The Enclave (The Verge)

by H. M. Clarke

  “Alpha, strap yourselves in, we’re going to have a Tiger on our tail quick smart.” Tom strapped himself in as he spoke and took over the business as Co-pilot.

  “Tran, take the gunnery station. I am feeding you what info I can about the Tiger, including what Hunter collected on its exhaust signature.”

  The guns would not even worry the Tiger’s shielding but Tom felt better knowing that they were at least fighting back.

  “Yes Sir.”

  The William Light was now rising quickly from the ground; once Mark Hunter had clearance he spun the vehicle on its tail and hit maximum velocity South.

  Tom kept a close eye on the optics as he adjusted systems to pump more power to the William Light’s engines. Whatever power he found, Hunter quickly used. The sensors showed that the Tiger was coming up on them fast, faster than the William Light could accelerate. This was not good, not good at all.

  ‘Shepherd, they’re closing.’ Tran’s voice came over Tom’s comm.

  At that moment there came a sudden booming sound from outside the craft and Tom’s eyes snapped to the optics as they flared up in an alert.

  “Oh no…” Tom groaned and Hunter, seeing the same information pulled hard to the right.

  The first torpedo detonated fifty metres off the port side, the shockwave hitting the side of the William Light causing the ship to heave and roll.

  ‘Incoming!’ Steve snapped over the commlink.

  “Compensating,” Hunter muttered as he suddenly pushed the cruiser into a nosedive causing alarms to activate all over the cockpit. The ground grew rapidly closer through the front viewport and Tom found himself gritting his teeth as the detonation shockwave from the second torpedo shook the tail of the William Light. And Hunter was not pulling up.

  “Mark!”

  As Tom’s voice cut across the cockpit, Hunter wrenched back on the controls and they suddenly leveled several metres above the ground, speeding South again. Moments later the William Light was buffeted again by a booming shockwave. Hunter’s fingers flew back over the console and the ship suddenly swerved up.

  “Cross your fingers that the inertial dampeners hold out.”

  The fingers blurred again and the William Light moved to execute several fast, tight barrel rolls before breaking out into zigzag evasive maneuvers. Another torpedo streaked past them to detonate not far in front of them. The resulting shockwave knocked the William Light on its side and Hunter took the opportunity to swig the ship around and then throw it into another steep climb.

  “Hunter!”

  The pilot did not answer Tom, but instead evaded the next torpedo coming for them that whizzed off and detonated far out of range of the William Light.

  “How many torpedoes is that thing carrying?”

  ‘I don’t know but the Tiger is arming more to throw at us,’ Steve Tran said over the link.

  “Great. Just great,” Tom muttered.

  ‘They’re playing funny buggers though. The scans taken from the other torpedoes show that the target locks are not being activated. Explains why the Electronic Counter Measures are not working.’

  “They probably think we have the Commander on board.”

  As Tom spoke another brace of torpedoes streaked past them and on the optics he saw Steve activate the William Light’s quickly depleting complement of ECM’s to counter them. Even with all this, one of the torpedoes detonated close enough to buck them with its shockwave. Tom even fancied he could hear the shrapnel hitting the hull. Hunter leveled the ship again and sped onwards.

  “I’ve had enough of this.” Tom released his seatbelt and jumped up from the co-pilot’s seat. Hunter did not even spare him a glance, his mind fully concentrating on evading the Tiger and its torpedoes.

  He made his way through the personnel cabin to the small room that passed for the William Light’s gunnery control. It was only a single panel affair, not as impressive as the controls Steve was used to on the Adelaide. The Tac officer was hunched over the controls tracking the current barrage of torpedoes coming at them and having run out of ECM’s was now trying to manually destroy them.

  Tom wrapped an arm through a crash bar and waited for Steve to finish his work. Even though the targeting was not activated on the torpedoes, the shockwaves from their close detonations could still do them serious damage.

