by Scott Moon
He squirmed deeper into the copilot’s chair. “I feel no guilt for trying to save myself at the moment. What can I do for humanity if I die?”
“That’s my exact argument every day,” Dbonden said. “We’re at a decision point. Attempt docking or go the other way.”
Kimberly studded the half destroyed flight deck. It was littered with Noctari and UNA small craft, human and alien bodies, and unidentifiable wreckage. Sparks flashed silently in the spaces venting oxygen. The silent symphony of destruction mesmerized her.
“Amazing,” she murmured.
“I was going to say horrifying,” Robedeaux said. “We can land, force the Escaping Doctor deep enough into the bay to safely disembark, but leaving will be problematic.”
“Get us in there, Dbonden,” Kimberly said. She grabbed the comm mic. “Escaping Doctor to Honor flight deck fifty-seven. We’re coming in with damage and have unwanted passengers.”
A voice responded through the radio static. “Understood, Doctor. Put her down best you can. I’ll send Marines your way.”
Dbonden slammed through the first layer of wreckage, dragging parts of the bay doors and other ship parts behind them. Leaning against the controls, he fought the sudden pull of the Honor’s gravity generators.
“Landing gears aren’t functioning,” he said.
“Oh well.” Kimberly pushed Doctor Robedeaux deeper into his seat and checked the safety harness, then grabbed a ring on the ceiling.
“Brace yourself.”
The ship landed hard and slid into a wall. The moment it stopped, Kimberly pointed at Tion. “Get Robedeaux to safety. I’m going after Felton.”
Dbonden grabbed a shotgun from a locker near the small door and raced after her. “I’m with you, DeVries.”
She was glad he didn’t call her Kim or Kimmy or any of his other juvenile taunts.
The first hallway was dark but undamaged. After that, everything got weird and dangerous. She’d always been lucky. The first Noctari boarder they encountered was facing away from them, intent on the next bulkhead. She shot it at the base of its skull and pushed it out of the way before the black and purple blood had finished spattering the wall.
“Nice work, DeVries.”
She didn’t look back. The only thing that mattered was speed and surprise. Her brother had told her that and she wondered where he was now, hoping Admiral Robedeaux hadn’t been lying. He’d said something else too, another part of what was being taught in the military about combat. Violence of Action.
“I’m going to pitch a grenade down the next hallway we pass,” Dbonden said.
“Where the hell did you get a grenade?”
“Trade secret.” He peeked down the hallway running the other direction, then activated the grenade and pitched it. “Your enviro suit won’t protect you against that, FYI.”
“No shit.” Kimberly raced across the T-intersection without waiting for the DU agent to catch up.
Two Noctari rounded the corner and babbled at her in their strange language. She saw their weapons come up, felt them aiming at her, and realized she was too slow. Dbonden stepped around her, almost but not quite moving ahead of her, and sprayed the intersection with supersonic flechettes until his magazine ran dry and his power light started blinking.
“Reloading,” he said. “Those rounds are made for fighting on a ship. They don’t go very far, but they hit hard. Same with the grenades. Controlled blasts.”
“Thanks, Dbonden. You can save my bacon anytime. Let’s get Felt and get the fuck out of here.”
“I can hear the Marines in our cargo bay. Be careful when you go in. They’re trigger-happy bastards.”
“Especially if they realize you’re DU, right?”
“I thought of that, but there’s nothing to be done about it now.”
They moved together, so close that they bumped from time to time. She covered to the left because she was more flexible and could twist further at the waist and he covered to the right, shooting one enemy after another.
The deck jumped underneath them several times. Once, she slipped to one knee and Felton helped her up. Seconds later, a round impacted the lightweight body armor he’d dropped over his flight suit. Flying backward, he held on to his gun and Kimberly thought for one crazy moment he was actually chambering around for the next shot even as his face writhed in pain.
He looked incredibly bad-ass and old as hell. A lifetime fighting for the Dissident Union had taken a toll on him even as it granted him his tradecraft.
She knew she couldn’t yank him back to his feet by raw strength, so she spread her feet wide and stood over him, shooting one Noctari after another to protect him. Maybe it wasn’t a long time, but she was glad when he finally tapped her on the shoulder to indicate he was standing and good to go.
They rushed to the final hallway and stepped into hell.
Black Fleet Marines had formed a circle around one of their downed medics and were slaughtering their enemies with a fury that scared the shit out of Kimberly.
Jeda couldn’t believe what she was seeing on the tactical screens. “We’re winning.”
“Confirmation achieved. You are correct. The Noctari fleet seems to be retreating as fast as they came,” Circu said.
A cheer went up among the bridge crew.
“Give me a list of ship identifiers. How many belong to the Guide and how many to his master, Hanax?” She was a real bitch for asking this question now rather than allowing her crew to enjoy the moment. She knew it and did what was needed.
“There are a mixture of ships. The battle was very chaotic,” Circu said.
Jeda, despite knowing better, allowed her hopes to rise for several heartbeats.
Pockets of silence grew wherever officers watched the flat screens and holographic displays. The ship gravity generators went into overdrive.
