Fracture Lines (The Glass Complex Book 2)

by John Hindmarsh

  “Ask Kirby if he wants Rolston to extract atmosphere from the area outside the bridge?”

  “I did, sir—he said not yet. He’s getting closer. The Xesset are devious, he said.”

  Steg laughed to himself. “I could have told him that.”

  Ulston said, “Kirby’s worse, sir. I’ve worked with him before.”

  “Sir, your workstation’s ready,” said Iwao.

  Steg tried to ignore the high velocity impacts on the access doors as he accessed the Astro workstation. Iwao had done a good job of prepping the equipment, he thought, and the workstation’s performance was better than the one he had used to access Djamu’s sensors. He started researching possible courses for the freighter. The starship was far slower than Wasp and it would take more than two hours to get up to speed, without allowing for the freight burden. He calculated again and added another hour to his estimates. It would take them over three hours to reach minimum speed for s-t penetration. Assuming, of course, the Xesset ship did not attack and destroy the freighter in the meantime.

  He contacted the engine room. “Riddell, I’m going to maneuver Djamu—I want to adjust our heading. We’ve a railgun that has to be aimed using the ship itself, and I’m going to point us at the Xesset. I’d like you to check the weapon—there should be both access and controls available from the Engineering section. If we fire it, at the least it’ll give them one hell of a surprise. With luck, we might cause them to back off. With good luck, we might actually hit the darn target.”

  “We can cope with a bit of jiggling around, sir,” Riddell confirmed. “The jump into s-t is the bit that worries me. Apparently the crew prays to all the gods they can think of, every time Banner makes a jump. Pity Djamu’s not as good as our Wasp.”

  “We’ll do it cautiously, when we’re ready. I’ve made all the allowances I can think of to cope with the freighter’s configuration and low power, and I’m planning three hours for the run up. We have to stop the aliens first—they’re knocking on our door at the moment. Kirby’s on his way to sort them out.”

  “Good luck with that, sir. In the meantime I’ll check out the railgun, make sure it’s loaded and ready to fire. The engineers here should be able to help.”

  “All right. I’ll start adjusting our heading now, to point at the Xesset starship. I’ll let you know when I want to fire it.”

  “Very good, sir. We’ve got everything under control here.”

  Steg checked the location of the Xesset starship again and took control of Djamu’s helm using the Astro workstation. The freighter’s movement was slow and ponderous. He monitored the heading indicator displayed on the workstation screen and made minor adjustments until he was satisfied. He entered instructions for the auto-helm to adjust to any positional change of the alien starship. After what seemed an age, he was able to turn back to planning for the s-t jump. The heavy thumping caused by the Xesset’s weapon firing at the bridge doors stopped. The bridge was silent. No one spoke. The tension grew as they all wondered if Kirby had been successful.

  “What do you think, sir, should we—”

  An explosion ripped open the doors, and the shock wave threw everyone across the bridge away from the destroyed doors. Exo-armor saved Steg and the other mercenaries from anything more than light bruising. He could not check Djamu’s crew because the three Xesset had immediately entered the bridge firing their weapons. Ulston and his team recovered rapidly and returned effective fire and one of the Xesset fell in the first seconds of the conflict, severely wounded. Steg expected the bridge to be nothing more than wreckage within minutes.

  He shouted in High Xesset, “Cease firing. That’s an order.”

  There was a momentary pause. The two remaining Xesset stood clear, raised their weapons, and aimed at Steg. The mercenaries took advantage of the lull and fired at the aliens. Steg had set his weapon ammunition selection to flechettes and sent a hail of the deadly projectiles at the nearest alien. Both were quickly overwhelmed and collapsed, dead or wounded, to the floor of the bridge. The last Xesset to fall pulled the pin from a hand grenade and lobbed it towards Steg. The alien had overestimated his strength and the grenade landed halfway into the bridge. The explosion destroyed workstations, and shrapnel expanded as it blasted across the bridge.