  Steve finished entering his firing sequences and Tom tensed as he waited for the shockwaves to hit the William Light. As the last of the shockwaves rolled over them Tom came and knelt beside Steve.

  “That circlet that you took from Ross. Do you still have it on you?”

  “Yeah. Why?” Steve was only half listening to Tom as he was already readying himself to track the next barrage of torpedoes.

  “Give it to me.”

  Tom’s tight tone must have grabbed Steve’s attention. He turned and looked Tom in the eyes.

  “Why?”

  Tom was about to tell Steve not to question his commanding officer but stopped himself. “When they bring us down and find that the Commander is not on board we’ll all be dead men.”

  Urgent beeping from the gunnery controls made Steve turn back and run his fingers over the new firing solutions, any torpedoes that were missed, he would take care of manually.

  Steve drew the circlet and its power pack from his utility belt as he turned back to Tom. “Are you sure you want to risk this? We really don’t know what this thing is capable of.”

  “I would do anything to stop those bastards from getting what they want.”

  It wasn’t the best reply or the best reason but Steve still handed the piece of equipment over to Tom. As Tom took it, the gunnery control again screamed an alert; Steve turned back to manually pick off the torpedoes that had got through his firing solution.

  Tom barely spared a glance at Varden and the unconscious Joshua. Varden was seat belted to the chair beside the toilet cubicle, her eyes never leaving the door. Locked inside was Ross.

  Dropping back into the co-pilot’s seat, Tom found no change in the situation; Hunter still was managing to keep the William Light out of harm’s way. But all it would take was one mistake and they would all be toast. He slapped on his seat harness and sat with the circlet clenched in his hand.

  ‘Lieutenant, the guns need more power shunted to them. The power cells are nearly out.’

  “And I need to keep power going to the engines,” Hunter said as he pulled the ship up into yet another steep climb to avoid torpedo fire.

  I wonder how Ross is going in the loo? The idle thought slipped into Tom’s head as his brain tried to furiously think of what to do. Without their pulsars, they had no defense against the torpedoes, and without the engines they were a sitting duck. If only they could get at least five seconds of peace where they did not need to gun the engines.

  “Immel it,” Tom suddenly said.

  “What?”

  Tom looked across at Hunter. “Do the Immelman maneuver. A large loop mind you. Gravity can help us on the way down and you won’t need to have all the power pushed to the engines. We can do a hot siphon to the pulsar power cells.”

  “Does the William Light look like a bi plane to you?”

  “Just do it. You never know, we might even be able to get behind the bastards.”

  “Yes Sir.” It was reluctant, but Hunter quickly turned their quick climb into a looping Immelman maneuver.

  “At least we have dampeners in air cruisers,” Hunter muttered as the William Light began to go over onto her back as they reached the zenith of their loop. Hunter cut back the power to the ships engines. Tom’s fingers then flew across the command panel and activated the power siphon from the engines to the pulsar power cells. Tom held his finger above the cut off control. Light rippled across the optics as the indicator showed the power shunt was working. This would not fill the batteries completely but it will give enough to do the plan that was beginning to form in his head.

  The William Light felt like it was going to float forever until
Tom’s body began to feel the slow change in direction that the dampeners could never disguise. Tom looked at the tracking and saw that the Tiger was only now starting to rise a little but it had not tried to follow them.

  “Lieutenant.”

  Tom heard Hunter and pressed his finger down on the control. The shunt stopped and Tom quickly flicked the power path back to the engines. Hunter did not wait for Tom’s confirmation as he gunned the engines back to full power and zoomed down the rest of the loop.

  Tom barely paid attention to Hunter. His attention was now focused entirely on the golden band in his lap. The heat from his hand collected quickly to the band, which seemed to amplify and radiate heat back. Instead of burning his skin, it felt strangely comforting. Tom lifted the band to eye level, giving himself one final opportunity to talk himself out of what he was about to do.

  He could not.

