Legacy Fleet: Invincible

by David Bruns

  “You didn’t tell me?”

  “Hey, I’m trying to keep things fresh—”

  “Enough,” Addison said. “Do you remember how to drive a starship?”

  Laz slid into the helmsman’s chair.

  Addison patched her suit comms channel into the ship’s system. “Independence, this is Commander Addison Halsey. I’ve taken control of the Invincible.” She raced to the weapons station, shutting down the rail gun fire.

  “Invincible, identify yourself.”

  They think it’s a trick, she thought.

  “Captain Preble, this is Addison Halsey. I boarded the Invincible and took control of the ship. I’m on your side, sir.” She found the circuit to put him on screen. When Preble saw the bridge, his narrowed eyes widened at the sight of her in a pressure suit.

  “Jesus, Halsey, what the hell happened over there?”

  “We vented the bridge to space, sir. Baltasar and his people are gone. The Invincible’s back in friendly hands.”

  “There’s one Swarm ship left and we could sure use some help, Captain Halsey.”

  Addison tamped down the rush of pride that rose in her throat. “I’m at your disposal, sir.”

  “Please tell me you have nuclear torpedoes.”

  “Full complement, sir.”

  Preble smiled. “Then follow me, Captain. I’ll make a hole and you stuff it full of torpedoes.”

  The Independence flashed by them at full speed. Addison called to Laz, “Follow that ship, helm.”

  “Helm, aye,” came the only slightly sarcastic reply.

  The Swarm vessel loomed large on the viewscreen, a bright spot forming where the concentrated projectile fire from the Indy was opening a hole in the alien vessel. The Swarm laser blazed bright green across space, causing the Indy’s shields to flare. Suddenly, the shields overloaded and the green light bored into the ship’s hull. Flecks of molten slag rained into space.

  “Get out of there, Independence,” Addison shouted into the comms channel. “We’ve got this.”

  As the lead ship tried to turn away, the Swarm energy weapon raked across her flank, leaving a stripe of debris in its wake.

  “Put us between the Indy and that laser, Laz!”

  The Invincible jumped forward, the entire ship lurching as the shields absorbed the massive dose of energy from the alien weapon. Addison gripped the edge of the weapons station to steady herself as she directed their rail gun fire on the tiny opening that the Independence had started.

  “Steady on course, Helm,” she said.

  The hole widened, leaving a dark gap in the alien ship’s armor. She aimed her own lasers into the hole. The gap grew at a painfully slow rate.

  “Addie, fire the torpedoes! We’re going to run into it!” Laz shouted.

  She gritted her teeth. “Just a little bit more . . .” Her finger hovered over the button to release the nuclear torpedoes.

  The jagged edges of the hole glowed brightly, crumbling slowly.

  She touched the button and the ship pulsed slightly as the torpedoes sped away.

  “Torpedoes away! Get us out of here, Laz.”

  The ship banked heavily, and their side shields flared under the new strain. She checked the readout. Thirty-seven percent and dropping rapidly.

  The Independence came into view on the screen, trailing a plume of plasma and debris, barely making headway.

  Behind them, the alien laser stopped and the ship’s skin began to buckle. “She’s going to blow, Addie,” Laz said, his voice rising.

  “Wait,” Addison yelled back. She engaged the tractor beam on the Independence. “Bring up your speed slowly, Laz. I’m going to see if we can tow the Indy to safety.”

  “Addie . . .”

  “Do it!”

  The Invincible’s engines strained under the combined mass of two ships.

  “The tractor beam is holding! More power, Laz.”

  The Swarm ship started to fold in on itself, exposing a fiery core. A brilliant flash filled the screen.

  “Punch it, Laz!” She stabbed at the intercom button. “All hands brace for impact!”

  The deck tilted up as the blast wave from the exploding Swarm ship enveloped them.

  Chapter 40

  Beijing, China

  Deputy Assistant Undersecretary of Off-World Aquaculture Li Zan’s communicator buzzed. Not his regular work communicator, and not the communicator he used for his other job as an agent for State Security, but the other one.

