sedate pace she finally began to relax.
I can’t believe I made it, perhaps my lucks changing and I’ve done the right thing by coming here. She thought hopefully.
She took several deep breaths and continued her zigzagging course as stray bolts of energy continued to suddenly light up the surroundings near her. Apparently her unknown enemies didn’t take kindly to the fact that she’d escaped them, they were now firing into the Nebula randomly in the hope of striking the Shalia. Thankfully her attackers soon gave up, she thought they’d probably be on their way back to that planet to lay in wait again by now; after all, it wasn’t as if she could go anywhere, they knew she was trapped.
Well at least their gone now so things are definitely looking up she thought with a flash of triumph at surviving the ordeal; just as a red light started to flash lower down on her com-panel. Frowning, she checked her instruments again.
Oh crap! Panic clawed at her. That last hit had done more damage than she had initially thought; her oxygen recycling unit had just shut down. Whether she wanted to or not, she now needed to find either the Kydomois or Cassandra, and soon.
Twenty minutes later Tae knew she was in serious trouble, she would never find Ares or Cassandra without help, she was totally lost.
‘Well Cassandra,’ she said aloud, ‘if you wanted me here, now’s the time for a little assistance.’ Tae had one lastditch idea left. Her nanites had been unusually aggressive ever since she had started out on the jumper to this heading; she wondered if they could help her now. She touched her hand onto the com-panel again and ordered her nanites to plot a direct course to whoever was closest, the Kydomois or Cassandra, then she waited and prayed. Slowly, a path began to appear on the com-screen.
Tae’s eyes widened. ‘Well I’ll be buggered,’ she whispered. Despite feeling a little fuzzy from the beginning of oxygen deprivation she immediately changed course and continued on. It took her a further fifteen minutes before she found the Kydomois orbiting a slowly spinning asteroid. From the looks of her she’d been in a serious firefight.
Half a dozen deep scars ran up her port side where her main bank of aft pulse cannons hung at strange angles. They looked lifeless. Even more disturbing was the jagged hole where the entrance to the third jumper hangar would have been. As she got closer she could see numerous scorch marks riddled her hull, way too many to count. Tae blinked her sleepy eyes, trying to focus her fuzzy brain into some sort of action; she opened up her com-channel.
‘This is jumper Shalia of the Olympus to battleship Kydomois, could you open your hangar doors? I’m just about out of oxygen here and Valaria might be a little pissed if you let me die.’
‘Who is this?’ a harsh voice asked. ‘Identify yourself immediately or be destroyed.’
Tae frowned in confusion. ‘I just did. I’m the jumper Shalia from the Olympus. Oh, you mean who am I? I’m Tae Rames. I used to work for Lord Loki.’
‘Lord Loki is dead.’ The harsh voice responded, only angrier this time.
Tae tried to focus on what the voice was saying but her eyes wanted to close, nothing was making sense to her, why were they asking about Loki?
‘Not lately he isn’t. I just used Ithacian White and some sea salt to rescue his cute, but extremely annoying arse from under that volcano; but was he grateful? Nooooo, he stuck me with some old stickinthemud vampire named Radnor. No sense of humor whatsoever. He told me I’d have to stop stealing my music. I waved at him.’
Tae could feel herself rambling almost incoherently, but everything had started to seem unreal to her, like she was floating in a dream. A small, rational part of her knew she had to get onboard now or she’d die. She’d run out of time.
‘Brace yourself. I’m coming in, ready or not,’ she said groggily. ‘I’m pretty much out of oxygen.’ Using her maneuvering thrusters she swept the little craft around to face hangar one’s doors and headed for them. They seemed to open sluggishly to Tae; after she entered the only thing she kept chanting to herself was to remember to open the jumper’s doors as soon as she was safely inside.
After what seemed an interminable wait in the pressurizing bay she finally went through the inner door.
