“Last time that happened, you got shot down by an LAV,” Durham interrupted.
Irons looked back at him and smirked. “Keep Allen out of trouble.” He stepped through the wormhole.
* * *
Before Irons was completely out of the portal on the other side, something large rammed into him, knocking him across the room.
Irons slammed into the wall then slumped to the floor. He shook off the hit. “I’m sick of being knocked around.”
“You may fulfill your revenge, my friend,” Haddron said, his voice calm and inviting.
Irons lifted his head and saw Haddron with Mona. He turned to the other side of the room and saw Benjamin laying on the floor. Between the two of them was the biggest Catter Irons had ever seen.
Kar’libon stood hunched over, his claws out. Haddron may have been out for victimless revenge but Kar’libon was out for blood.
“I guess we didn’t get rid of all of you.” Irons used the wall to help balance himself as he rose to his feet. “Or maybe you just didn’t get the message. Your Queen is dead. You shoulda run with the rest of the fur balls.”
Kar’libon bared his teeth at Irons then ran full force at the Captain.
Irons pushed off the wall and dove.
He rolled just behind the Catter and launched himself to his feet.
Kar’libon jumped feet first and kick flipped off the wall, denting it under his powerful legs. He turned around to reface Irons.
“Tricky, ain’t ya?” Irons asked. He ran at the Catter and the two met in the middle of the room.
Light glinted off the sharp claws as they swiped at Irons. He ducked but a large leg came up right at him. It took both arms to block the attack and it still sent Irons off his feet and on his back.
“James!” Mona yelled.
The distraction was unwelcome. It made Irons take his eyes off his opponent just long enough to be nearly smashed by a fur covered foot as it came crashing down at his head.
He rolled out of the way and popped himself up onto his feet.
“My friend is angered at your murder of his Queen,” Haddron said.
“Well tell him I’m angered at the attack on my planet.” Irons held up his fists.
“I do not need anyone to speak for me.” Kar’libon launched himself at Irons, tackling him to the floor.
The blows from the Catter were not softened by the fur on his fists. Each strike would leave a bruise on Irons’s forearms. It was all the human could do to keep the Catter warrior from hitting him in the head. The hope was that the Catter eventually tired out. But Irons could see Mona struggling with Haddron’s hand clamped around her arm. He knew he didn’t have time to wait. Haddron could teleport out at any moment.
Irons caught one of the Catter fists in his hand, just barely getting his finger tips over the furry knuckles. He caught the next one in the same way. The two combatants glared at each other but it was Irons who landed the next blow.
His head shot up and collided with the Catter’s face.
Kar’libon hissed at the pain. He reared back, holding his nose with both hands.
Irons could see blood matting the fur on the Catter’s hands. He swung one leg around to the front of Kar’libon’s torso and shoved the big cat off him. The thud from his impact with the floor was loud and the two worked quickly to get their legs untangled from one another.
Irons got to his feet first and finally made his way after Haddron but his legs were knocked out from under him again. Breath exploded from his lungs as he landed on his stomach. Sucking in air, he tried to push up off the floor but a foot stomped right in the middle of his back.
Irons let out a pained growl.
“Stop it!” Mona yelled.
“Worry not, Admiral.” Haddron watched as the Catter slammed his foot down on Irons’s back again. “His death will be the only blood we spill. There is no death plan in my revenge. Only in Kar’libon’s.”
Irons finally rolled to his back and stopped the next stomp. His hands gripped tightly around the Catter’s foot as Kar’libon continued to press down. It was nothing like doing a bench press. Irons was already tired and in too much pain to do any more than keep the foot from a quick stomp. It was the only time when being slowly crushed to death was the better option.
“I’ll go with you. Just leave him alone,” Mona pleaded.
Her sentiment made Irons smile just a little as he continued to strain against the overpowering strength of the Catter.
“Just fought a bunch of you.” Irons gritted his teeth. “Never thought it would only take one to put me down.”