  He stared at the device. It had been over a year since his Russian handler had called him.

  It rang again.

  Li Zan stepped to the corner of his office and activated the localized jamming device to prevent any unintended eavesdroppers.

  “Da?” he said in Russian.

  “I have a job for you. Pickup site Omega.”

  The line went dead.

  Li Zan dropped the communicator into the shredder and walked out of his office. His assistant barely looked up. She suspected her boss was a member of the dreaded Chinese State Security and was happy to pretend otherwise.

  At street level, Zan proceeded on foot. He activated the device in his jacket breast pocket to scramble his personal signature against overhead surveillance. Probably not necessary, but better safe than sorry.

  He took his time making sure that he was not being followed. Cautious agents enjoy retirement, that’s what his mentor liked to say.

  Zan strode into the dim sum restaurant exactly on schedule, never even pausing as he passed through the double door in the back of the room. At the rear of the kitchen, a tiny Chinese woman unloaded a wicker basket of dumplings from the steamer. She held out a covered basket. Zan accepted it and kept walking right out the back.

  Outside the day was fading into dusk as he strode down the center of the deserted alley. He removed the cover of the basket to find a new communicator, a black chip the size of the nail on his pinky finger, and a picture.

  Zan stopped short when he saw the picture. Even as the image began to curl when exposed to the open air, he stared.

  When the image disappeared into a crumble of ash, he dropped the now-empty basket into a trash bin and started walking again.

  ***

  It was full dark by the time Zan walked past the line of cars waiting outside Party Headquarters in downtown Beijing. He ignored the line of drivers waiting for their charges, proceeding to the elevator that led to the rooftop where the true VIPs met their vehicles.

  There were only three cars here. Big, black, heavily armored craft bulging with hidden weapons and countermeasures. Zan strode to the center vehicle, flashing the wrist tattoo that identified him as a colonel in the State Security office.

  “I was sent to replace you,” he said.

  The man shrugged. You didn’t question orders from a superior officer in the State Security. Not if you wanted to enjoy retirement.

  Zan slid into the cockpit of the limousine to familiarize himself with the controls. His fingers found the zip gun under the seat. All was in order.

  He focused on his breathing, slipping into a state of calm. It was a job, nothing more. Just another man. His was not to question why, just to follow orders.

  Three men emerged from the building, silhouetted momentarily in the square of light, then just walking shadows. Zan emerged from the cockpit and waited by the open rear door. He bowed low as the shadow stepped into the pool of light around the limousine.

  Chinese Premier Sun Wu was shorter than he’d imagined, but with a youthful face and quickness of step that seemed out of place for a man of his age. He stopped when he saw Zan.

  “Where’s Ping?”

  “Reassigned, sir. I am Zan, your new driver.” He exposed his wrist to the premier. The man raised his eyebrows at Zan’s rank.

  “A colonel?” His gaze sought Zan’s face, his dark eyes searching. “A new threat? Why was I not told?”

  Zan kept his face impassive. “I believe they will be briefing you this eveni
ng, sir.”

  The premier grunted, then stepped into the back of the limousine.

  Zan lifted off smoothly, the lights of Beijing rolling out under them like a carpet of stars. A new dust storm was forming on the horizon, a tall stack of dirty clouds rolling in from the Mongolian desert.

  He kept to the higher traffic patterns, the ones reserved for official vehicles and heavily patrolled by the military. After only a few minutes, Zan let the speed decay and he began a lazy spiral down to the premier’s residence.

  It was a beautiful property from above, with gardens surrounding the residence laid out in a pattern of concentric circles. He touched down in the designated space without so much as a bump and leaped from the cockpit. The tiny chip he’d been given hours before hung on the end of his index finger.

  “Allow me, sir,” Zan said as he opened the rear door. The premier handed out his briefcase, which Zan accepted. As the man stepped out and stretched, Zan slipped the tiny disk under the collar of his suit jacket.

  “Thank you,” the premier said as Zan handed over his attaché case.

