The Orphan Alliance (The Black Ships Book 3)

by A. G. Claymore

  Harry and the reinforcements retracted their helmets. “Fenris, isn’t it?”

  “That’s right,” the good-looking warrior replied with a grin. “Lothbrok’s been putting his old hands on the new vessels to keep them in line. He asked me to keep an eye on the captain of the Heimdallr and I’ve already damaged his ship!” He hefted his G-19 assault rifle. “Where do you need us?”

  The Midgaard were accustomed to doing most of their shipboard fighting on enemy ships and their aggressive nature tended to result in very few defensive fights aboard their own vessels. As a result, their assault weapons were based on linear acceleration. The incredible destructive power gave them a distinct edge in combat, but it was a liability when fighting aboard friendly vessels. Many haulds had managed to acquire the Heckler and Koch G-19 used by their Human allies. When Harry and Lothbrok had convinced Towers and Caul on their scheme, they had also convinced Towers to release a supply of assault rifles from armories on the Midway.

  “We need to get aft,” Harry was opening a channel to the bridge as he spoke. “There’s three access points to the engineering sections and I’m betting the enemy will oblige us by collecting there. My men can hold them as long as we come behind and finish ‘em off.” He held up a finger, asking for a moment. “Bridge, this is the captain. Signal the squadron. We’re to jump back immediately to the rally point.”

  “Roger that,” Carol replied. “We’re to jump to rally point. Signalling now.” The rally point was only a ten minute jump away. A larger force waited there to scrape off any enemy pursuit.

  And to secure captured equipment, the only real purpose for this raid.

  They raced aft as the waves of distortion washed over them. Perception couldn’t quite be trusted during an initiation or drop-out and Harry bounced off a bulkhead as they rounded the corner. Fenris and his men noted the collision and took a wider route, avoiding mishap. It was all Harry could do to keep his lunch down as the deck in front of him suddenly stretched out and his foot seemingly remained above it, twenty feet away. Both came rushing back to him and the waves died out as the ship stabilized in her bubble of distorted space.

  They brachiated quickly up the forward riser and came out on deck seven, streaming through a narrow alleyway between two massive storage compartments built to hold either ore or gas. The Völund had originally been built as a trading ship and her massive storage spaces took up much of the ship’s volume, leaving only a few paths to the engineering spaces.

  Harry held up his hand and Fenris echoed the signal, halting their column. They’re in the tool room, Harry realized from the sounds ahead. Trying to push into the rainforest.

  The ‘rainforest’ was a large space filled with high pressure steam lines as well as the conduits carrying the reactor coolant. The coolant lines condensed vapor from the ship’s air, causing it to fall as rain. Collector channels under the floor gratings channeled it back to the filtration systems.

  He ignored the shrieks of pain coming from in front of him as he concentrated on his wrist pad. Finally ready, he looked up at Fenris. “I’m going to hit the tool room,” he explained, pointing to their objective, “with a five-second burst of infrasonic energy. It’ll disorient them and scare the hell out of them in the process. Then we move in.”

  He looked down and stabbed his finger at the button. A low vibration rumbled through the walls beside them and Harry waved his team forward. Just as they reached the opening to the tool room, the emitters in the ceiling cut off and he led his reinforcements into the room, cutting down the enemy as they stood or lay in various postures of distress.

  A Midgaard beside Harry took a round in the shoulder and spun to the ground. Harry brought his pistol up and forced himself to take careful aim. He was firing into the forest now and couldn’t risk releasing too much coolant from the unarmored conduits. He dropped one Dactari with a three-round burst and a Midgaard took the second enemy.

  Harry moved forward into the rain, weapon up, but he could see no more living enemy. In the entry to the forest, there were only the two who had just died and three more lying on the deck behind them.

  They were cut cleanly in half through the upper torso.

  He reached out to stop the warrior moving along on his right. “Steam leak,” he said simply, nodding toward the corpses.

