He wanted to tell him to lay down arms, let it run its course without him, not to ruin his career. At least Spence could say he was just following a dead Major's orders.
Then the sounds of weapons fire was gone, and Spence rushed to him. “Don't try to move Sarge, it's all right. I hear these folks have some pretty good med tech.”
Every attempt at a shallow breath brought intense pain and forced his body to spasm. “Done it now. Command will have your head,” he managed between gasps.
“This? Command will wash this out, try to forget it ever happened.”
“You too,” Cumberland struggled. “You're a witness, Private.”
Then Oz was there, injecting something into his neck. The pain seemed so less important suddenly, like it was a physical footnote. “You'll be fine. Might spend some time in a stasis tube regenerating, but we'll get you fixed up.”
“Maybe start a new career. Think there's room for a new Major aboard, Commander?” Asked Cumberland. His senses were beginning to spin, and everything was fading away. He was going into emergency stasis.
“I'd be honoured.”
“Money,” he mouthed as he let his eyes close. “That's what I-” A rush of heat and light interrupted him.
Oz snatched the dead Major's sidearm up off the deck and fired it several times at the dying Commander. Everyone was watching the Major, no one was looking out for Commander DeHansen. Oz made sure he was dead before looking back at the man at his feet, the only enemy he’d tried to save. Cumberland he'd heard him called several times as Agameg and Jason tracked him through the ship. He seemed like the kind of man he could have fought along side if things were different.
“Jason, the bridge is under control. What’s Command doing?” Oz asked, standing slowly.
“They’re ordering the port and starboard destroyers to detach. Looks like they’re about to do something from a distance, even with their command ship hard docked.”
“He’s right. They are not interested in agreeing to your terms, Oz,” Agameg verified mournfully.
Oz looked around the room at the exhausted faces of the three dozen enemy soldiers and nodded. “Everyone up!” Several of the corpses on the bridge and in the hall got to their feet, each one of them a gravely injured Triton soldier who recovered in deep stasis. They filed into the bridge and started collecting weapons. Oz was steeled by the sight, realizing how few of his stealth suited comrades remained. There were hundreds, but that had been whittled down to thirty five.
The deck jerked slightly, the sounds of screeching metal announced that the destroyers were trying to separate. His gaze found one of the soldiers who had taken Cumberland’s side and he said; “I wish I was sorry for what I’m about to do.” Oz’s finger moved across his command unit to the first torpedo launch icon and activated it. The impacts of driller torpedoes striking the enemy ships at such a close range sounded as a low thud. The destroyer’s hulls would be weakened and breached in several places, making them a soft target. The soldier Oz was watching closed his eyes and lowered his face into his hands.
“No, please!” shouted another.
“Stay where you are,” Agameg said flatly, pointing his handgun at the soldier’s face.
“What’s their Command band saying?” Oz asked.
Agameg shook his head. “They are instructing the destroyers to increase their thrust to full in an attempt to decouple from the mooring points.”
Oz pressed the second launch icon and the Triton shuddered as heavy torpedoes detonated inside and outside of the destroyers docked on either side of the ship. Hull breach alarms went off for a moment while the Triton’s emergency systems kicked in and sealed off any compartments that were open to space. He knew there would be a great deal of damage, but it would have been worse if the destroyers were allowed to separate.
“They're clear. The carrier's still moored securely,” Jason replied. “Ashley's opening a wormhole now.”
“Ashley’s alive?
“Thank God, yes. She’s in medical babysitting with one hand and plotting a multi-part wormhole jump with the other. I’ll never underestimate that one again.”
Oz looked around. Most of the soldiers didn't know what was happening or how to react, and stood staring at him, waiting for an order. Some found a place to sit down, a few started quietly crying.
The Triton security and combat ready staff were vigilant, guarding the weaponry they collected in a corner, gathering the enemy into small, controllable groups. Oz couldn’t help wonder if things would have been better if he hadn’t spent hours in stasis. He was supposed to stay back, direct his people from the shadows, but after seeing so many of his own killed instead of injured, he couldn't. He had a chance to take out one of the best commanding officers they had, Cumberland, and he took it at his peril.
When he woke in the hall, the dust had settled, and he was relieved to see that Agameg was in position. He overheard Jason sullenly give the order to implement the plan Oz had concocted as a secondary measure. He hoped they wouldn’t have to use the strategy, but it became the only option.
Everyone looked and sounded tired. The siege had drawn on longer than either side expected.
“Sir, what did Major Cumberland mean?” Asked Spence as he handed his rifle and sidearm over.
It took a moment for Oz to realize the younger man was speaking to him. “When he thought he killed me, I asked your Major what he was fighting for. First time he said; ‘duty.’ This time, I think he was honest,” Oz knelt down and closed the front of the man's helmet. His face had been burned away, and Oz hoped his subordinates wouldn't remember him that way.
“Ashley, we have to finish calculating our thrust angle and estimate new shear values,” Larry reminded from his side of the table.
The sight of the incredible damage along the port and starboard sides of the Triton had struck her still. When she was at the controls of that big, beautiful ship, she swore she could feel it. The warm embrace of an incredible metal creature with thick skin, powerful aura like shields and rows of teeth that could keep enemies at bay.