  Zan bowed. “It is my distinct pleasure, sir.”

  The premier marched into his residence.

  Zan watched him go, then slid back into the cockpit of the limousine. He lifted off quickly, angling the flight path upwards but avoiding the traffic lanes. Instead, he put the craft into a long holding pattern and slipped the new communicator out of his hip pocket.

  The chip he’d placed on the premier’s back was giving off a strong signal. He pushed the send button.

  The missile strike landed precisely in the center of the concentric circles around the Chinese Premier’s residence.

  Zan pointed the limousine east and pushed the throttles all the way forward. He’d be in Russian airspace in less than two hours.

  Chapter 41

  ISS Invincible – Bridge

  Addison breathed. Not the recycled ozone-tainted air of her pressure suit but actual atmosphere.

  “Wake up, sleeping beauty.” Laz’s voice, mocking but with a tinge of concern.

  She stirred, but her eyelids refused to open.

  “Hey, Addie, if you don’t wake up in the next three seconds, I’m going to send your ass to sick bay.”

  That did it.

  The bridge of the Invincible was brightly lit and full of people. Laz had sealed the emergency exit hatch shut and restored power to the lift.

  “How long was I out?”

  He shrugged. “Fifteen minutes or so.” He grinned at her. “That’ll teach you to wear your seat belt. Although I have to say it was pretty impressive to see you bounce off the ceiling . . .”

  “Shut up!”

  A technician approached Laz, who pointed toward the comms panel. “Get me a live channel to the Indy, specialist.” The man nodded and left.

  Laz turned back to her. “You took a pretty good knock on the head there. You okay?”

  Addison nodded. “The Swarm are gone?”

  “Space dust—along with most of our fleet.”

  The comms specialist called out, “Sir, I’ve got the Independence hailing us.”

  Laz pulled Addison to her feet. She wobbled but managed to stay upright. He nodded at the comms tech. “On screen, specialist.”

  Captain Preble of the Independence looked worn but happy.

  “I’m glad to see you in one piece, Captain Preble,” Addison said.

  “Thanks to you, Commander.” He paused. “That was some fine piloting you pulled off back there . . . without your quick thinking, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”

  Addison blushed and a sour reek pushed up from inside her pressure suit. “Thank you for saying that, sir, but—”

  “Ma’am!” The sensors tech was kneeling in front of the station, the panel open at his feet. He was staring at the panel readouts.

  Addison smiled at Preble. “Excuse me, sir.” To the technician: “What is it?”

  Laz had arrived at the panel and was tapping the screen. “Chinese warships inbound, Addie—I mean, Captain. Looks like four of them.”

  “Are you seeing this, Captain Preble?”

  Preble shook his head. “We’re completely blind for now.”

  “What about weapons?”

  Preble winced. “I’ve got half my rail guns in a ready status. Lasers are out, and I’ve got one engine working. We’re not going to be much help.”

  Addison spun and took a seat in her command chair. “Yeah, well, they don’t know that, sir. Use your thrusters to face them and I’ll come up on your port side. Let’s see if we can talk our way out of this. Invincible, out.”

  She spun in her chair. “What’s our weapons status, Laz?”

  “Rail guns at sixty percent, lasers at thirty, shields at twenty-five percent. Engineering reports three engines online and they’re working on getting us a fourth.”

  Addison nodded. “Helm, take station on the port side of the Indy. If the firing starts, extend our shields around both ships.”

  “Aye-aye, ma’am.”

  “Laz, why don’t you put our guests on screen and tell us who we’re dealing with.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Laz replied without a trace of sarcasm. The Chinese warships appeared on the main viewscreen. “We have the frigates Han and Ming, lightly armored, minimal firepower. The destroyer is the ironically named Confucius, armed with ten-kilo rail guns and lasers. The battle cruiser is the Zheng He, heavy armor, twenty-kilo rail guns, high-power lasers, and a full range of torpedo options.”

