by Scott Moon
"At once," Circu said.
"The enemy is marshaling three spheres for attack," the sensors officer said.
Jeda motioned Kimberly closer. "We fight three-dimensional battles. Consider this your introduction to space combat. My people will use cardinal directions as well as topside and below. Topside is always equal to the top of the flagship at the time the engagement starts. Try not to interrupt. Save your questions for later if you can."
Kimberly, eyes on the viewscreens, nodded somberly.
"Sensors, what are the numbers?" Jeda asked.
The young officer didn't respond immediately, his face pale and his breathing carefully regulated. "I'm recalculating the numbers. Checking for possible error."
Jeda waited patiently, as did her crew. She was impressed that neither Kimberly nor Tion gave way to nervous chatter or made excuses to leave the bridge.
"Numbers confirmed," the sensors officer said. "Each attack sphere contains approximately one thousand ships. That's over a hundred more than we encountered last time."
Circu grumbled. "Even more than we killed last time."
"What is he talking about?" Kimberly asked.
"I have a theory that is unpopular. When we destroy their ships, they seem to compensate by building or spawning even more," Jeda said. She didn't try to keep her voice low, but neither did she project it across the bridge.
Maintaining morale during a ten-year fight to the death wasn't easy. Loose talk about enemies with unlimited number of ships wasn't helpful, even if it was true. Especially when it was true.
The first Noctari formation stretched forward like the hand of a demon to engage Black Fleet. The second and third alien ship clusters charged in from both flanks. It wasn't long before everyone on the bridge groaned and cursed.
"Black Fleet has been partitioned by the enemy," the tactical officer, Lieutenant Norman Starson, said. "Figuring out who's in charge of the other two battle groups now."
Jeda leaned close to Kimberly and smiled mischievously. "I'll be in charge of this battle group until we can put the fleet back together. This has happened before, but it's been a while. The early days of our conflict with the Noctari didn't go well."
"Ship-to-ship engagements appear more exciting in the vids," Kimberly said.
"We haven't closed to knife-fighting range yet. You may have a different opinion when we repel boarders."
Kimberly shifted and checked Tion's location. "I'll be fine. I have a terrifying bodyguard."
"Point Defense, should we sound an impact alert?" Jeda asked as she sipped from a spill-proof coffee bottle.
"Yes, Admiral, that would be my recommendation," the point defense officer said as he stood over six operators manning computer terminals. He tightened the neck of his armor and closed his helmet.
The alert sounded. Most of the crew had already made preparations, but all adjusted their safety gear. Heartbeats later, enemy rockets slammed against the shields.
Jeda, a retractable safety line already attached to her armor, stepped closer to the railing and grabbed it with her left hand. The augmented strength of her gauntlet and titanium exoskeleton along the arm was going to be useful very soon.
The bridge bucked from one impact after another. She started to get angry. Reaching for her inner calm, she controlled her breathing and meditated. The time would come to retaliate, but now she and her crew just had to survive.
The viewscreen shimmered as a ship appeared directly in front of Jeda's flagship. It was a real image, not a simulation. The bastards had pulled a fast one.
"Kinetic rounds, incoming!" shouted the point defense officer.
Fear shot through Jeda's core. Space battle was almost theoretical until the butcher's bill arrived.
Point blank slugfests were the exception.
"Return fire! Weapons free!"
Jeda's world went topsy-turvy as she was slammed to the deck and then pitched sideways to the limit of her safety tether. She popped up onto her hands and knees, got one foot underneath her body, and thrust into a standing position. From the corner of her vision, she saw Kimberly and the black siren disappearing through the door.
For the first time in her career, she saw smoke and fire on the bridge. Countermeasures normally stopped that sort of thing with perfect efficiency.
No ship carried enough oxygen to waste it feeding flames. She was processing the strange occurrence when a kinetic round ripped through the computer next to her, the shockwave trailing behind it throwing her onto her back.
She simultaneously realized two things: she was passing out and that Kimberly was running to her ship. Maybe she’ll get away. Maybe she’ll stay and fight. Hard without weapons…
"Are we lying down now?" Circu asked.
Jeda looked at the ceiling and realized she was, in fact, sprawled akimbo on the middle of her bridge. She twisted onto her side then stood in a manner that would make her self-defense tactics instructor proud.
She dusted off her armor. "No, XO. Perhaps later. Give me a damage report."
Circu sneered. He was nasty when he was tired and wounded. "Twelve ships are suffering breaches. Atmosphere partitioning was in place in all vessels, but the damage also punctured storage tanks and other critical ship areas. Three are being boarded by the Noctari nightmares."
"Is the Honor one of these being boarded?"
"Of course," Circu snorted.
"Well, that explains the excitement of my Marines. What is the status of my scout ship and our jump schedule? "
"Scout one was destroyed. I sent two more while you were out," Circu said.
"How long was I out?"
"Long enough to send two more scout missions. Captains throughout Black Fleet are reporting their crews are worried."
Jeda pulled up a list of ships and realized she was not only out of scout vessels but that only three other ships were small enough to function in their place. An idea came to her, but she discarded it.