  Steg could see Banner’s body. The freighter skipper was dead; either bullets or shrapnel had torn him to pieces. He used his comunit. “Stop firing, the Xesset are down. Ulston, you and your team check each body. Be careful of traps. Jonash, you and Cerpio work with Iwao. We’ll need bridge controls.”

  As he finished speaking, Kirby and his men rushed onto the bridge through the wrecked doors.

  “Damn,” he said. “We had to disable traps all the way. They’d set pressure triggers, wired hand grenades, anything they could think of.”

  “We’ve lost Djamu’s skipper. Probably some of his bridge team. Ulston’s checking for survivors. We need to clean up, if you can supervise. I’d like to get these workstations back on-line. I’ll report to Wasp.”

  While Kirby and his teams checked for life signs and struggled to restore order to the bridge and its equipment, Steg comlinked to Wasp.

  “Commander, we’ve defeated the Xesset who were on board. They hit the bridge, killed the freighter captain, and either killed or wounded his bridge crew. They made a mess of the bridge workstations. I expect we’ll now be targeted by their ship.”

  “How long before you have controls back?”

  “Depends on how quickly we can access functioning workstations. If the Xesset starship makes a move against Djamu, let me know. We’re somewhat exposed.” He wasn’t going to mention the railgun when there was a possibility the aliens could overhear their conversation.

  “You’re in a tough spot. We’re in position, fully shielded. Wasp out.”

  Steg disconnected. He contacted Riddell in Engineering. “The Xesset are dead. They managed to damage our bridge controls. Kirby’s organizing clean up. What secondary workstations can you access?”

  “We’ve two clumsy looking bridge units. One is Helm and the other looks like Astro. And there’s a sensor station. They seem to be in working order.”

  “Good. I’m coming down there with Iwao. See you in seconds or less.” Steg waved his hand at Iwao to catch his attention. “Engineering has some bridge controls. Leave that and come with me. Kirby, I want an escort, in case there are some Djamu crew looking for revenge.”

  *****

  Chapter 30

  “Ah, got them, sir,” shouted Defender’s Tac lead. “That communication was enough to give us a trace. Adjusting sensor displays, now.”

  “Tell your team, well done,” said the Alliance skipper. “Can you replay the comms?”

  “Yes, sir. Happening now.”

  The destroyer’s bridge team listened intently to the conversation between Steg and Gillespie.

  “What do you think, Tac?” Captain Montrose asked.

  “If the Xesset make a move, Wasp needs to be on top of it. Otherwise an unarmed freighter against a medium-sized military starship—not much hope of survival.”

  “The aliens are probably conflicted. Obviously, they could destroy Djamu. Wasp is the unknown card.”

  “Should we provide assistance?” Jessie asked, curious as to the skipper’s position.

  “Tempting. We’d have the right to do so if the Xesset attempt to board or attack Djamu. If they fire missiles or use other weapons, it’d be all over for the freighter before we could stop them. We would then destroy their ship, of course. Not much consolation to the mercs on the freighter, though.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “We should move closer. Helm, take us to a million klicks. Tac, keep defensive shields up.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  ###

  Steg, Iwao, and their escort entered the engineering command deck at a rush. Riddell indicated the workstations, and Steg headed to the Helm station, first instructing Iwao to test the sensor station. He booted up the
unit and waited for it to display. The visuals were not as clear as they should be although he thought the results would suffice. He reviewed their heading, relieved it had held constant. Now he needed to check the position of the Xesset starship.

  “Iwao, what do you think? Do we have sensors?”

  “Yessir. The display is scratchy. However, the details are usable.”

  “Good. Link it through to this workstation.”

  A minute later Iwao advised the link was in place. Steg checked the position of the Xesset ship to discover it had moved towards Djamu and he had lost the prior alignment.

  “Riddell, can you fire the rail gun from here?”

  “Yes, there’s a station linked directly to the weapon. I checked circuits and it seems to be working. We have steerage; Djamu didn’t suffer any degradation from the attack on the bridge. Just remember she’s not a tight ship, so no wild maneuvers, please.”

  “I’ll do my best.” He entered the heading adjustment to re-align Djamu with the aliens. “I need to talk to the Xesset. Do we have external comms?”