  Addison squinted at the screen. She had a raging headache and the pressure suit was like wearing a wet towel. The Chinese vessels were unnervingly beautiful, as if the intricate designs that masked the armor somehow made them more deadly. If either the Indy or the Invincible were at full strength, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but in their present damaged state . . .

  Addison touched the intercom on her armrest. “CAG, this is the captain. I want you to muster every fighter you have. I don’t care if they have no weapons or they’re just trainers. If it flies, get it out there.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Addison waited until the fighters started to show up on the screen. “Let’s see how good their sensors are,” she said. “Comms, hail the Zheng He.”

  “On screen, ma’am.”

  The commanding officer of the Chinese battle cruiser was an elegant woman with red-painted nails and her dark hair gathered into a twist at the nape of her slender neck. Addison wondered what kind of impression she made with her battered pressure suit, sweat-soaked hair, and bruised temple.

  “This is Commander Addison Halsey of the ISS Invincible,” she said.

  The woman inclined her head. “Commander, I am Captain Lao Shi. On behalf of the Chinese Intersolar Republic, I demand your surrender.”

  The bridge of the Invincible went taut with silence. So much for small talk . . .

  “I beg your pardon,” Addison replied.

  “The Chinese government has reached an accord with the alien race, the ones you call the Swarm. We will accept your surrender on their behalf.”

  “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Captain Lao,” said Addison, trying to control her rising anger, “but all of the Swarm ships were destroyed. No thanks to you.”

  The Chinese woman smiled. “More are coming, Commander Halsey. Your choice now is to surrender or be destroyed.”

  Addison tried to think of a worthy response that didn’t involve swearing or name-calling. Nothing. She signaled to cut the feed. The screen switched to show Captain Preble’s head and shoulders.

  “It sounds like diplomacy is not an option, Captain Halsey. I think we’ve got one more fight on our hands.” Preble sounded weary and bitter at the same time.

  Addison ignored her battlefield promotion to commanding officer. “Captain, I propose we link our tractor beams together and fight with our two ships as one unit. Agreed?”

  Preble nodded. “Unorthodox, but it makes the best of a bad situation. We’
ll be stronger as one.”

  Addison looked over at Laz. “I’m on it, ma’am,” he said. The ship rocked as the tractor beams connected.

  She touched the intercom. “CAG, your fighters are our only edge in this battle. I want you to concentrate everything you’ve got on that destroyer. Ignore the frigates for now.” She smiled to herself. “Captain Preble and I will handle the big bastard.”

  “Ma’am, I’m showing the Chinese fleet powering up weapons.”

  She caught Laz’s eye. He winked at her and she smiled back.

  Bring it on.

  Chapter 42

  White House, Washington, DC – Situation Room

  President Quentin Chamberlain watched Russian President Ivanov’s face as he was ushered into the White House Situation Room. The heavy lids twitched up slightly as he took in the scene.

  “I thought it would be bigger,” he said in his thick accent. “Ours is bigger.”

  Chamberlain indicated an open chair at his right hand, where the vice president normally sat. “Please, Oleksiy, sit here, next to me.” He wanted to scream at the Russian to hurry up but kept a patient smile fixed on his lips.

  Ivanov took an attaché case from his aide—undoubtedly a spy. He drew out a hologram device and showed them an infrared view of an aerial nighttime scene. Chamberlain could just make out what looked like an estate or maybe an arboretum.

  “This is the private residence of Chinese Premier Sun Wu. One hour ago,” said Ivanov. A blaze of light flashed across the screen and the arboretum exploded in a fireball. “We had confirmation that the Premier was a Swarm agent. He has been terminated.”

  The secretary of state was making choking noises. “Mr. President, this is a massive violation of international law. An—an assassination . . .”

  Chamberlain glared at her. “Thank you for your input, Kathy, but I’m afraid this issue transcends our national borders. We are talking about an existential threat.” He nodded at Fleet Admiral Kilgore.

  “Two hours ago, the Chinese fleet sortied four warships to meet what is left of the UEF forces,” the admiral said. “I’m afraid we have only two partially capable Constitution-class warships left and they are not a match for the incoming Chinese.”