Voltan held his gaze.
At length he turned to another operator. “Dispatch three destroyers to investigate the other craft.” The operator sent instructions and three destroyers were on their way.
Nothing else changed. Voltan went back to consulting the crew, discussing the mountains of information flooding in as this new objective, Earth, was analyzed in real time, evaluated and strategically mapped.
Kang watched all this, seething.
CHAPTER 2: IMPULSE TO RUN
“No,” Nani said under her breath, wide-eyed and shaking her head at the screens. “No,” she checked things, abruptly coming alert after her prolonged slump. Then: “They’re coming right for us. Three of them.” The pace of her actions gradually picked up, tapping and dragging screens. She sat straighter. “I can’t tell how much more powerful …” and she trailed off. Brief flurry of activity snuffed. Back to just staring. The screens, in their mechanical efficiency, kept scrolling information, ticking off this or that bit of important stuff, none of it seeming to register. Bianca found the starships and watched their approach, unsure how much more scared she could be.
“What do we do?” she asked, though she now had a better idea of the answer.
They needed to get the hell out of there.
Nani’s head just kept turning side to side, slowly, back and forth.
“Are they going to attack us?” Bianca felt her whole body clenching, a cold sweat building along her spine. “Can you tell?” If they were about to be vaporized ...
“Can we outrun them?” She knew the two of them were unlikely to make the Reaver do all the things it could to fight back. Even if it was more powerful than the three closing starships that had just peeled off and were clearly making the Reaver their new objective, even if it could defeat them, there was no way she and Nani would push all the right buttons to make that happen. And of course there weren’t only three ships. Her terrified gaze wandered back across the bridge, to the domed screen and the vastness of space. Bunches of starships. Three coming for them, plenty more if those three failed.
Fighting was not an option.
“We have to get out of here.” She was frantic. Deciding all at once that running was, in fact, the only answer. At the same time she realized Nani was completely stuck. The girl scientist wasn’t moving. Bianca stepped closer, directly into her field of view, eyes flitting between Nani and the info on the screens. The three ships approached steadily, putting distance on the rest of the fleet, which continued its march toward Earth. None of them were moving particularly fast, though Bianca knew the Reaver was fast and assumed these Kel were too, at least faster than they were moving right now, and so she guessed they were taking their time for a reason.
Which meant she and Nani might be able to survive this if they acted quickly.
Deliberately she calmed herself. The situation, while the details were of a scale and a type she’d never dealt with, nevertheless had parts she could understand. If she reduced it to the basics she could make sense of it. Maybe even know what to do. The situation was this: She had a friend who was afraid, who was paralyzed, and needed to get moving. Nani needed a pep talk, and if there was one thing Bianca knew how to do it was give a pep talk.
“Nani,” she got her to look at her. Nani turned from the screens, staring blankly into her face. Bianca swallowed as much of her own terror as she could, resisting the urge to glance back over her shoulder, to once again see if she could glimpse their attackers against the darkness of space. Now was not the time. She couldn’t risk dragging Nani’s gaze out there with her own. More than that she needed to show Nani a calm face, a certain face, one that reassured the brilliant scientist, her friend, at least enough to figure out what to do.
Everything depended on Nani.
On impulse Bianca took her head in her hands; placed a palm on each side and held it gently, looking down into Nani’s beautiful eyes. Almost as if she was about to kiss her. Such a pretty girl. So innocent, it seemed, almost like a child, though she was smart beyond anyone Bianca had ever met. The things she’d done, the amount of things she understood, was truly miraculous.
“You’re a genius,” she told her. “Do you know how in awe I am of you?” She waited to see if Nani came any more into focus, any more into the moment. “You said before, back when we first came across these guys, these Kel, that our ship is faster, better. The Reaver can outrun them. You know how to do that. You’ve been showing me how to use it. Right now they’re coming at us but I don’t see how this can go well if we just sit here. They’re either going to attack or they’re going to try and take us prisoner.”
This last brought Nani most alert.
Slowly Bianca took away her hands. “I need you.” Then: “You can totally do this,” she relaxed her posture, as if Nani’s amazing abilities were easily a foregone conclusion. “You can so figure this out. After everything you’ve done? Getting out of here? Easy. We’ve just got to do it. That’s all.”
“Satori,” Nani said quietly, as if suddenly realizing the other part of their little escapade. And Bianca agonized all at once over Jess, who they’d only just thought they might’ve found a lead for, but there was no way they were going to continue that search right now. Not when they were about to be attacked. If Jess made it this far, and Bianca told herself that she did—she had to—then she could make it a little longer till they figured out what to do.
Right now they had to get clear.
Nani was turning to the screens. “If these Kel get hold of the fighter—or this ship—they’ll have information on Anitra.” She started tapping, a flurry of action that was the Nani Bianca remembered.
Bianca took a deep breath, went and sat in the familiar seat at “her” console, preparing to assist.