"We are being hailed by that woman you like so much, the DeVries child," Circu said.
"Was she here long enough to understand what the scouts actually do?"
Circu lifted both hands in a gesture like a shrug. The blue-skinned officer looked humanoid, but his alien culture showed through from time to time, causing confusion.
"I can send an information packet via tight beam," Circu said.
"Do it." The temptation was to focus all of her attention on her executive officer and their escape plan. Many other things were happening in the battle. Most of her captains had correctly resumed firing on enemies near and far, depending on what was available to them.
Launching long-range rockets into the sphere of the Black Fleet's formation was a bad idea, but one of her younger captains was doing just that with good effect. In his defense, the man was a bit of a prodigy and a genius.
She laid out a directive that other captains should refrain from imitating him until the tactic could be studied at a later time.
Wing Commander Evans and his void fighters took heavy losses, saving the Black Fleet from annihilation more than once.
"All available small ships have been scrambled, Admiral," Starson reported.
"Very good, Lieutenant."
"Your mother is hailing us," Felton said. "Would you like me to take a message?"
"What does she want?" Kimberly asked without looking up. Ninety-nine percent of her attention was involved with calculating a difficult ship jump.
"She sent a jump calculation with instructions for deploying a solar sail. Apparently, that allows them to follow with larger and larger ships until they can all fit through the wormhole portal," Felton said.
"Are there side effects to this technique?" Kimberly asked.
Felton smiled slightly. "I like where your head’s at. If I'm right—we are right—there will be a massive distortion left in our wake when all of Black Fleet departs."
Kimberly's fingers flew over her terminal. She did most of the work in her head but liked to check it
for something that was this dangerous. "I think we should make her exit to the largest of those Noctari fuck sticks."
Felton laughed boisterously, shaking his head as though he could barely stifle his admiration for her boldness. Dbonden watched with more reserved enthusiasm.
"What do you think, Tion?" she asked.
Doctor Robedeaux interrupted. "You should've consulted me before acting rashly."
"We will kill much of the darkness," Tion said.
"Which is a huge fucking problem!" Robedeaux said.
"Calm down there, Doc. The girl’s got a good head for this stuff," Felton said as he confirmed her jump coordinates and consolidated them with the tight beam transmission from Jeda's flagship.
Kimberly patted Doctor Robedeaux on his leg to reassure him. "Just relax and go with it, old man."
Jeda and Circu stared at the wormhole opening Kimberly and her ship had created. Exactly in the center of the most recently arrived Noctari force, the aftereffect of their fleet jump would annihilate thousands of enemy ships.
Circu's mood soured. "I would've been much happier about this in the early days of the war."
"Agreed, but it will take time for them to rebuild what we are about to take from them." She realized her coffee cup was empty. "Kimberly DeVries is either our guardian angel or the devil herself."
16
Space Walk
Kimberly's mind told her that she hadn't moved and thus couldn't have come to such a brutally insulting stop. Her body, however, suggested she had just belly-flopped onto concrete.
Her teeth ached. Stars danced in her vision. She was on the deck, pushing herself up to her feet before she knew what was happening. "I've never felt a jump like that."
Felton and the others were unconscious, lying at random places on the bridge with arms and legs twisted at strange angles. She went to them one at a time and determined they were alive but unresponsive.
"Starsword Squadron One to the Escaping Doctor, respond," a voice insisted from the comm station. "We can't hold back the Darkness much longer. Please deploy your solar sails so we can get a lock on your position. Copy?"
Kimberly put both hands to her stomach and considered vomiting. Breathing slowly, focusing on a spot a few feet in front of her, she regained her equilibrium. Then, with increasing urgency, she strode to the comm station.
"This is the Escaping Doctor. I can hear you. Be gentle, Starsword. It's my first time."
The pilot replied with zero emotion.
Cancel the lewd, icebreaking jokes, she thought.
"Glad to hear it, Doctor. Please deploy the sail at your earliest convenience. That's the only way the next ship will find us this far out. Is there a reason we jumped into the middle of literal nowhere?"
"Your boss told me I can't go to Earth. You know, the place we can get help and maybe live through this nightmare."
The voice sounded annoyed and unsurprised by her statement. "You really are new, aren't you? Now, if you don't mind, we will be dying for the cause. Don't screw up and waste our sacrifice."
Kimberly stared at the screen. There had only been a generic icon to speak to and now she wished she had seen the pilot's face because she felt guilty. Drama was something she respected, but only if it was done well. It could be a tool for manipulation in the right circumstances.
This conversation had been something else.
The Escaping Doctor only had basic tactical displays. It had been designed as a lightly armed transport ship and didn't even have the weapons or targeting systems now.
She leaned closer to watch as Starsword Squadron One, Two, and Three dashed forward against impossible odds. The dark, shadowlike ships of the enemy were swarming through the wormhole she created with her ship dragging something like nets from exaggerated wings.
Felton groaned. She wanted to wake him up and see if he understood what was happening, but she figured he’d be groggy for half an hour. In her gut, she already knew what the stakes were.
The Noctari ships were sealing the hole she'd rent through space. They were ruining the fold and nailing shut the door, trapping Jeda and her Black Fleet on the other side.