  Movement ahead brought both their weapons up, but it was Petty Officer Del Castro and two of her assistants, also aiming along the sights of the G-19’s they kept in lockers for just such an occasion as this.

  She lowered her weapon, raising her left hand. “Stay back, sir. There’s a steam leak right in front of you. It was caused by that portal beacon we found on the ride home from Khola. I figured it would make a good trap so we cut it open again and fell back.”

  “Quick thinking, Del Castro. Any damage back there?”

  “A couple of lines got hit, but we can fix ‘em after we finish fighting.”

  “Alright, you hold down this section.” He opened a channel. “Bridge, this is the captain. What’s our status?”

  “Harry, we’ve got about thirty enemy spread out in the mess hall and gymnasium areas.” Harry had known Carol Cernan since their academy days and, since their voyage as civilian officers on the Völund, they had assumed a more relaxed manner in addressing each other. Though they were now back in the service, they often slipped into the easy informality of their previous careers.

  “Liam and Jan are pulling back in front of them,” she continued. “We were just getting ready to hit ‘em with a blast from the emitters.”

  “Good. I’m on my way up there with twenty Midgaard warriors. Use a pulse in the alpha range so you can sustain it without causing any structural damage. I’ll let you know when we’re in position to hit them from behind.”

  “When we’re done here,” Fenris said, loading a fresh magazine into his G-19, “you’ll have to tell me how these ‘sound weapons’ of yours work.”

  “Gladly,” Harry swapped out a partially empty magazine from the top slot of his pistol as he started back down the narrow passageway. “But first, we need to get to the forward riser and move up five decks.”

  As they approached the forward entry hatch into the common areas, they became aware again of vibration in the deck plates. The pulse itself was too low to be heard by humanoid ears, but the sympathetic vibrations in the fabric of the ship were causing their own, higher-frequency sounds.

  “Gods,” Fenris muttered. “It sounds like the horn of doom.”

  Harry opened a general frequency channel, heard by all the crew. “Give me a five-second burst at full intensity and then cut it completely. I’ll come into the common area from the forward entry hatch with twenty Midgaard. Liam and Jan – keep them from getting past your positions and we’ll put ‘em down.”

  The vibration increased and Harry suddenly felt an indescribable, amorphous fear. He knew to expect it, along with the nausea and loss of balance. At full intensity, it was starting to bleed out into the passageway and he turned to see that the faces of his allies reflected his own feelings.

  “It’s alright,” he said loudly. “The fear is just a side effect of the sound pulse.”

  They nodded dubiously as the sound suddenly cut off. Harry instantly felt better, but he knew the Dactari beyond that hatch had been hit with the full force of the pulse and they would be severely affected.

  He pushed ahead, making certain that he was first through the hatch. Just wouldn’t do to let our allies be first to risk their necks for my ship. He saw incapacitated enemy everywhere, kneeling or simply lying on the floor in the fetal position. Without a shred of mercy, he raised his weapon and began firing on the hapless forms.

  The Midgaard poured in behind him and they made short work of the slaughter. Harry saw an enemy officer attempting to draw his sword while simultaneously trying to come to his feet. He could only rise to his knees before falling back down again, his sword clattering onto the engineered hardwood of the lounge, a luxury from the ship
’s commercial days.

  Harry stepped over and picked up the sword, taking off both of the officer’s arms with easy, expert swings. He glided to the right and decapitated an under officer who was trying to bring his weapon to bear, before rotating to the left to drive the point into the throat of a Dactari who had managed to come to his knees.

  He stepped back to the horrified officer who now lay, armless, on the deck as his life poured out onto the polished walnut to pool around an overturned club chair. “Give my regards to Emperor Hemchala!” He drove the point through the officer’s left eye and into his brain.

  He stood to catch his breath. Looking around, he could see that Liam and his Marines had come into the room. Everyone was staring at him. Even the Midgaard, accustomed to brutal combat as a part of everyday life, seemed to regard him with mild alarm.