“They’re not running. They hurt us, then advanced on a new target,” Jeda said. “What I need to know now is are they going to Earth or Siris?”
Teams of navigators and their assistants crunched data while others focused on ship repairs.
“Circu, give me the butcher’s bill.” Jeda had a good idea from the tally she’d been keeping in her head as events unfolded.
“One hundred and seventeen small ships lost. Twenty-seven capital ships critically damaged. Minor damage on the rest of the fleet. Do you want the number of personnel killed or injured?”
“Send the details to my terminal.” She held her breath as she read through the lists, knowing she should relax and breathe. Her head couldn’t stop thinking. Her hands couldn’t stop doing work. All that mattered was keeping this from ever happening again.
“Navigation, can we determine where they took the bulk of their fleet?” She hated what she knew about her enemy.
This was a battle she had tried to avoid for a long time because she understood the consequences. The mechanism was unclear and would probably never be fully known, but for every enemy ship and creature she put down, three more took their place.
Their regeneration required time, but it still happened. In a year, she would face a Noctari fleet that was unstoppable, if she was even still alive. Black Fleet had taken heroic efforts to actually grow during the ten years of their isolation from the rest of UNA forces, but that trend had ended years ago. She was at less than thirty percent of her original fighting strength. And all of the ships had been pieced back together from the wreckage of previous battles and artifacts scavenged from strange worlds.
“Plot one course to Earth and one to Siris. I’ll see all captains on the virtual bridge in one hour.”
30
Change of Plans
Lacy swayed on her feet, hands touching the controls Ontin had explained in a way she understood but made no sense to Kevin. Priest slept in a chair in the corner, feet sprawled wide, legs crossed on his chest, and mouth snoring like a bear.
“He wouldn’t do that if he were on a recon mission,” Lacy said somewhat bitterly.
“You’re not far behind him. Get some rest,” Kevin said.
“Why are you so chipper?” she asked, the strain of her inner struggles showing in her expression. “Space travel in an alien vessel seems to agree with you.”
Kevin felt better rested than he had in weeks. Something about his dreams had taken him to a new place. It wasn’t a good feeling, not exactly, but the ember of confidence burned brightly just out of true awareness.
“Not sure, but I’ll take it. Seriously, you’re about to drop.” He didn’t like it when she closed her eyes to hide the veins of the Darkness trying to possess her.
She patted him on the shoulder then rousted Priest, ordering him to his bunk while she did the same. “Check on me from time to time, Connelly. I feel a massive clusterfuck on the horizon.”
Ontin stood to one side, nearly motionless but for the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. The moment Lacy left, he took over at the controls without a word.
Kevin watched the blue Nix pilot the ship, each of the alien’s movements seeming mysterious in the half-light. The twitching stumps of his amputated limbs unnerved Kevin. He watched them until the sight seemed natural. Ontin was Ontin, a dangerous Nix warrior currently helping him find and kill the Guide and eventually save the twins.
Or that was what Kevin told himself.
“Does the lack of illumination bother you, Kevin Connelly the Brother of the Twins?” Ontin asked.
“Just call me Kevin.”
“Your language is very difficult.”
Kevin studied the controls of the ship and couldn’t quite grasp the purpose of knobs, levers, and switches. It seemed to him there wasn’t enough feedback from the Nix vessel—too few video screens and no gauges.
“I’ve heard that before,” Kevin said. “How’s our situation? What are the other ships doing out here?”
“There are Noctari ships I don’t recognize. Not of Guidis. Not of Hanax. They must be from Dremur, but I had believed she was too weak to recover so soon after a century of being poisoned in the Chrysalis chambers,” Ontin said. “We’ll be caught between their final battle, I fear.”
Kevin didn’t want to worry about Armageddon just yet. It was too much. He needed to keep his priorities straight or lose his mind. “Why were you looking for the twins?”
Ontin turned his head, staring at Kevin with malevolent intensity. It took a moment for him to realize he wasn’t about to be attacked by the large alien. This seemed to be Ontin’s default expression.
“They are the key to many things.”
Kevin clenched one fist and resisted the urge to punch something. He was tired and confused. “I don’t care about any of that.”
“You should. Do you wish to know why they were put into the Chrysalis chambers when no human ever survives?”
Kevin thought of the stories he’d heard about Sirens stealing away children from Earth. His mother and father had told him those were just stories told to frighten children and to thrill people who needed drama in their boring lives.
“Tell me.”
“Many times we have attempted to bring humans into our race. We were not always as you see us now. For thousands of years, we have assimilated others that helped us survive and overcome the many things that destroy life in this galaxy. Chrysalis grew out of that process. Every one of us, from high to low, sacrifices ourselves. Even I was once the Forever Siren. Though not for long. My nature was too warlike. It shames me to admit I brought conflict and death to Siris for many centuries. But now I know what must be done.”
Kevin wondered how long Ontin had been missing his accessory arms. The blue Nix was raising more questions than he was answering. Kevin forced himself to keep his mouth shut and listen. Apparently, “not for long” meant hundreds of years to a Siren.