A small but sudden gun shot burst inside the room. Kar’libon’s slow but constant pressure eased up and Irons found his moment to push the foot off him.
The big Catter staggered backward, clasping his chest right over his heart. Irons popped up and looked behind him. Benjamin Stevens stood with a small gun in his hand, its barrel still smoking from the shot. He looked at the Catter then at Haddron. The Nordic and the Kat’raxis Brood warrior glanced at each other then both at the small hole in Kar’libon’s chest.
“My friend…” Haddron loosened his grip on Mona just long enough for her to work herself free. But not for long. Haddron snapped to his senses and reenforced his grasp on her. He turned his gun to Benjamin. “Now I will spill blood.”
Benjamin and Irons watched the Catter stumble farther backwards before falling to his knees. A final hiss escaped from his fanged mouth then Kar’libon fell forward, dead.
“You shouldn’t have come back, Haddron.” Irons turned to the Nordic. “Let the Admiral go.”
“You think this is over?” Haddron pulled back the hammer on his gun but before he could do more the gun was shot out from his hand.
Benjamin stood ready to fire another round.
Haddron pulled Mona in front of himself, blocking Benjamin’s next shot. “Then this stands as your victory, James Irons. But it is not the final one.” Haddron pressed the lens on his teleporter.
“Wait!” Irons dashed forward but it was too late. In the same flash of light, Haddron and Mona disappeared from the room.
Irons and Benjamin stared at the empty place, uncertain what to do next.
Benjamin hung his head low. “I’m sorry, Captain.”
“Nothing to be sorry for." Irons reached around to his back, suddenly aware of the pain.
“So what now?”
“We find out where he took her then we go after them.” Irons looked down at the dead Catter. “Thanks for the save, Stevens.”
“My pleasure.” Benjamin somberly put the gun away. Saving the life of his hero should have made him ecstatic. Instead it only reminded him of just how dangerous war could be. And especially how dangerous Haddron actually was.
The ship shook violently. Both men stumbled but remained on their feet.
“What’s going on?” Irons asked.
“Haddron must be attacking the ship.” Benjamin ran toward the door as another quake rippled throughout the Star Predator. “Commander Hill, what’s happening out there?” Benjamin asked.
Irons stared at the Wartech CEO, waiting for the answer.
“A hole?” Benjamin asked in disbelief. “How is that possible?” Benjamin’s eyes went wide.
“What is it?” Irons asked, impatiently.
Benjamin looked at the Captain. “We need to get topside. Now.”
The two rushed out of the room amidst more shaking.
* * *
Irons and Benjamin ran through the hallways of the Star Predator as items rolled downward toward them.
"She's taking on water!" Benjamin yelled.
"Worse. Look!" Irons pointed forward.
The doorway up ahead was full of more sky than horizon. “She’s capsizing!”
They ran uphill as fast as they could. Irons was surprised at Benjamin’s ability to make the climb. It was most likely a combination of fear and some exercise regimen. Either way it was effective.
The two finally burst through
the open doorway to see crewmen jumping ship. On the other side, many were trying to jump to the dock. Some made it. Others didn’t. Fortunately they got a soft landing.
“Can you swim, Stevens?”
“Yes but, I don’t—“
Irons grabbed the CEO and hoisted him over the edge then jumped after him.
The two splashed into the water, both going under. Irons opened his eyes. The water wasn’t so murky that he couldn’t make out any details of his underwater surroundings. He observed the Admiral’s cruiser and noticed the massive hole in the ship’s side. It didn’t look like the kind of damage that a cannon could do. Rather it looked as though the missing piece had been pulled off from the inside. The surrounding metal of the hull stretched inward.
“Captain?” Benjamin yelled, his voice muffled by splashes of water. “Captain Irons!”
Irons burst through the surface and coughed out a small amount of water before taking a deep breath.
Benjamin whirled toward him. “Captain. Why did you throw us in the water?”
Irons wiped water way from his face. “No sense going down with the ship.”