  “Well, that was… effective,” the major was looking fixedly at the sword in Harry’s hand. “If you don’t mind, sir, what language were you speaking in just now?”

  Harry frowned back at his security officer. If Liam didn’t understand him, then he couldn’t have been speaking in English, Midgaard or Dheema. I must have slipped into Oaxian. He knew he had wanted to kill these Dactari, not just to save his ship, although it had started out that way. Something else had begun to grow in him as he fought.

  He wanted revenge.

  Revenge for lives he’d never actually lived.

  He looked down at the sword in his hand. A natural reaction, he decided. Once I saw the sword, I started to access Orontes’ memories, including his language.

  He was about to answer Liam but the major was suddenly twenty feet away, and yet, still standing right in front of him. The ship was dropping out of distortion. Has it only been ten minutes?

  The waves subsided and all eyes turned to the windows that formed the port side of the crew lounge. The small alliance fleet, flagged by the Bangalore stood ready to fight off any pursuit. A shuttle, floating directly above the Bangalore suddenly turned and accelerated toward Völund.

  “Sir,” Carol’s voice crackled in Harry’s earpiece, “Commander Flemming is requesting permission to come aboard.”

  Harry sighed. “Granted. Has the Freyer dropped out yet?”

  “Yes, sir. Shall I ask Lothbrok to join you here on board?”

  “Do that.”

  Harry looked around at the bodies then back to Liam. “How are your boys?”

  “Two dead, four wounded,” Liam answered. “I’ve got fifteen men sweeping the other decks right now.”

  Harry nodded. “There’s bound to be a few more of the bastards hiding somewhere.” There could also be dead crewmen that he didn’t know about yet, but he had to deal with Flemming first. “Fenris, could you help Major Kennedy with clearing the ship? I need to get down to the hangar deck to meet with Lothbrok and one of our intelligence officers.”

  Having secured Fenris’ assistance, Harry headed for the hangar bay, finding both Flemming’s and Lothbrok’s shuttles had already arrived. He nodded affably to Lothbrok. “Good of you to let Fenris come over and play.” Though his words were casual, his tone conveyed his gratitude.

  “That’s what happened?” Lothbrok grunted. “Good for Fenris. Next ship I get my hands on will have him for a captain. He’s due for a reward.”

  “Did you get it?” Flemming could contain his anxiety no longer. Harry and Lothbrok had dangled the holy grail of intelligence in front of him when they were selling their plan to the two Alliance commanders, and he was itching to get his hands on it.

  “We ran into a little hitch,” Lothbrok answered dryly.

  Harry elaborated on his friend’s maddeningly sparse reply. “Looks like the enemy had the same idea as we did. They obviously realize how important their logistics tracking system can be if it falls into the wrong hands. The station blew as soon as it was clear we were going to win.”

  Flemming sighed. “We knew it would be a longshot, taking a module by force.” He crossed his arms. “We shall simply have to come up with a way to stop them from blowing the next one up – all while making it look like we failed, of course.”

  “And before the Weirans decide to send us packing,” Lothbrok growled.

  Lightning can strike in the same place twice, if you build a really tall lighting rod, Harry thought inanely. He suddenly caught his breath, then darted a look at the lanky intelligence officer. “The last time I saw that module, I was a prisoner.”

  The other two men began to nod and then, almost comically, comprehension dawned on both faces.

  Lothbrok was first to speak. “You’re going to let them capture you.”

  Harry grinned. “That’s right, and I know just the right person to help make it happen.”

  A Distorted View

  The Dark Defiance, Unknown Dead World

  Tommy stared out through the bridge shields with a growing dread. They had been lucky that Earth was tended by a guardian with a very ‘hands-off’ approach, but every world they went to was a roll of the dice. He had managed to talk Keeva around to sparing Khola but that had been a very lucky convergence of events.

