by Daniel Betts
*****
Doctor Hartman glances over at Sykes and Hicks. “Self-destruct?”
“It was the only way we could be sure they didn’t get away with our work,” Hicks replies. “We’re all alone out here and we aren’t soldiers.”
“Look what they already did with it,” Sykes adds raising finger. “We only stuck around cause we knew you’d be back, but there is no way we are sharing our work with anyone ever again. We’d rather die.”
“Fair enough,” Hartman replies. “We have nine minutes left.”
“Sanctuary can launch in seconds,” Hicks assures.
“Sergeant,” Hartman calls. “We don’t have time for this.”
Red nods and marches forward past the two doctors.
Both Hartman and Red come around the corner, guns raised and firing.
Hartman places two dots on two of the skull-faces. With rounds ricocheting off his black chassis, Hartman fires. His targets fly backwards, blood spraying.
Red pulls the trigger of his rifle, which thunders loudly as large rounds blast from its huge bore.
Red’s target, the last skull-face, is first struck full in the chest and is lifted in the air. Several more rounds slice off the pirate’s arms and his legs at the knees. The last round decapitates him before all his parts hit the ground.
Hartman zips forward, his armatures twirling his guns as he reloads, empty magazines flying away, while new ones slide into the gun’s handles with ease, all without having to stop or even look. Behind him, Red guides the two brain-bots forward, his red eyes scanning ahead. They move through the breached hatchway and race down the docking tube toward Sanctuary.
“Exciting, isn’t it bro,” Hicks quips, mechanical legs pumping trying to keep up with Red.
“Totally,” Sykes agrees. “Just like the game.”
“Dude,” Hicks replies with a nod. Suddenly a bullet ricochets off his chassis in the middle of his chest.
“Get down!” Hartman yells.
Ahead of them, at the hatchway to Sanctuary, Mona awkwardly aims her pistol and fires.
Two rounds strike Hartman in the chest, but ricochet away. A third bullet whistles between Hartman’s left armatures and strikes Sykes’ glass skull. Sykes flies backward, a jet of steam squirting from the hole. He lands on his back with a loud crash.
“DUDE!” Hicks cries out. He leaps to his friend, placing his mechanical palm over the hole, plugging the air jet.
Hartman groans as he steadies his aim, placing targeting laser dots on several locations around Mona’s body.
Red brings up his rifle and growls.
“Got one,” Mona cries back over her shoulder, unaware her body is about to be riddled with bullets.
Suddenly the docking tube shakes. A violent explosion erupts outside the station, sending a shockwave inside.
Hartman is pushed to one side and his carefully aimed bullets fly wide and past Blackjack’s whore, one bullet nicking her ear.
“Shit!” Mona curses as she dives back through the hatch, just as one of Red’s slugs whistles over her head.
“Hey,” Blackjack cries. “I need time to get this bloody last door open! Hold them off!” Standing in front of the main airlock bay to Sanctuary, Blackjack is staring at another holoscreen with data scrolling up rapidly. His eyes dart through the data as his fingers attempt pressing the screen to no avail.
“You hold them off you bastard!” Mona curses. She picks herself off the deck and crouches near the open hatchway. “Why won’t this fucking thing close anyway?” she kicks at the docking tube hatchway. She then reaches up to check her bleeding ear.
“I’m working on it,” Blackjack shouts angrily.
“Fine I’ll use the bang bang,” Mona declares. She reaches for the cylindrical object hanging from her neck and rips it off.
“What are you doing?” Blackjack asks with alarm. He turns toward his whore with wide eyes.
“What?” Mona asks pressing her thumb into the top of the cylinder. The cylinder suddenly lights up, glowing red, a high-pitched whine begins to grow higher and higher. “I’m taking care of business.”
“What does last resort mean?” Blackjack screams. “You stupid whore!”
“Huh,” Mona questions, she raises her hand, preparing to throw.
In the docking tunnel Hartman’s blue eye strip suddenly widens upon hearing the whine. He swivels his head toward Red. “High yield concussion grenade!” Hartman cuts power to his gravity pod and he tumbles to the deck next to the other two doctors.
