Yellow lights flashed as a warning of the destruction he was already well aware of. Sparks shot out from components while fire extinguishing systems put out small fires and smoldering parts of the ship.
He made his way to a steel ladder and stumbled down the steep narrow steps. It had been a long time since the USS Lucky Liberty had a full crew. During the Ka’traxis Brood War it was common for crewmen and women to be rushing through the corridors going about their duties.
Four thousand Earth Fleet soldiers used to operate the USS Lucky Liberty. Since its military decommissioning the bulk of her personnel left for alternate assignments or retired from Earth Fleet altogether. Only Durham and the others on the bridge continued under James Irons’s command, albeit as miners rather than soldiers. That is, until the recent battle with the Catters.
Durham finally made it to the elevator and hit the down button. “Please still work.”
The elevator doors opened and more sparks shot out from the light. The bulb shattered and the elevator car went dark. Durham stepped into it and felt around for the buttons. He finally recognized the down arrow and pressed it. At first nothing happened then the doors finally slid closed, leaving Durham in pitch black.
“Oh, I do not want to be trapped in a dark elevator.”
He could feel the shift as the car dropped then lowered more smoothly. The movement let him breathe easier. Of course there was still the matter of the doors opening again.
* * *
Movement in a dark space was disorienting. There were only the walls to touch and the sound of the car moving through the elevator shaft. Durham knew his feet were under him but not being able to see while going down made him feel like there was no floor. And it was taking forever.
When the car shook, he wasn’t sure if it was slowing down or stopping. He waited for a moment and tried to keep calm. The doors finally opened to another through corridor. This one was darker than the one outside the bridge. One signal light flickered, casting strange shadows throughout the space. Durham knew the ship well enough that even if it was as dark as the elevator car, he could make his way around. But the infrequent strobe of the signal light made it look unfamiliar. Shadows made small control boxes look large and large control boxes look small.
He looked up and down the hall, expecting something to jump out at him.
He caught sight of the letters [WB] on the door on one end of the hall. He made his way to the entrance and waited. The door was supposed to open automatically. “Sensors are out, too,” Durham muttered.
He flipped open a small panel next to the door and input an override sequence into the five digit keypad.
The sound of something winding down came from the door and the bottom of it popped up. Durham reached down and stuck his fingers under the door then lifted it up. The gears in the wall added some resistance but not enough to keep him from being able to open it all the way.
Durham was hit with the smell of ammunition, oil and fire.
The Weapons Bay was lit up only by a few small fires and one emergency signal light. Durham rushed to the flames out before they got any larger.
Small red lights blinked on and off on three of the auto turret loading docks. The other three and the main cannon were still steady green. “At least there’s that.” He was relieved they still had some guns working.
“Lou!” he called out. “You ok? Still alive?” he asked the last question under his breath.
A large shape moved along the floor before falling.
“Lou!” Durham raced to the large man and crouched down.
The Lieutenant was in bad shape. “What happened?” he asked, weakly.
“I got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” Durham asked.
Lou stayed silent.
“Ok,” Durham continued. “The bad news is, we got shot up. Honestly, Haddron wrecked us real bad. We are dead in the void. Extreme DIV. The good news is, we’re all still alive.”
Lou’s smile was barely noticeable but it was enough for Durham.
“Now, lets get you to the bridge.” Durham put one of Lou’s arms around him and started to stand.
“The guns,” Lou strained.
“Half work. Half don’t. And I don’t think the Captain wants to get in another showdown with that thing out there.”
“But…”
“Work with me here, Lou.” Durham struggled under the big man’s weight. “I just lifted that door over there so I’m a little weaker than normal.”
* * *
The bridge doors opened and Durham and Lou stepped inside.
“You can cut life support everywhere else,” Durham said as Syracuse and Lindsay took Lou off Durham’s shoulders.
“How’s the rest of our girl looking?” Irons asked.
“Oh, you know, Boss,” Durham said, stretching his aching shoulder.
Irons stared him. This wasn’t the time for Durham’s typical demeanor. Not with all of them so close to being ripped apart.
“Sorry.” Durham shifted his attitude. “Most of the fires were put out. Extinguishing systems seem to be working fine. I stomped a couple out, myself.”
“Just a couple of fires?” Syracuse asked.
Durham shook his head. “We might have a hull breach somewhere. It’s not good, Commander.”
Everyone turned to Hannah while she continued going over the systems that were offline.
“Captain, it’s really bad. And it’s possible I’m not getting readings on every system.”
“Then we’ll make assumptions. Right now, this is the only secure spot on this barge,” Irons said. He turned to Sitasha. “What are the odds he’s in just as bad shape as we are?”