  He’d been so sick of trying to help and failing every time that he’d been almost indifferent to Keeva’s intentions. The symbiote of the massive ship hadn’t viewed him as being in opposition and so she had left him on the bridge while she removed the rest of his team. She had explored his mind as she prepared to sterilize Khola and the two of them managed to convince each other that chaos could breed diversity and resilience.

  The chances of a repeat performance with a different ship’s symbiote were slim at best.

  “I’d say we’re too late,” Kale muttered. The three had come to the bridge, eager to see the latest, exotic new world.

  The planet below them was dead. A massive crater near the equator showed where a large asteroid had impacted, dark lines radiating out across the surface. There was no visible water and the entire planet was a mottled, dull grey.

  I would estimate that an asteroid of roughly seventy-five kilometers in diameter struck this planet over three thousand years ago, Keeva announced.

  “Was there a civilization on the surface?” Gelna asked.

  An image window appeared in front of them, showing a magnified view of the surface. Several smudges might have indicated cities. The image zoomed in on one of them and, sure enough, there was a massive sprawl of smaller structures that ranged out from a central area of tall buildings. They looked remarkably intact.

  “I always thought humanoid structures would disappear after a few centuries,” Tommy mused. “These are still standing after several millennia?” He felt a guilty relief – there was no need to worry about saving them if they were already dead.

  On Earth, they will disappear, Keeva replied. Here, there is no oxygen left to react with the structures, no weather to wear them away, no plant roots to pull them apart.

  “Will disappear?” Tommy frowned. “You don’t hold out much hope for my planet, do you?”

  I have much hope, she replied, surprise evident in her voice at Tommy’s challenge. But you simply won’t have the numbers needed to maintain your current cities. Keeping a city like New York in proper working condition would require the combined efforts of the remainder of your species, to the cost of all other considerations. You will have to devise a more efficient way to organize yourselves.

  Before anyone could respond to that, another screen appeared showing a small structure in orbit. It seems they were on the verge of becoming a spacefaring species.

  “We should take a look around,” Tommy said, surprising himself. The urge had been sudden, perhaps brought on by his thoughts of Earth’s future. He waved a hand at the planet below them. “If Earth ever ends up like this, I’d like to know that someone would spare us a thought one day, walk our streets and imagine what we were like…”

  There is a large coastal city that survived the blast intact, Keeva offered. It was spared most of the shock wave by a mountain range. I c
an put you in the center of the business district.

  Tommy closed his eyes. “Ready.”

  “Ready,” Kale declared.

  “Count me in,” Gelna added.

  You are projected.

  Tommy opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by tall buildings. They appeared to be more than a hundred stories in height and they looked unfinished. There were no windows above the ground levels. He took a half step towards the center of the street and squinted up at the first exposed floor. There were emitters mounted on the outer edge of the floor. “They must have used shields instead of glass.”

  A layer of dust and ash covered every surface. Any horizontal surface had at least a foot of accumulation on top of it. “No air left, so I suppose it all just fell straight back down.” He was about to step over a hump on the ashy ground before he realized what it must be.

  He shivered. “Let’s take a look inside one of the buildings.” He pointed toward a set of doors set back underneath a broad, skeletal canopy. They walked over, leaving no footprints in the ancient ash fall.

  “Hell of a big door,” Kale muttered. “Wonder how tall they were.”

  They passed through the material of the door and found themselves in what was undoubtedly a shopping venue. An open space extended through several floors above them and there were shop fronts on each level.

  And everywhere they looked, they could see bodies.

  They were roughly a third larger than the average Human and their desiccated corpses lay where they had suffocated. Untouched by the ash fall, their features were easily visible.

  Tommy looked down at two adults who lay huddled together with a child. “They must not have known the asteroid was coming,” he said softly. “Just a normal day, watching your little girl scampering about at the local shopping center, and then, I expect they would have felt the impact…”