Red throws his large bulk over the doctors.
A flash shatters the calm, followed by a fast moving pressure wave. The thick glass along the length of the docking tube flies away, shattering to the consistency of sand. The thick transparent bulkheads of Sanctuary’s main airlock bay vaporize with the pulse. The docking tube vibrates, huge bolts crack and the metal along its length whines before the whole thing detaches and falls several meters away from the airlock, hanging at a sixty-degree angle.
Red and the doctors try to cling to the docking tube’s metal deck.
“Dude,” Sykes whimpers, “I was wrong, this isn’t like the game.” His voice is labored; the flashing lights around his are brain weak.
“Howie,” Hicks groans desperately. “Hang on bro! We can do this together dude. Just like always. Just you and me against the universe.”
“You go!” Sykes groans. “Help them fix this dude. I’m out.” Sykes releases his grip. He slides downward toward the opening that now dangles over the cavern.
Desperately, Hicks tries to reach out for him but misses.
Hartman snaps out with a spare armature but instead scrapes Syke’s back, sparks spitting under his metal fingers.
Sykes tumbles down the docking tube, out the opening and is seen falling into the depth of the cavern, spinning end over end.
“NOOOOOO!” Hicks screams with wretched misery.
*****
Jason picks himself from the deck. Smoke is filling the captain’s nest, but he ignores it. Getting quickly back into his chair, he begins bringing his screens back online. “SITREP!” he calls out. A steam vent suddenly fires from the ceiling, filling the captain’s nest with a steam whistle.
“Sir,” Aria replies. “We took three direct hits on the starboard forward frame, we are venting. They lost two corvettes, one is damaged, and the last two are coming around portside aft for more. The mantas are coming around as well!”
“Show the corvettes our portside and give them the works!” Jason orders.
“Understood sir,” Aria replies. “Changing course.”
The panorama screens flicker back on. Jason changes the view toward the advancing corvettes. Streams of magnetic rounds reach out toward the advancing ships. Flashes and missile streaks tear away from the corvettes heading straight toward Samurai. Again several missiles are hit and explode violently, but two avoid the streams, passing Samurai’s return fire.
Jason is pushed forward as the missiles strike from behind and explode. Again his view screens flicker and die.
“Captain!” Aria calls. “We are dark! Scanners are down. Engines are down. We are listing.”
“What do we have?” Jason yells. He starts violently punching at his keyboards and trying to turn dials with frustration.
“We still have life support, gravity compensation and…the forward missile array, but we can’t see, so we can’t fire,” Aria replies.
“What about the corvettes?” Jason asks. “Did we get them?”
“Unknown sir, the missile tracks looked good, but without the data I can’t be sure.”
Jason slams his fist into his armrest. “So those bastards might be coming about to finish us off?” Jason asks through clenched teeth. “I’m coming down! Get damage control off their asses! Get me some maneuvering power!”
“Sir!” Aria replies stiffly.
Jason gets out of his chair and turns to sprint through the opening behind him.
The Bay One doors snap open. With a sudden gust of frozen air Blade and Warrior soar out and away from The Shrine, performing barrel rolls. As they glide out they witness Samurai listing, sparks erupting from ruptures along her starboard hull as well as venting jets of air. Her aft engines are dim and sparking, a trail of micro-debris, like black smoke, pumps from an exhaust port.
The debris of four corvettes drifts in the vicinity of the stricken patrol craft, but slowly limping and coming about is the fifth corvette. Also, ten small manta ships and five speed-shuttles are regrouping into a phalanx formation, preparing for a final attack run.
“Doesn’t seem like a fair fight,” Warrior observes.
“The big vessel has official markings,” Blade notes. “Local military I presume.”
“Yes,” Warrior agrees. “The attackers have definitely won this battle, yet their weapons are still powered up. I think they intend to finish this fight without mercy.”
“You’re right,” Blade decides. “Not fair at all.”
“You sure about this? Getting involved with the locals could have bad consequences,” Warrior suggests.