“It’s impossible to say.”
“More like doubtful,” Lindsay said. “I know we got some good hits in his soft spot. And as long as we kept moving we might have come out on top but that…” She searched for the words.
“Zonne-uitbarsting,” Sitaasha said it with some trepidation.
“Zone—what?” Durham leaned against his console, lightly touching his head wound.
“Every gun turns outward,” Sitasha explained. “They all fire at once, making a spherical offensive. There is nowhere for an enemy to run and no way to get inside of its line of fire. It is the last offense of the Slagschip.”
“And we teleported right inside its sphere. That explains why we were hit so bad after running circles around him.” Lindsay fumed at her lack of preparation for that kind of attack. “He could have just started with that.”
“And he can end us with something much simpler.” Hannah tried to bring up the display but the screen flickered, making it hard to see the image. It was clearly the same diagram of the Slagschip but the words were hard to make out. “If he uses that wave cannon, we’re officially done.”
“Let me guess.” Syracuse massaged his shoulder. “We’re right in line with it.”
Hannah’s eyes told him everything.
“Then what’s he waiting for?” Irons asked.
“Pride,” Sitasha said. “Haddron wants you to admit your defeat.”
“What, it ain’t obvious?”
“You are a soldier of note. Your surrender would be a trophy for him.”
Irons walked to the flickering display. “He might as well let that spot on the ship get dusty. No way I’m surrendering.” He turned to his crew. “But there’s no way I’m letting y’all go down with the the ship, either.”
“Captain?” Lindsay didn’t like what he was implying.
Irons looked around the bridge. It was in worse shape than what the Catters had put it through. The answer wasn’t on his ship and it wasn’t with his crew.
He glanced up at the timer on the display. It jumped between different times. “Hannah?”
“Sir?”
“Clocks busted. How much time you think I got?”
“I’d estimate you have nine hours, sir.”
“Him or the clock, either way, time is up.”
The Cyber Eye fell onto the teleporter, still hooked to the strips. He walked toward the device and unhooked it.
“Now we can’t—”
“It was shattered, anyway,” Hannah told Durham. “No matter what, we’re stuck.”
Irons clipped the device to his belt.
“I wouldn’t mind knowing what you think you’re doing, Captain.” Syracuse placed a hand on Irons’s shoulder.
“It’s Mona, Hill,” Irons started. “I have to do this.”
“Sir, “Lindsay stepped up. “We’re all worried about the Admiral.”
Irons smiled at the willingness of his crew. “Yeah. But I owe Haddron for this.” He pointed at his swollen eye.
“So what do we do? Wait five minutes?” Durham asked.
“You got anywhere else to go?”
“Got no way to get there anyway,” Syracuse said before saluting Irons.
The others fell in line and saluted as well. Even Lou, though his was weaker than the others.
“The harder you fight, the less time you’ll have,” Sitasha warned.
“Hit him, sir,” Lindsay said. “Really hard.”
Irons smiled and pressed the lens.
Twenty-Five
The Warm-up
The teleport light flashed and Irons found himself standing alone, deep in enemy territory.
He surveyed the corridor he was standing in. The inside of the Nordic ship had all of the right parts but he had a hard time discerning what they actually did. Nothing was integrated. Every component was independent of the others. He thought about taking one out just to see what would happen. If he could disable the ship from the inside, the Lucky Liberty might be able to take out the rest. But there was no telling what kind of security or alarms Haddron’s ship had. It was possible some internal scanners had already picked him up and alerted the bridge. But until he knew for sure, the element of surprise was in Irons’s favor.
He cautiously made his way toward what he thought was the front of the ship. There were no alarm or signal lights going off in the section he walked through, making it hard to tell if he and his crew had done any damage at all. They only knew what they could see from the outside.
A sign was attached to the wall. The symbol under the word looked like an arrow pointing forward. The word [OVERBRUGGEN] was above the arrow. “I hope that means bridge,” he whispered.
There were no other signs or directions in the corridor so Irons decided to follow that one.
* * *
A blue through way with white lights running along the floor led to a solid door. The door was a silver color with no window. Irons thought he could hear voices from the other side.
He hugged the wall and made his way toward the door. Another word was etched into it. [BRUG].
“You’re either the bridge or the Brig. Only one way to find out.” He stepped into the middle of the hall and approached the door.
* * *
“I will repeat myself one more time, Captain, then I will decimate your ship and your crew with it.” Haddron faced his holographic display. “Do you surrender?”
The bridge door opened and Irons stepped through. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”
Everyone turned around, shocked to see the human standing there.