Her rationality reminded her that the ship wasn't invincible, even though it was the best built thing she'd ever seen, with a feel of permanence that made it easy for her to call it home as she would a planet side city. She had to remind herself that the ship wasn't invincible, because it was a difficult thing to believe. Until then.
The thick skin along the port and starboard sides of the ship had ruptured in several places, been crushed into the side of the ship in others. The damage to the pair of destroyers was many times worse, but watching the Triton evacuate air from dozens of outer compartments as bulkhead doors sealed made Ashley feel as though she had been injured. The ship seemed like a delicate thing, even though her rational mind told her that there were safeguards, that most of the hull still remained intact.
“Ashley!” Larry whispered harshly. “We have to get moving!”
She shook her head and looked down into a pair of big, worried nafalli eyes. Her hand was stroking Zoe's face before she knew it, and even though she fidgeted in her lap, the child seemed to draw back from the precipice of tears. “It's okay. We'll get out of here and meet with Captain.” One hand moved over the controls, starting the pilot control recalibration process, checking navigational data, and verifying that their single main thruster was still online.
Zoe made herself at home in her lap, and buried her nose in Ashley's hair. She'd seen Iloona's youngest children do the same several times, and thought it was nothing more than a sign of affection. In that moment she was convinced that it was something more; Zoe was drawing comfort from the act, making Ashley her own warm, safe place.
The controls finished calibrating, her verified navigational data and wormhole trajectory appeared on her panel, and the main thruster reported ready to fire.
“Is everything all right up there Ash?” Asked Oz.
The relief at hearing his low voice and calm tone ran deep. “Course plotted, contr
ols ready, and the computer's telling me that we'll be able to move with the ship still attached to our upper mooring point.”
“Nice work, can we project a wormhole wide enough?”
She looked to Larry, who nodded. “Not a problem.”
“Ashley, you're amazing. Get us out of here.”
That took both hands, but Zoe didn't seem to mind. Ashley activated the remaining emitters and they fired a burst of energy in front of the ship, bending and twisting the space ahead into a funnel. To the naked eye the sight wasn't so spectacular, only some lensing and a slight ripple in front of the Triton would be visible. The exterior sensor screen was a different story. It was like watching a flower opening from the outside in, energies bent and twisted as empty space compressed and several pieces of debris were pulled in.
Zoe must have caught the light in the corner of her eye, she turned and stared at the holographic sensor view and watched as Ashley fired the main thruster and increased the power as much as she dared. “Let's make this place a memory,” Ashley said to herself as the wormhole finished forming and the Triton entered the highly compressed space.
As soon as their course was steady Larry got to his feet.
“Where ya goin?” Ashley asked.
“There's still fighting in a few compartments, I'm going to go do what I have to,” he said stoically as he strode for the door.
Ashley watched it close behind him. When he was sure he was several meters away she locked her controls and made her way to the room's only door, an act made more difficult while carrying Zoe. She locked it biometrically and verified that the life support systems were operating properly in that section of medical. “He can stay out,” she whispered to herself.
Zoe was watching her. What she was doing, the expression on her face, and who knew what else. Ashley looked at her, bouncing the small youngster in the crook of her arm and feigning excitement; “I think it’s snack time! How 'bout you?”
Zoe giggled as she was bounced several more times.
Ashley never thought she was graceful under pressure, and she wasn't normally good at hiding her feelings, but with Zoe in her arms false joviality became real in a surprisingly short time.
Chapter 32
Fallout
One of the shipping containers was filled with supplies, and Ayan couldn’t help but smile at the sight of it being unloaded. “It’s a reassuring sight,” Laura said from her side.
“Yes it is,” agreed a liberated slave as he passed by with a group of similarly dressed people. Most of them were smiling at the sight of incoming supplies. “Time to unload the groceries,” another added.
“I’m just glad we’re on solid ground. From the looks of the ships, they must have been pretty close to sinking.” Ayan observed, gesturing towards a nearby, fat bellied hauler ship. Its landing struts were still caked with mud all the way up to the hull.
“Most of that’s backsplash from vertical takeoff,” Stephanie explained from her left.
Ayan hadn’t noticed her approach, and turned to greet her with a smile but that intent as well as the expression faded as soon as she caught the woman’s expression. She looked nearly furious. “Everything all right?”
“No, everything’s not all right. We’ve been here less than a day and you’ve got us hooked in with a crime boss who happens to be our landlady. You know who Patrizia Salustri is?”
Ayan hadn’t been angry, truly, out of control angry since she was a teenager. When she lost her temper, the world shook, the edges of her vision blurred, and it was all she could do to keep from leaping bodily at her rival. She’d never seen Stephanie in that light before, but who else was as close to Jake? Who knew the man he had become better than her? That, along with the suspicion that Patrizia, the tall, elegant, beautiful mysterious woman she’d just met could be one of Jacob’s ex-lovers was enough to crush the emotional barriers Ayan used to compartmentalize her feelings. “That’s it,” she breathed, stepping right up to the Security Chief. “You don’t have the right to put me down, fringe trash.”