  “Yes, sir. Good luck getting them to listen.”

  “Oh, they’ll listen. Whether they’ll be sensible is another question. Let Kirby know we may be firing a rail gun and we don’t know how the freighter will handle it. Get ready for action.”

  Steg estimated it would take Djamu five minutes to re-align with the Xesset ship. He monitored the gradual re-orientation of the freighter, and as its heading came into line he entered a command for the Helm station to continue to track the target. He keyed the freighter’s comunit and mentally braced himself. He needed to communicate in High Xesset. He grimaced—the evil wrapped around the language always challenged him.

  ###

  “Sir, we have a transmission from the freighter. They’re sending to the Xesset ship. I assume it’s in their language.” Jessie Brent relayed the communication to the bridge audio. Everyone listened to the apparent exchange.

  “That sounds like de Coeur’s voice,” Montrose said.

  “Yes, sir, I agree. He sounds fluent. The Xesset replying seemed surprised, almost alarmed.”

  “I doubt he’s sending them a good morning greeting.” Montrose sipped from his coffee mug. It was early morning for Defender’s crew, and he had just taken up his position on the bridge.

  “The aliens sound excited.”

  “Probably didn’t expect to hear someone speaking to them in their own language. We need to find out more about de Coeur. He’s got more surprises than most mercenary captains.”

  “Sir, Djamu has just fired a rail gun.”

  “I’ll be damned.” There was a stunned silence on the destroyer’s bridge.

  ###

  Steg had silently rehearsed his message, determining in advance the appropriate High Xesset language structure for conversing with an inferior.

  “Djamu to Xesset ship.”

  A surprised voice replied after a delay of almost a minute, “This is Grace of Success. Who are you?”

  “Don’t question your superior. Get me your commander, now.”

  “Who are you to order me?”

  “Listen, irredeemable drach, I said get your commander. Do it or I will demand your head. Now!”

  There was silence for another minute. Steg assumed there was an intense discussion taking place on the alien starship’s bridge.

  “This is Force Leader Konya. Who are you and why are you threatening my soldiers?”

  “Listen to me, Force Leader. My men defeated the paltry team you left aboard Djamu. We will defeat you just as easily. Surrender now, to save your men. Otherwise you will die and I will eat your heart. This I promise in the name of the god, K’Harnat.”

  The alien was silent. Steg’s words were intended to create consternation on the part of the Xesset listeners. Steg had just sworn an oath that required him—if he were Xesset and failed—to surrender to the priests of K’Harnat who would ceremonially execute him on one of their altars. Steg was glad he was not Xesset.

  “You blaspheme, alien. You are a drach, a cur, running loose in the streets of Xesset civilization.” The Force Leader continued to express his opinion of Steg in colorful terms. Steg interrupted the word flow.

  “Silence, you inferior demon spawn. Surrender now or lose your ship. You have fifteen seconds.”

  Steg looked over to Riddell who was standing open-mouthed. While he did not know what Steg was saying to the aliens, he could feel the force of the exchange and was totally surprised the captain of Ebony Company was communicating, apparently fluently, in the Xesset language. Steg released the comunit and said, “Fire on my mark.” He then resumed his communication with the Xesset Force Leader and counted down, in High Xesset, “…4..3…2..1.”

  He signaled, and Riddell fired the weapon.

  The old freighter almost shook itself to pieces. It lurched and writhed as the metal projectile accelerated along the ceramic tube, which had been added to the length of the body of the starship. Lights dimmed and flickered. Metal groaned and shrieked. Steg did not know the projectile’s weight or eventual speed—he just hoped Djamu would survive the kinetic and magnetic forces required to send the lump of metal towards the alien starship. He watched the sensor display on the Helm workstation as it mapped the expected path of the projectile towards the alien ship. The two seemed to coincide.

  “The specs state a weight of five ton, sir,” commented Riddell. “The projectile should split into five one ton units shortly after launch. I think it’s like a large shotgun.”

  “Any idea of the exit speed?” Steg asked. “Energy? Range? Anything?”