Images of what she’d left behind tortured her. There was no way Black Fleet could survive the onslaught.
"Felton! Dbonden! Robedeaux! Wake the hell up and help me!"
She deployed the solar sail, reasonably certain that it had never been used. All ships had a similar device, just like they had life pods. They gathered enough radiation to keep the ship powered until repairs could be made that would never provide enough energy to travel far.
According to her brother—who considered himself the military expert in the family—by the time most ships were ready to deploy their solar sail to survive, they were generally scuttled to keep the enemy from getting them.
“This is too slow. What the hell is wrong with you? Stupid, lowest bidder UNAS ship.” She did a quick calculation and predicted the solar sail would be fully deployed in about three days. A quick scan of the frequently asked questions menu revealed there was a manual hand crank.
Felton sat upright when she had the EVA suit spread out on the floor and was stripping down to her underwear to climb in.
He rubbed pain from his forehead. “You don’t have to take your clothes off to do that, not that I’m complaining.”
“Yes you do. Don’t be an asshole.”
He looked at the tactical screen, eyes widening as ship after ship blinked out. “What’d I miss?”
“Well, the jump into the system went well, no thanks to you and the other no-loads on the Doctor.” She pulled up the pants to the extra vehicle activity suit, wiggling and hopping on her toes to speed the process. “The only problem is that the Noctari followed us. They’re tearing apart the tunnel.”
Dbonden and Robedeaux struggled to consciousness. Kimberly ignored them except to roll her eyes at their worthlessness.
“We haven’t put out the sail yet, have we? Looking to die for nothing because you want to be naked inside the spacesuit,” Felton said as he hurried to help her shrug into the upper half and attach the navigation jets.
“I’m not completely naked, you creep. I learned the hard way that it gets hot in these things. And I better touch sensitivity. Every little bit helps when you’re trying to work in these bulky things.” She did the systems check while Felton went over the exterior of her gear. “Thanks.”
“Normally, I’d thank you for the show, but I feel like death and the prospect of actual death kills the mood.”
“Whatever. When this is over, that’s all you’ll talk about. Help me into the airlock. I’ll need you to guide me at least part of the way.”
“I’ll be whispering sweet nothings in your ear and hoping you don’t get us all killed.”
Moments later, she checked to be sure the door was sealed behind her, then opened the exterior door. She didn’t have time for magnetic boots and instead went hand over hand on the ladders leading to the jammed solar sail. Ignoring how loud her breathing sounded, she moved as quickly as possible. Running out of air didn’t really matter, because if she failed, they were all dead anyway.
“Kimberly, can you hear me?”
“I hear you, Felt. Guide me in.”
“Stop. Fifteen degrees to your left. Forward three meters. There’s a hatch. Open it.”
Annoyed, she activated the magnetic liners to her boots and gloves and crawled across the metal exterior. She only looked back at the ladder once.
“Don’t worry about that,” Felton said. “You’re almost there. Scratch that; you are there. Open that panel.”
Kimberly did what he said. “It’s dark. I can’t see.”
“Your helmet has lights and infrared lenses. Pick one.”
Kimberly turned on the lights and felt dizzy and foolish. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Your suit isn’t calibrated properly and you didn’t give yourself time to get used to zero gravity.”
He kept talking, but s
he ignored him. The mechanism she needed to manipulate was straightforward—a crank that needed to be folded out then turned. It took three tries to get set up, but once she did, she planted her feet, dialed up her magnetic boots to maximum, and cranked the lever with both hands. Around and around she went.
I kind of like this. Feels… good. So sweaty. Like a workout at the spa. Except… the void of space is right here...
A golden sheet of fine metal grew over her head and started to glow. “Is it actually gathering radiation this far out?”
“Doesn’t matter as long as Jeda’s navigators can see it through the temporal distortion of the void. Each ship that moves through will stabilize the passage and expand it. She’s a genius.”
Kimberly continued to turn the crank, losing some of her earlier fascination with the novel task. “I doubt she thought of it. Admirals have people for that.”
“You need to pick up the pace. Your fighter jock boyfriends are coming this way with a lot of pissed-off Noctari chasing them,” Felton said.
She turned the crank slower and slower as fatigue plagued her muscles. “I can’t see them. What do the ship sensors show you?”
“They’re right on top of us, out of true visual range, but closing fast. Damn, those poor schmucks are taken a beating. Lost over sixty percent of the fighters so far,” Felton said.
“How much longer do I have to turn this crank?” she asked, heartsick over the dying pilots.
“Come in. The sail is deploying on its own power now.”
Kimberly nodded, knowing he couldn’t see her but unable to stop herself. She moved to the airlock in a daze of physical misery and emotional anguish. A lot of people were dying today and more would die tomorrow. How had she left her brother on Siris? “What am I doing here?” she asked no one.
Humanity’s survival was on the line. Jeda and her Black Fleet had been doing this for over ten years. How were they not insane?
Kimberly hadn’t felt this beat down since her semi-professional kickboxing days—still one of her best “piss Daddy off” adventures.