“Humans are too independent to survive Siris. Or the Chrysalis chamber. Or the galaxy in general. Ace and Amanda, however, have a special bond. We tried pairings of humans such as them before and nearly succeeded. But now we have the strangest result of our efforts, twins who survived… and you.”
“Get to the point.” Kevin felt his pulse increasing and his skin flushing red. He didn’t want to be angry or afraid.
“Your brother and sister are the only sure way to navigate the Sol Gate. They will be sacrificed and we will pass through into the next galaxy and survive.”
“What about me? Can I take their place?”
Ontin’s face hardened further. “You should be dead already. You’re a greater abomination than the Burner Queen.”
“Whatever.”
“Humans,” Ontin snorted.
“No one is going to sacrifice the twins.”
“Then we all die, unless you have a better way to avoid the wrath of the Noctari.”
“How about we kick their ass.”
“That is a typically human solution that has been tried many times.”
“That’s what it always has to come down to in the end, doesn’t it? Someone has to win,” Kevin said. A memory of running the streets around Building 595 flared to life—his big brother urging him on, demanding he lead an invading gang into a new neighborhood where they wouldn’t be welcome.
He missed his brother and felt something had happened to him.
Ontin growled and looked sideways at Kevin. “There must always be a winner. And you are saying that I am a loser.”
Kevin was about to respond, when pain shot through him. Colors became too bright and he couldn’t close his eyes. He gripped the railing near the control terminal as every muscle in his body clenched. He rose up onto his tiptoes and thought his body was tearing itself apart.
Ontin reacted immediately, slamming him to the floor without apology.
Kevin gasped and stared wide-eyed at the dark blue figure standing over him. “That… actually helped.”
“What is happening to you? Have you been possessed by Guidis?”
Kevin thought about it as he struggled to his feet, his body still throbbing with pain. “No, I don’t think so. How would I know if I was?”
Ontin growled and turned back to the controls of the ship. “I’ve never been possessed, so I can’t tell you the answer.”
One thing was increasingly clear to Kevin. The ships they had been evading had noticed them. This conviction came without looking at any of the monitors on the Nix ship, which he barely understood anyway.
“We are being surrounded in a sphere of enemy fighters. I don’t know what you did, but you killed us all,” Ontin said. “I will send a message to wake up your human clan mates.”
Ships gathered in Kevin’s imagination and he understood they were surrounding Ontin’s ship.
He heard what the strange Nix was saying but couldn’t respond. Clarity came as pain receded. He realized there was an aftertaste in his mouth, unremembered until now. He’d felt this way, tasted this way, had the sensations only when he’d awoken from the Chrysalis chamber.
“What is happening to you?”
Tears squeezed from the corners of Kevin’s eyes. “I think those ships belong to the Dreamrider.”
He understood that Guidis and Dremur were the Guide and the Dreamrider and that they were Noctari. For the first time, he could truly understand their malevolence. They’d been manipulating humans and other races for thousands of years.
His body shook uncontrollably and he prayed Ontin wouldn’t look at him and that neither Priest nor Lacy would come back soon enough to see his weakness. Anger helped. His pride slowly pulled him out of the hole he found himself in but did nothing to change the fact that they were all screwed.
31
Kimberly’s Argument
“She’s here, Admiral Soldottir,” the Marine guard said. His face and hand were bandaged. His eyes showed pain, but he didn’t complain.
Jeda marveled at the discipline of Jackson’s Marines. She’d probably slouch against the wall if she’d been through the same fight and she wasn’t exactly lazy or undisciplined.
&n
bsp; This fight with the Noctari had been worse than normal. Too many people killed and wounded. Too many ships lost or damaged.
“I’ll see her in my stateroom,” Jeda said.
Moments later, Kimberly DeVries strode into the room ready for a fight.
“Call down, DeVries. I’m not the enemy.”
“How can you look so calm?”
“Experience. What do you want? I have a fleet to put back together and we are still fighting for our lives.”
“We can’t beat these things.”
Jeda sipped her coffee and studied the young woman. “I didn’t figure you for a defeatist.”
“Cut the bullshit, Admiral. There’s only one way to stop them. I can’t figure out why you haven’t done it.” Kimberly DeVries crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one hip.
“Pitting the Noctari against the Ignari isn’t as easy as you think. My strategy experts have suggested the tactic many times but never been able to deliver a scenario that doesn’t involve us getting crushed in the middle.”
“Then we have to get crushed.”
Jeda went cold. Slowly putting down her cup, she paced her small room before facing the daughter of Earth’s most notorious crime boss.
She nodded. “You’re right, DeVries. We’re going to be caught in the middle. What I need now are ideas that will allow as many of my people to survive as possible.”
DeVries shook her head in frustration.
“Problem?” Jeda asked.
“You didn’t ask me what we do after the final battle.”
Jeda crossed her arms. “There won’t be many options, if we survive. And don’t begin to imagine we’ll win a decisive victory no matter how clever you are. Every ship of theirs we destroy will be three more we fight next year.”
The young woman’s expression changed and she looked older by ten years. “Then we’re never going home.”
“You are correct, DeVries. The more I hurt them, the more they have to follow me. The last place I want to take them is to Earth.”