  “No, sir.”

  “The Xesset starship’s about five hundred thousand klicks away. If the railgun gets its delivery up to a fraction of light, we should see a result.” Steg checked the elapsed time. “About now.”

  He had the sensors at full magnification, and the Xesset ship almost filled the workstation’s screen. The display showed an impact on the vessel’s protective shields. The components of the railgun projectile were apparently following in a line, hammering the shields, one after the other. He counted the hits. There was a flash—the shields had failed after three strikes. Two more projectile fragments impacted the now unshielded alien starship. Steg could visualize atmosphere, accompanied by debris, streaming out of the rupture. The freighter’s sensors were too weak to provide the details he needed to assess the damage.

  “Check our status,” he directed Riddell. “Let Kirby know the Xesset ship’s been hit. Tell him their shields failed. I don’t know the extent of the damage. I’ll see if Wasp is able to provide more information.”

  “Djamu to Wasp. This is de Coeur. Is the commander available?”

  Gillespie’s voice carried mixed tones of worry and amazement. “What the hell did you use on the Xesset?”

  “Djamu has a railgun. Primitive, although it packs quite a punch. We were fortunate. However, we need some data from Wasp. Our sensors are weak; they’re barely worth the power drain. Can you let me know what’s happening? Damage?”

  “You’re full of surprises. Their shields blew after the third projectile hit them. The last two pierced the hull, forward of the bridge—at least, where we think their bridge is located. She’s accelerating now, at an impressive rate, trailing debris and atmosphere. We assume they’re about to go s-t. Congratulations to you for your team’s survival.”

  “It was risky. I didn’t know if the railgun would even work. There was a possibility it would tear Djamu apart. I’m surprised the freighter survived the stresses—I suspect she’s been reinforced. It’s definitely a one shot weapon—it’ll take at least fifteen minutes to reload.”

  “What’s your next step?”

  “We need to transfer Djamu survivors to Wasp—probably ten or so crew. We’ll hold them in the brig until we reach Eos. They should be relatively harmless. I’ll return most of our men and keep only a small crew on board the freighter. I’ll be in the first shuttle. We need to plan
the next steps, which I don’t want to do over an open comlink. Djamu can’t go too fast or it will fall apart. We should send details of our capture of Djamu to the Eos authorities; we need their sign-off, confirming Djamu’s ours.”

  “Good. I’ll send the message advising success. Use the draft we prepared?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very well. Oh, the Fain want to know if you or your team needs their help?”

  “We’ve one or two minor injuries. Nothing serious, so we’re okay. Djamu’s bridge ratings—those who survived—are being treated by Kirby’s men. Tell Stacia I said thanks, though. I’ll get shuttles underway as quickly as possible. Djamu out.”

  ###

  “This is far too entertaining. I want to see what happens when they arrive at Eos. The probability the Xesset will also arrive there with reinforcements is—oh—conservatively—I’d say 99 percent.”

  “Sir?”

  “Well, don’t you agree? The Xesset high-tailed out—they didn’t know whether another projectile was likely to follow. They’ll want revenge. Plus they’re not going to give away a freighter load of munitions—they’ll want to know where it is. We’ll get there first and wait and watch. This is just too good to miss. Oh, and send de Coeur a message. Tell him well done, thanks for the entertainment, and we’ll see him at Eos.”

  “Sir, you’re sure?”

  “Come on Tac, you must agree we’ve had our money’s worth. He’ll need help to survive.”

  “Yes, sir. I do agree—we’re all interested to see what happens next. I’ll send the message now.”

  “Good. Astro, prepare your course for Eos.”

  “I have it ready, sir.”

  Montrose raised his eyebrows. “You have? You won the bet?”

  Astro smiled and nodded her head.

  “Well done. Let’s go.”

  *****

  Chapter 31

  Steg, Captain Dean, and Commander Gillespie were in the small conference room next to the bridge. Steg had transferred back to Wasp by shuttle, and when he disembarked, crew rushed to congratulate him. It took almost thirty minutes before he managed to get to the meeting he’d requested.