“It’s the dock, Captain. We just needed to get in the open. We would have been fine.”
Irons looked around at the dock and understood. “It was the first thought that came to mind. I wasn’t the only one.” He pointed at the other crew members swimming for the docks.
They turned their attention to the Star Predator. It had stopped moving and most of the space cruiser was still out of the water, tilted upward at an angle. There were even a few crewmen still aboard. All of them were hanging on to whatever they could grab to keep from sliding into the water.
“There’s a big hole in her side,” Irons said. “Haddron must have shot it out. But I don’t know what kind of ordinance could do that.”
“I don’t think it was ordinance. I don’t even think it was a conventional attack.”
“What do you mean?”
Thirteen
As The Enemy Does Part 1
The bridge floor of the Drastic Nova was slowly looking like a wading pool as Irons and Benjamin stood, still dripping wet from their swim.
"What do you mean?” Irons asked.
“It just disappeared, Captain,” Hannah tried to explain. “The teleporter acts like a Hypergate, except travel isn’t just fast. It’s instant. The process, essentially, pulls then pushes whatever it’s transporting. Since Haddron’s is only meant for personal use, it can only teleport smaller items. If it’s used for something larger, it rips it apart. Just like it did with the Admiral’s ship.”
“So Haddron has a transport device than can be used as a weapon?” Durham asked.
“I guess he could use it to damage something. We destroyed a Catter Fortress with a Hypergate,” Hannah continued. “Whatever field the teleporter generates can only spread so thin.”
“Do you know what we could do with tech like that?” Benjamin asked, wringing out his suit jacket. More water rained down on the floor.
“Wartech commissioned or no, I would appreciate, Mr. Stevens, if you discontinued spilling water on my ship,” Roy said, sternly.
“Sorry, Captain.” Benjamin folded the jacket and held it in one arm. “If Wartech could get one of those devices, we wouldn’t even have to continue studying the Wormhole Activators. We could skip that entire line.”
“He’s got Mona!” Irons blurted out. “You think I care about tech acquisitions?”
“Of course not, Captain. The Admiral is a close friend. I would never put company interests in front of a friend. But we might as well kill two birds with one stone.”
“Bad choice of words there, Stevens,” Syracuse scolded.
Benjamin shook his head. “Sorry. I’m—I’m not real good at this. I just killed a Catter and it’s still got me a little shaken.”
“A Catter?” Durham asked.
Lindsay bolted to her feet. “Where?”
“Haddron was working with one,” Irons told them. “Biggest one I ever seen. Stevens took care of it.”
“Well done.” Durham patted Benjamin on the shoulder. “Didn’t know you had it in you.”
“Great,” Roy spoke up. “One more dead Catter. Now can we get back to the business at hand?”
The entire bridge quieted down in light of Roy’s sudden take charge attitude. Even Irons followed the man’s instruction. He wanted to get Mona back as quickly as possible. If Roy had any ideas, he was all for them.
“You got a plan, Allen?” Irons asked.
“Haddron can teleport. So he’s got the advantage of instant travel on his side. At best, we can travel long distances by wormhole. But it’s not instant. There’s only one way we can even the playing field.”
“We need a teleporter.” Hannah was already ahead of him.
A flash went off on the bridge and Sitasha appeared. She quickly moved toward Irons. “I have just discovered. Haddron has the Slagschip. It is too late.”
“Your timing couldn’t be better. And nothing’s too late.” Irons looked down at the teleporter in her hand. “Not when we can be anywhere, any time.”
Sitasha followed his gaze to her teleporter. “I would be more than happy to give it to you. But I‘m afraid it would make little difference. And your ships aren’t suited to use it.”
“How could we solve that?” Syracuse asked.
“You would need one much larger than this.” She held up the teleport device.
Benjamin stepped forward. “I can get my people on that right away.”
Sitasha brought the device close to her, protective of it and uncertain of relinquishing it to anyone but Captain Irons.