The sight of a dozen wolven, thalien and elven warriors standing with longrange zap guns aimed at her momentarily distracted her from her door chant. She giggled as she remembered the red wolven she had seen at the WLE Headquarters. Her vision became increasingly blurry; she thought she had to remember something, but for some reason the memory was just out of her reach, perhaps after she had a little nap she’d remember. Half conscious she slumped forward onto the control bars, forcing the jumper to touch down with a resounding thump. It bounced along the hangar floor, before finally skidding sideways to a halt.
The shock of hitting the hangar floor jolted Tae to remembering what she had to do, she let go of the flight bars and hit the locking mechanism for the doors, then pressed the open button. She sat, barely conscious, drinking in the cool, pure air in relief; nothing had ever felt so good to her.
Safe at last she thought hazily, just before a zap gun touched her temple.
Chapter 19
‘Out!’ ordered a commanding female voice as Tae started to slowly get her bearings. Still breathing deeply and fighting a blinding headache she moved out of the jumper and stood staring at the surrounding warriors dazedly.
‘Don’t move’ said the female voice again.
Tae had no intention of moving, well maybe collapsing in a heap if her headache didn’t ease up, but staying still wasn’t a problem. She slowly regained her focus while someone moved behind her, as they moved around to her front Tae could see it was a female thalien warrior, she was running a hand scanner over her. She frowned a little when she noticed the other thalien.
‘I need to speak to Ares,’ Tae said as the woman finished her scanning.
‘Clean, just a com-watch on her left wrist,’ the warrior said, ignoring her. ‘But it’s only a surface scan; do you want me to do an internal?’
Tae’s eyes widened, Oh Screw this! She didn’t know exactly what an internal scan was, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like it.
The thalien warrior in charge looked at her dispassionately. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘She may be carrying anything.’
Tae stared at him as she backed slowly toward her jumper. ‘The first person who touches any of my goodies without my permission is going to have their hands removed, permanently.’ Weapons were immediately raised and pointed at her head.
‘You think so, woman?’
Tae smiled. ‘Hell, I’ve already killed quite a few of your race, as
well as taking out the Hindishah, what’s a few more traitors to add to the list.’ The thalien stepped forward his hand reaching up and encircling her throat in a flash. Anger burned in his eyes as he started at her.
‘You’re not related to Jaden or Jalek by any chance, are you, or is this hand around the throat thing a thalien predilection?’ she asked casually as his hand started to tighten. ‘Because if so, been here, done this.’
‘Commander Darva,’ said a wolven warrior, ‘she must be questioned.’
Darva stared at Tae hard, his anger fading slowly to be replaced by curiosity. ‘You are not afraid of me at all, are you?’
Tae shrugged. ‘In the last few weeks I’ve been on the terran Island. While there I had to kill to live. After I survived that, I’ve been attacked, kidnapped, beaten up and threatened, by both lunatics and gods.’ She tipped her head to the side. ‘I just figure what’s one more to the bunch?’
She decided then and there to make a gesture of goodwill, in the hope it would defuse the situation, so she offered the only things she had to give in an effort to placate the warriors surrounding her.
‘Look, you know I’m unarmed, but more importantly, I’ve brought food and valuable information for you.’
She needed to talk to Ares, sooner rather than later, then she could sort this whole silly misunderstanding out. She noticed a subtle change in the surrounding warrior’s demeanor at the mention of the food and information, so she pressed her case.
‘Look, all I want is to talk to Ares. Have your gun trained on me if you like or, if he’s too frightened to face me himself, open up a com channel, that’ll do just as well.’
Even Tae heard the bellow of outrage from Darva’s ear receiver; he bowed over clutching at his ear in agony as all the color fled from his face. He looked close to fainting, but after several moments recovery he looked back at her and started to smile.
‘Our lord was helping with repairs to the pulse cannons and had the com channel open to listen to what you had to say, it seems your little insults are going to grant you your wish, you may wish they hadn’t.’