  He slipped the circlet onto his head; his fingers came away wet with sweat. He gave them a brief wipe on his thigh before fishing the control box from his utility belt.

  They looked simple enough.

  A control for amplification and one for power boost. Easy.

  “What’s that?”

  Tom was vaguely aware of Hunter’s question, but he tried to answer it.

  “Something the Commander found. A weapon that I am about to test.”

  The pilot gave no answer, a glance at the optics showed that the William Light was now angling straight on target towards the rear of the enemy tiger. And the Tiger still gave no sign of deviating from its course. The torpedo fire had stopped, replaced by a barrage of rear laser fire. Hunter was doing well to avoid these blasts and Tran was quick in activating re-enforced kinetic shielding to targeted areas of the craft. But the energy shunt to keep mobile spots on the outer shielding re-enforced was draining their power cells at an alarming rate. Something had to happen. And quickly.

  Tom looked again at the control box and found his hand tightly gripping it. He did not know what was going to happen but he had to try something to save his ship.

  He took a deep breath and ran a thumb along the amplifier control.

  Immediately Tom felt a tingling sensation soak through his skull and tickle into his mind. The feeling appeared to last forever but in reality lasted only moments. Then Tom felt his Talent rush through him, flooding his body with Ontolic energy burning for immediate release. It felt intoxicating.

  The proximity alarm flared to life, bringing Tom back to concentrate on the immediate problem of survival. The Ontolic flow was many times stronger than he was used to but its manipulation should remain the same.

  Tom concentrated and pushed and directed the Ontolic energy to his clenched fists. As it gathered he saw his hands begin to glow bright neon blue, reflecting against the cockpit instrumentation. His Talent had never done that before.

  But what to do with it?

  Tom looked again at the optics and a malicious grin spread over his face. He closed his eyes, drew a deep breath and flicked his fingers out of the fist.

  The blue disappeared from his hands in a flash of silent light and Tom felt abruptly empty and drained as if he had just run a marathon. He sank back into his seat and immediately felt the tingling begin through his skull again. It was not immediate this time. After all, his internal batteries were drained but that may be what the boost control could help with. Hopefully he would not have to use it.

  For the moment nothing happened. And then the laser fire stopped and Hunter stopped the William Light from swerving and kept a straight course, chasing the tiger.

  “Okay, they’ve stopped firing, so what so we do now?” Hunter snapped. “We can’t damage them, their shields are still at full pow-,” he cut short his sentence as an alert flashed up on his optics screen.

  “I can’t believe it. Their shields are down.”

  Tom released the breath he did not realize he was holding. It had worked.

  “Shit!” he whistled as the running lights blinked out and the Tiger rapidly began to decelerate.

  “They’re slowing.” Hunter said in confusion.

  “Hunter, decelerate to match their speed.” Tom leaned towards the optic display. “Tran, target the rear engines.”

  “Already done Lieutenant.”

  The Tiger started to slowly lose altitude. “Hunter, follow it down.”

  “And then what? We don’t know how many are on that vessel and we’re not in the best of shape ourselves.” Even as he voiced his concerns, Hunter adjusted their heading to match the descending Tiger.

  Tom glared at the astrogator. “We do it because I say so. We owe it to the Commander. Because if she were here we would be doing exactly the same thing.” And I would normally be the one telling her exactly what Hunter is telling me.

  “Even if it gets us killed? Sir, we have a prisoner to deliver and not to mention an unconscious Ambassador Val Myra. The Tigers position should be marked and sent to the Australia.”

  Tom bit his tongue and fumed. Hunter was right. Their first duty is to deliver Ross back to New Holland and to return Joshua Val Myra safely back to his people. Tom fingered the circlet at his forehead; the tingling was steadily growing stronger.

  He drew a breath and slowly removed the metal band.

  “Belay my last order. Relay Tigers new heading to the Australia. Once confirmation is received turn our nose back to New Holland.”

  “Aye Lieutenant.”