“We’ve got to use a channel they can’t decrypt,” said Nani, rapidly falling back into the mode of action. Bending to the task. “I can run a frequency and an encryption they won’t be able to intercept.” She worked frantically, then looked out the domed screen and Bianca looked with her. And there, glinting in the harsh rays of the sun … tiny flecks of light.
Getting close.
It inspired Nani to move faster. She turned back to her screens, hurriedly setting up whatever she now had in mind.
Bianca waited for direction.
Watching.
**
Satori tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Screens aboard the fighter had come alive, showing information and alerts she found difficult to believe. If she was understanding it right … it looked as if other craft had been detected by the fighter’s scanners. Other starships like the Reaver.
Lots of them.
She and Willet had been waiting patiently to see if the latest clue on Jessica and Zac would lead anywhere, Satori stifling a burning desire to take action. She recognized the logic of staying put, of hiding there in the fighter in the woods, letting Nani do her thing from above to try and sort out what happened, but it wasn’t easy sitting still. After the initial shock of realizing, somehow, even with the great Zac at her side Jessica—and Zac—had disappeared—disappeared!—desperate efforts to find them had somewhere along the way slowed to methodical searching to what Satori almost considered apathy until …
A lead.
Nani found evidence of where Jess and Zac had been and had only just now been following that lead when …
This.
“What is all this?” She tapped screens, pointing to the deadly-looking signals resolving by the second. “I think it’s time to get Nani on the horn.” The Kel instruments were telling her a sizeable force—a monumental one, in fact—had just appeared in high orbit and now looked to be advancing on the planet.
How could that be right?
Her first attempt to raise Nani failed.
“That’s odd,” she stared at the alien controls, perplexed.
She tried again. This time her attempt was cut off from the other end. Rejected. She expected Nani was busy with wha
tever was going on, whatever anomaly these signals represented, but it seemed a bit rude to jam her signal without even a quick answer or a “Stand by.”
Then another signal came in. She checked. Encrypted audio. A hail from Nani.
She put it through.
“What’s going on up there?” she asked even as Nani’s voice was speaking on the other end with urgency:
“Use this channel,” she instructed. “They can tap the other.” Then, more to herself, cursed: “They traced it.”
“Traced what?”
“Your first attempt to reach us. They detected it. Now they know you’re down there.”
“Who knows?” Satori did not like the sound of this. “These ships on my screens? What are they? Tell me this is a ghost signal or something.”
“It’s not.” A pause on the other end. Satori looked to Willet, both their expressions falling slack.
Then Nani was back on: “A fleet of Kel warships just transited inside the lunar orbit.”
Satori swallowed. “Kel?”
“Yes.”
She stared blankly at the speaker area of the console.
Not believing it.
“They followed us?”
“Not sure. But they’re here. The signals you’re seeing are real.”
Satori inhaled. Straightened and looked around the small cabin of the advanced fighter.
Suddenly it seemed a whole lot smaller.
“The Icon must’ve been floating out there in space,” she said to no one in particular. “They must’ve found it.”
Nani’s voice was clipped on the other end. “We’ve got to do something. Now.”
**
Kang whirled from the viewscreen. Something was going on with the ship carrying Horus. He’d been staring in that direction as the Kel destroyers moved oh-so-slowly toward it across the void—faster! he wanted to scream at them, and very nearly did—Voltan and his crew continuing discussing other things. Instead of an outburst, however, Kang watched. And seethed. But now he realized they were discussing the vessel with an animated rise in tone. At the sound of that he strode across the bridge, to Voltan specifically, who was busily checking readings with one of the Kel officers, each of them glancing between screens and the view of the planet ahead. Clearly caught up in some new bit of interest.
“What is it?” Kang demanded. Voltan ignored him. Kang brought the awkward translation wand closer to his mouth.
“What’s going on?” he came near. Voltan reacted a little to his proximity, but only a little.
“We’ve detected another craft,” the Kel Praetor spared a grudging response and the computer translated.
“What do you mean another craft?” Kang had no more patience for Voltan’s casual dismissals or half responses. Already the fleet marched toward conquest, numerous plans being laid and so far, this early in the operation, Kang was mostly being ignored. He knew few details at the moment, and while he was willing to allow that for now, where it came to the invasion, he was not willing to let the opportunity to eliminate Horus be brushed aside.
“Like the one out there?” he asked when Voltan did not respond. Physically holding himself back.
Finally Voltan seemed to get the danger he was in. “A smaller version, yes, but the same. We believe it’s a shuttle or a fighter from the larger ship. They just sent a communication stream.”
“Where is it?” Kang looked out into space.
“The smaller craft is on the surface.”
Now he turned his gaze to the Earth.
“Destroy them both,” he said. “One of those carries Horus.”
Suddenly he had the idea that the smaller craft, the one on the ground, might’ve landed with Horus and deposited him. If so then that meant his nemesis could be loose anywhere on the planet below.
“They must both be destroyed!” he repeated, feeling as if he was starting to sound desperate. And perhaps he was. Here was an opportunity to either be rid of Horus in one massive shot, or at least remove his chance for escape. Kang would then know exactly where to find him.