Stephanie took a step back, her expression softening.
Ayan followed her, holding position, nose to nose toe to toe. She was no longer Ayan, the awe filled traveller. She was a Commander, military trained, a two time boot camp graduate, survivor of ship to ship as well as person to person combat, and she wasn’t going to be insulted, not when she was suppressing so much anger and frustration. She unleashed all the fury she had at not being able to return to the Triton and help her people along with everything else and everything but Stephanie’s brown eyes disappeared. “Are you talking down to me Chief? You couldn’t find a serial killer on your own ship and you’re talking down to me?” The feeling of air filling her lungs to the brim, of pushing all of it out with her stomach as hard as she could was like a violent ecstasy. “What the hell has got you thinking you can bust my chops about how I do my job when you’re not doing yours?” Ayan took a quick, deep breath and squeezed her final words through gnashed teeth. “You get your ass over there and supervise your people while they unload the bread I brought home today and set up a perimeter detail while you’re at it.” Ayan watched her. “In case you can’t remember the proper response, it is ‘yes sir!’”
“Yes sir,” Stephanie mewled. The woman had melted, fear and uncertainty was plain in her eyes.
“Again, before you embarrass yourself!” Ayan demanded.
Stephanie snapped to attention and barked; “Yes sir!”
“Dismissed!” Ayan shouted as a reflex.
Stephanie turned on her heel and began to stride away.
Ayan was about to let it go, to walk to the Clever Dream and hope that would be the last time the spectre of military discipline would show, but she saw the look of frustration on Stephanie’s face. Even from the side, it was instantly recognizable. What little anger Ayan had surged to the surface. “Oi! Next time you even think of giving me attitude, I’ll give your job to Leland March. At least he looks as useless as he is!”
With Laura close behind and eyes on her from every direction, Ayan marched towards the main boarding ramp of the Clever Dream. She stepped into the first officer’s quarters, why, she wasn’t sure, and Laura was right behind her.
“Wow, I’ve never seen that side of you. Where’d that come from?” Laura asked.
“Too many years on the parade ground,” Ayan rasped as she sat on the bed hard enough to bounce and lowered her face into her hands.
“Jason told me they used to call you Sunspot because of your temper, but that was just…” She trailed off for a moment before concluding; “Military. That was Commander Ayan.”
Ayan could hear Laura turn around and notice how quiet she’d gotten, and the moment she sat on the bed beside her the tears started flowing.
“Oh,” she said as she put her arm around her shoulders.
Laura had always been a good friend, the best. She’d met so many people in Junior Academy, then Fleet Academy and the military. Many of her best friends had died years ago, service mates who perished on the Sunspire during combat action. Others drifted off as service took them in different directions, and for Ayan, that meant up the command ladder, further separating her from fellow graduates and the acquaintances of her youth. Then she was reborn, and everyone but Doctor Anderson and Minh were gone. When she arrived aboard the Triton, the reunion with Laura was the sweetest. There was no forgetting or replacing such a friend, and as she sat on the edge of the bed Jacob Valance had slept in the night before crying for reasons she couldn’t quite put together yet, she had never been more grateful that she was there. Laura didn’t ask why she was in tears, she just kept her company while she got them out of her system, but then, she did want to give her an explanation. “I have no idea what I’m doing here,” Ayan managed as she wiped tears away.
Laura handed her a tissue, where she’d found it, she had no idea. “You’re doing great.”
“No, I’m really not. I mean, all day we’ve been running about,
trying to make a proper place here and I manage to sign the first contract the Government presents, then strike a bargain with a crime lord. What kind of madwoman does that?”
“The intelligent, flexible kind.”
“Oh, and said crime lady all but said; ‘me and your Jake are old shagging buddies, think you can meet us up again?’ God, I’m so lost. So completely, utterly lost,” Ayan punctuated with a long blow of her nose.
“There’s no-“
“And as soon as I get back I go off like a drill sergeant on one of his most trusted people.” She sat silently for a moment, reviewing the incident. “I have to apologize.”
Laura caught Ayan before she could finish standing up and sat her back down. “Oh, no you don’t. She had it coming, I mean she really had it coming. You bent over backwards and worked miracles today. I mean, think about it. None of us have been here before, you couldn’t call back to the ships because we don’t have a local code, and they needed you to get supplies, somewhere to land and the permits to move. I wouldn’t know where to start. Then she has the nerve to give you grief over getting it all finished in the nick of time?” Laura shook her head. “You actually managed to do what anyone in your position would want to do, and she deserved every word.”
It was easy to believe Laura, everything she said was true. “Maybe bringing up the serial killer was going over the line just a little,” Ayan admitted.
“But did you see the look on her face?”
Ayan couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think she’ll doubt me aloud again. Jake’s going to hear about that though.”
“So? I’m pretty sure he’ll agree Stephanie was in the wrong. Respectful colleagues present advice and alternatives, not criticism without support.”
“They used to tell us that in Officer Training.”
Fragments sf-6 Page 30