  Tom leaned back in his chair. The circlet felt hot in his palm. He slipped it and the controller into his belt pouch and somehow felt that he had failed his Commander, his friend.

  ‘Katherine…’

  Chapter

  Thirty-Three

  Katherine…

  Her eyes flicked open.

  “Tom?”

  Katherine turned her head, expecting it to be Tom holding her hand. Instead she saw Paul Hillier and around him a medical bay. She frowned. Where the hell am I?

  Paul must have sensed her confusion, or just assumed it. “Kath, you’re on the Australia.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as he spoke and followed it up with that lop-sided grin she always liked to see on him.

  “Paul?”

  As she spoke his name Katherine remembered a similar scene. Paul crouched next to her in a dark corridor, working quickly to-

  Katherine jerked upright, flinging the sheet away with her free hand to reveal her legs. Paul leapt up and laid strong hands on her shoulders.

  “Careful Katherine.”

  Katherine barely heard him; the sight of her legs caught her attention. She closed her eyes a moment to settle her churning mind. But opening them did not change what she saw.

  Katherine’s shattered leg was fully healed.

  “How long have I been out?” she whispered. Eyes still staring at the leg that showed the dark pink marks of freshly healed scars. She must have been sedated for at least a week to have this much healing done. But then why was she still on the Australia?

  “Commander, Katherine, I don’t-” Hillier stopped and glanced at the leg. “Kath, you have only been out for two hours. The med staff had stabilized you enough to get you to the medical facilities at New Holland. But it seems your body had other ideas.”

  Katherine stared again at her leg. She wiggled her toes, felt the tendons pulling at the newly healed muscles.

  So, Barkley had told the truth. Bastard!

  “Where are the others? Where is Tom?”

  Hillier kept his hands firmly on Kath’s shoulders.

  “They are still on the William Light en route to New Holland.

  Kath glanced at his hands; felt them hard on her shoulders. She looked up into Hillier’s eyes.

  “When are we transferring down to the Adelaide Paul?” Her voice was low. She felt his fingers tighten on her shoulders.

  “Katherine. The Admir-”

  “I don’t care about the Admiral. That is my ship down there and as the Adelaide’s CO, I should be there.”

  “Is
that wise? After what happened down there?”

  “What are you inferring?” An edge crept into Katherine’s voice and she pushed against the pressure of Hillier’s hands. For a moment Hillier looked as if he were going to push back but instead dropped his hands. Katherine slipped her legs over the side of the bunk and sat up properly she felt a little stiff but was otherwise fine.

  “Katherine, you were pretty bung up. We didn’t expect you to be up and about so soon.”

  “I feel fine Paul. Find me something to wear and let me get back to my command.” Katherine placed enough command in her tone as she dared. Paul maybe in Administration now but he was once an Intelligence Operative; and could still be, knowing the SIDS.

  “Don’t be a damn idiot Katherine!” Hillier snapped. “You’ve been through hell and back. Now it’s over and you need the rest. Your XO and Second Officer are quite capable of ‘seeing things right’ themselves.”

  That bought Katherine up. It was the first time she had heard a raised word from the Aide. She set her surprise aside; Katherine had no time to pander to Hillier’s sensibilities. Katherine pushed the Aide aside as she slipped from the bunk, the medical gown riding up her thigh revealing more of the angry pink scars.

  “I made a promise Paul,” she hissed in his ear. “And I always keep my promises.” Katherine pushed away from the bunk and was thankful that her newly healed leg was capable of holding her weight and allowed her to move under her own steam. She moved to the closest locker, opened it and found it empty.

  “Kath. Listen to me-”

  Katherine cut Hillier off short. “I need clothes.” She went to the next locker and pawed through its contents of blankets. Katherine did not look back when she heard him walk away. If he was going for security, she could deal with that.

  Slamming the locker door closed, Katherine turned to the next one only to see Paul Hillier striding towards her with a duffel bag clutched in his hands.