“Don’t worry. It’s in good hands,” Benjamin reassured her. “I won’t damage it. I won’t even have to take it apart. We have scanning systems that can tell me how it works. Once I’ve got the blue print I’ll give it right back to you. I promise.”
Sitasha glanced down at the teleporter, knowing they would need every advantage to counter Haddron. Still uncertain, she finally handed the device to the Wartech CEO.
Benjamin looked it over with great interest before finally clipping it to his own belt then covering it with his shirt as an added measure.
“Even if you do manage to recreate the technology of this device, your ability to fight against the Slagschip is still stunted. Few have withstood its power and lived. It is why the council deemed it forbidden,” Sitasha explained.
“But you already said Haddron has it.” Lindsay looked for clarification.
“That is correct. That is why you cannot go against him.”
“Sounds to me like you’re suggesting we just give up,” Irons told her.
“No. But a single ship against the Slagschip is suicide.”
Hannah pulled out the technical specs of the Slagschip. She looked it over and ran calculations in her head. “Captain,” she said, surprised at her own thought.
“Out with it,” Irons said impatiently.
“The Slagschip isn’t just one ship. It’s actually two.” She hesitated. “Though that’s not entirely accurate. The Slagschip itself is a highly offensive battle shell. It merges with whatever ship integrates with it. It needs a host ship to operate at full capacity. If we can separate the two, then we only have to worry about the host ship. Haddron’s ship.”
“Separating them is impossible from the outside. One would have to gain access to its interior,” Sitasha explained. Her tone of voice sounded as though they were already defeated. “And until that point, Haddron still plans to move forward on his road to revenge. You will still have to contend with the Slagschip regardless of anyone boarding it.”
“It’s two ships in one?” Durham asked.
“In the most basic terms, yes,” Hannah told him.
“Why can’t we just do the same thing with out ships?”
“Merge Earth ships?” Roy asked. The idea was too far fetched.
“Its never been done before…” Benjamin’s voice tra
iled off as he grabbed the technical specs from Hannah and looked them over. The two of them began breaking down the logistics of such a plan. The technical jargon went over the heads of everyone else.
Irons just tuned them out. Best to let the experts deal with it. “So we’re dealing with a big army grunt wearing a flak jacket?”
“A ridiculously armed flak jacket,” Syracuse pointed out.
“But it’s still one ship with a crew. And from the looks of it, a crew smaller than the one we got here.” Irons looked around the bridge, making sure to note every member in his and Roy’s command.
“The problem is the Anti-Gravity Drive,” Benjamin said. “We can do it but the Null Inertia will only affect the Drastic Nova.”
All eyes turned to Benjamin and Hannah.
“The anti-gravity field is only designed for the one ship.” Benjamin continued. “The Lucky Liberty will only increase the weight and slow the Anti-Gravity process down.”
“We could correct that with the Slipstream Regulator. It wouldn’t have to be pushed to max, either.”
Benjamin walked to the Captain’s control panel and pulled up the Anti-Gravity Drive specs. He tooled around with calculations before spinning back to Hannah. “They can work together,” he said, surprised as he walked back to the Tech Specialist. “It’s going to take precise movements. They’ve got to be completely synced but the ships can work together. The only question is can they?”
Both Benjamin and Hannah turned to the subjects in question: Irons and Allen.
Fourteen
As The Enemy Does Part 2
“Absolutely not!” Roy yelled. “It’s bad enough he even has a command on my ship.”
“You arrogant little—”
“Arrogant? How could I ever be arrogant in the presence of Captain James Irons. Victor of Radial IV? Victor over the Catter Queen. You corner the market on arrogance, Irons.”
Syracuse and Lou held Irons back, a feat that would normally be challenging if not for Lou’s size and strength.
“I’m willing to work with you, Captain,” Roy went on. “Whether it’s aboard my ship with our crews side by side. Or our ships working together. But what you’re asking? No. Never.”
NORDIC WRATH (War In the Void Book 2) Page 9