If it came to that he would scour the entire planet.
But Voltan went back to ignoring him.
“Signal on the ground is gone,” the operator reported. “However we have a lock on the source. We can track it.”
Kang’s eyes narrowed.
CHAPTER 3: FLIGHT
“We can’t let them get hold of this technology,” Nani’s voice came over the fighter’s audio as Satori listened, barely hearing. “Both the fighter and the Reaver have detailed info. On everything. The Icons, everything.” Then: “Including Anitra.” Satori shared another look with Willet.
Both of them scared like they’d never been.
Bianca’s voice could be heard in the background behind Nani’s: “They’re getting close!”
On the screens Satori tried to distinguish anything different among the load of information she was looking at.
Skin crawling.
“They’ve sent ships to intercept us,” said Nani.
Satori continued her checks of the fighter’s barely familiar systems. “We’ll be there in a second.”
“No,” came Nani’s immediate response. “You can’t come here. You’ll never make it. So far they haven’t attacked, but if you come flying up here …”
Willet leaned closer, shoulder to shoulder with Satori, speaking to the console. “We can’t outrun them?”
“In a race, of course. I’m pretty sure of that. But this isn’t a race. You’d have to get past them and dock … there’s no way we could pull that off.”
“So if we can’t break the blockade what do we do?”
“I’m thinking,” came Nani’s response, voice cracking, and it was clear she was heavily preoccupied on the other end. Satori scanned the screens of information, trying to isolate what she could on the developing scene in orbit high above. She made out the three ships distinct from the clutter, closing distance on the Reaver. Slowly, methodically.
So far.
“Think faster.” She knew that wasn’t helpful.
Nani was too busy to be insulted. “As soon as we move, even a little, they’ll leap into action. I’m certain of it. Once we go we need to know exactly what we’re doing.”
Satori asked: “What about Jess and Zac? You had them, right? Can we get them?”
“I got a signal flash from what I think was an Icon discharge, right before the Kel fleet arrived. I haven’t had a chance to look any further.” Nani’s voice was on the rise and it was clear they were about to be in trouble. Satori looked at the images of the closing vessels. Nearing the Reaver. Nani was about to be overtaken by the three Kel warships; Satori could see that now; could almost see Nani shaking her blonde head on the other end. “There’s no time.”
“Can you feed us any of the—”
“Shit!” Nani was frantic. On screen the images had nearly merged. Satori’s own sense of panic flared. There were a lot of enemy ships up there. Not just the three.
And nowhere to run.
“We’ve got to hide,” Nani concluded.
Then her voice gained conviction.
“That’s it,” she spoke as she pieced it together in her head. Satori could almost see ideas falling into place. “That’s what we do. Outrun them and hide till we figure something out.” Then: “Yes. That will work. I can exploit our superior technology. Push the envelope beyond them and maintain our own capabilities, right at the edge. We go to one of the gas giants in the system.” From the distraction in her tone it seemed she’d started comparing information, firming her conclusion. “We can get deep enough into one of their atmospheres to evade tracking. Hide there and buy time to think this through.”
“Can we—”
“Without a QE drive it will take you too long,” Nani anticipated the question, “and they’d be shooting at you the whole way. At least until you outran them. That’s too dangerous and will take too long to get there—”
“So what d
o we do?” Satori accelerated Nani’s scientific pondering.
Their brain-trust came to a conclusion. “This planet’s oceans,” she said. “Similar concept. Far enough down it should have the same effect. They’re deep enough. Go deep and the Kel won’t be able to track you.” There was a pause as she checked things on the other end.
The enemy blips were now on top of the Reaver.
“Yes,” she said, voice remarkably calm in those final moments. Confident now that she’d figured it out. “Their instruments will only follow you so far. Go fast. I’m sending you a trajectory. Get into the nearest ocean, to your west, go deep, map the trenches, all the way to the bottom and you should be able to remain undetected. Their instruments won’t penetrate.” Nani checked other things. As she did Bianca could be heard in the background, voice terrified but clearly fighting to hold it together.
“Man they look scary. We’ve got to get out of here.”
“We’re going,” Nani said to her. Then to Satori: “I should still be able to reach you,” she was almost starting to sound excited as her impromptu plan came together, “which means I can contact you once we’ve figured something out.”
“Got it,” Satori looked to Willet and they moved immediately into action. She fairly jumped into the command chair, he into the other, bringing up the flight systems they’d only used once so far for real, and then only in a controlled descent.
She paused to look across at him as he tapped the controls to life. Adopted a little of his battlefield humor. “Think we can do this without crashing?”
He kept his focus on what he was doing. “Probably not.”
She spoke louder, back to the console.
“You’re sure we don’t have time to make a sweep?” She wanted to follow that lead if possible, to scoop up Jess and Zac and save them too.
If possible.
“No,” Nani’s voice was strained again. “I’ve only got general info on that flash. It would have to be a search and rescue and we just don’t have time. The Kel would catch you.”
Star Angel: Rising (Star Angel Book 4) Page 2