“It could also earn us some respect,” Blade replies. “We may be in this region of space for a while. Respect would serve us well.”
Warrior grins happily. “Let’s go Big Guy!”
“Thought you were done with war,” Blade questions.
“Oh this isn’t war,” Warrior corrects. “This is fun!” Warrior suddenly flaps her leather-like wings and soars away. She performs a barrel roll and fires a pulse cannon burst towards the phalanx. Two speed-shuttles explode brilliantly as two Mantas tumble away, engines sparking. The formation quickly breaks up, ships moving away in different directions.
Blade smirks. He thrusts towards the corvette and fires several pulse rounds from emitters on the tips of his wings. Explosions erupt along the length of the stricken pirate vessel. The pirate vessel suddenly turns and attempts to thrust away, firing a single missile towards Blade. Blade swoops around easily avoiding the missile. He dives over the corvette and whips his tail, the sharp blade on the end cutting through the corvette’s hull. Several vital systems are cut, forcing the engines to go dark. The corvette tumbles away in the direction of the great gas giant.
Warrior spins around, tail whipping out to cut a manta ship in half. It explodes violently, the debris raining harmlessly into warrior’s durable scales. Opening her great maw, Warrior releases a blast of energy from an emitter hidden in her mouth, disintegrating an attacking speed shuttle. Diving, Warrior snatches another manta in her claws. Clenching her teeth, she squeezes the manta, which is suddenly crushed; sparks, fire and vents of air squirt between her toes. Performing an intricate and almost rhythmic twist, Warrior flings the crushed vessel like soda can toward Neptune.
The remaining mantas and a single speed-shuttle turn and thrust away at high speed.
*****
Jason lands on the balcony above Samurai’s control center. Below him there are screams and smoke rising. Jason jumps to the rail and looks over. Computer terminals are sparking and smoking. A few officers are still at their stations working frantically, but more than a few are lying on the deck, some unmoving. The tall view screens are flickering or dead.
Aria suddenly appears at Jason’s side, shimmering out of nothingness, a slight green nimbus surrounding her body. In her forehead a blue third eye glows. Her uniform is torn down her left sleeve, blood is stained against her chest and a lock of her black hair hangs in her ash-smudged face. “Sorry,” she says with a gasp. “I had to take two more officers to medical bay.”
Jason nods to her. “I haven’t felt any more hits,” he observes. “Hell knows they have enough fire power. What do you think they are waiting for?”
“Loco’s not going to let us live,” Aria replies.
“That’s why I haven’t abandoned ship,” Jason states with a growl. “He’d just shoot the escape pods. We should go down fighting.”
Aria nods and takes a deep breath. “Yes sir,” she says. “Of course.”
Jason looks up at his wife and tries to smile. “Sorry…thought she was good luck,” he says. Her reaches out to press his palm on Aria’s tummy.
“She still is,” Aria declares with a smile, a tear running down her right cheek.
“Sir!” a cry is heard from below.
The two officers turn and notice the view screens have flickered back to life. Depicted on the screens is the surface of Neptune, The Star and soaring within vast fields of debris are two large dragonships.
“What the hell?” Jason questions, his eyes wide.
“Sir, no signatures…nothing in the database matches their configuration,” a young female officer reports from below. “Sir, scanners are up. The Solar Mafia are bugging out, many of their ships are destroyed, including the last two corvettes.”
Aria steps up to the rail, her eyes fixed on the two dragons approaching Samurai.
“You getting anything?” Jason asks.
“They’re alive,” she says with astonishment.
“Who’s alive?” Jason asks.
“Those things out there are alive…I can feel their minds,” Aria explains. She closes her eyes and sends out her thoughts. “I’m reading them Jason…they are just like us.”
“Incoming hail captain,” a voice from below cries up. “Voice only.”
“We are the biosynth,” Blades voice announces simply.
“I’m Captain Jason Drake of TDF Samurai,” he replies. “You responsible for all that debris out there?”
“We thought we should render assistance, captain,” Blade replies. “Hope it doesn’t go unnoticed. If you can, you should move away from The Shrine.”
“You must mean the structure, we call it The Star,” Jason says.
“Regardless, it is about to go critical and we still have people aboard,” Blade replies.
Aria reaches out to squeeze Jason’s shoulder. “I can help,” she states in Jason’s mind.
Jason glances down toward the navigation station below him; the young officer occupying the station looks up and shakes his head. Jason frowns. “I think we can help each other still,” Jason says. “Our propulsion is still down and my first officer has a gift you may be able to utilize.” Jason looks at Aria and nods.
Aria nods back. Her third eye sizzles, her body shimmers and she disappears.
On the view screen the smaller of the two dragons suddenly halts and looks about. The two dragons appear to speak to each other.
“Jason, I’m on board the smaller one,” Aria reports in Jason’s mind. “It’s a mess in here, but I’m in contact with its…pilot.”
“Your officer is aboard,” Blade’s voice states with surprise.
“I think you can understand what I mean by assist then,” Jason states.
“Very well,” Blade replies. “I’ll tow your vessel to safety while my partner and your officer retrieves our people.”
*****
Hicks crumples onto the deck and sobs mournfully after having been pulled up and out of the collapsed docking tunnel by Hartman and Red. Red stands. He clenches his fists, missing the sensation of holding his rifle, which was lost in the docking tunnel following the explosion.
Hartman scans Hicks then looks up at Red. “We have just under four minutes left.”
“Which way?” Red asks.
“It doesn’t matter, it will take us at least six minutes to get up to the next level and over to Docking Bay One,” Hartman replies.
“So this is it?” Red asks.
“I’m going to make my final report to Warrior,” Hartman replies.
“I’ve never failed a mission before,” Red laments.
“Your kind can only fail a mission once,” Hartman notes with an amused grunt.
Behind them, Aria shimmers and flashes into view. She takes a deep gasping breath upon materializing.
Hartman spins about aiming his guns.
“
It’s okay!” Warrior yells in Hartman’s ear. “She’s a friend.”
“I’m here to get you guys out, there isn’t much time,” Aria explains quickly. “Your ship…or whatever…is just in my range, but we need to get close and…”
“Wait!” Hartman interrupts. “Can you take us to the control room of Sanctuary? We need it to survive.”
Aria looks at the biomechanical man and raises a confused eyebrow while shrugging her shoulders.
“Sanctuary,” Hartman repeats. He points with a finger on the end of one of armatures out the breached hatchway toward the large cube hanging above the great cavern.
Aria steps forward and looks. She shakes her head. “Where is the control room? Do any of you know? I can read it if you do.”
Red and Hartman look down at the sobbing brain-bot.
Aria’s eyes widen, her third eye flashes as she regards Hicks. “Wholly shit,” she replies suddenly. “Okay…I think I got it. Everyone get close.”
Red and Hartman move in.
Aria closes her natural eyes. Her third eye suddenly flares. All of them shimmer and fade from view. Aria and the biosynths experience the sudden rush of energy pulsing through their bodies, the sensation of flying and an instant gush of power as all four are haphazardly tossed into the maelstrom of the universe, or so it feels. Without warning the four travelers rush back together and appear within pitch-black darkness.
“Um…”Aria sighs. The air seems frigid to her and she shivers.
“Sanctuary?” Hicks questions.
Bright lights ignite about the circumference of a large circular room, which is surrounded by clear tabletops and tall rectangular objects that can only be computer servers.
Aria groans and shields her eyes.
Hicks, sitting on the floor comes to his feet. “Howie,” he moans sadly while looking down at the polished metal deck.
Panels on Hartman’s hover disk snap up and quickly he holsters his guns, the weapons disappearing seamlessly. “I didn’t enjoy that much,” he admits says.
Aria looks at the medical droid, her third eye suddenly flaring.
“I’m Doctor Hartman,” he says, waving an armature.
“Commander Aria Eaglewolf,” she replies. “Terran Defense Force patrol vessel Samurai.”