Jammin was the first to attack. He ran straight for Irons and leapt into the air, arms wide open.
Irons spun out of the way and Jammin crashed into the door then fell to the floor.
“I ain’t here for anyone else but you.” Irons pointed at Haddron.
Jammin shoved off the floor and rose to his feet. The first punch was obvious. And although the larger Nordic hit with heavy force, Irons blocked it with relative ease.
Another fist came from underneath. That one made its mark in Irons’s gut.
The Captain toppled forward but the large Nordic man kept him from falling to the floor.
Jammin leaned down to Iron’s ear and turned to Haddron. He wanted them both to hear him. “I’ll just have to finish what you couldn’t.” He sneered.
Irons took the moment of distraction to rise up and lock his arm around Jammin’s head. Then he swung the Nordic around, slamming his legs into the wall before dropping him back to the floor. Jammin rolled to his front but before he could get back up Irons reached down and slammed his fist into the side of Jammin’s head, sandwiching it between his knuckles and the hard floor.
Jammin was left breathing but he did not get back up.
A single cough escaped Irons’s lungs. Haddron squinted at the sound and flicked his head toward the human.
Elit flew forward. He too leapt into the air but his target wasn’t Irons. It was the wall behind him. The lithe Nordic twisted and let his feet hit the wall where he pressed off and hit Irons in the back, elbows first.
The strike shoved the Captain forward. Elit was not the lumbering powerhouse that Jammin was and he wasn’t as fast as Haddron either. Still, he kept Irons on his toes.
The two weaved around, with Elit getting in more hits that Irons cared for. Just gotta get one in, Irons thought.
He swung at Elit and missed.
“This will not go how you want it to, human.” Elit teased as he drew a knife. “Maybe you should have shown up with a weapon.”
Irons raised his fists. “Got all I need right here.”
Elit rushed forward, knife ready to cut across. Irons dropped to the floor as the blade came swinging at him. His leg swung out like a steel rod, sweeping right at Elit’s shins. The wiry Nordic man tripped on it and flipped over.
Irons stood and rushed to the downed Elit where he raised his foot, ready to stomp on the knife wielder. But the swifter Nordic rolled out of the way and rose to his feet as Irons slammed his boot on the floor.
Elit took several quick strikes at Irons who dodged the cuts until the fourth one went right through his shirt, cutting a horizontal slash through it.
Irons’s shirt quickly reddened with blood. Haddron watched as Irons barely acknowledged the wound. The cut quickly went from the crimson color of blood to the gray color of tiny machines acting as a sealant.
Haddron’s eyes shifted from the wound to Irons whose left arm quivered ever so slightly.
Elit swung the blade from his left to his right but Irons met the blow with a ridge hand to the Nordic’s wrist. Elit released the knife and it clanged to the floor as he gripped his sore wrist.
“Like I said.” Irons raised his fist. “All I need.”
Elit watched the human knuckles as they filled his vision. After that, everything went dark.
The punch sent Elit into the air several steps backwards where he landed on the floor just like Jammin. Still alive but out of the fight.
Naura stood on the other side of her console, keeping something between her and Captain Irons. She looked at Haddron who stood calmly in front of his ship’s command console.
“You wanna try your luck?” Irons said to Naura.
She only shook her head, knowing better than to stand toe to toe against him after the display with Jammin and Elit.
Irons turned his attention to Haddron. “Guess that just leaves you.”
“I am uncertain of how it is you arrived on my ship.” the Nordic man stepped away from the console. “In the event of your defiance at my request for your surrender, I was prepared to make your ship a final resting place.”
“I got no doubts I’ll die on that boat out there.” Irons gestured at the Lucky Liberty through the windows. It remained in its stationary position in front of the Slagschip. “But it ain’t gonna be cuz of you.”
“Perhaps you’re right. But what about your crew? Are they prepared to make that boat their final resting place?”
“They knew the score when they signed up,” Irons said.
“Really?” Haddron turned to Naura.
She held her hand over her console.
Alarm struck Irons. “W
hat is this?”
“One word from me and she commands the Slagschip to unleash a final barrage. One that will reduce your beloved ship and crew to atoms.”
“Wait!” Irons shouted.
“I thought they knew what they signed up for?”
“And I thought you had some pride.”
“Sitasha has told you more of me than I care for. Fortunately, for all that you know, I still know more about you.”
Irons coughed again. This time blood came up, hitting the floor. His vision started to waver but he shook it off and refocused on Haddron.
“And even more about the machines working so hard to make you whole,” Haddron continued.
“You stalling for time? I already know the clock’s running out.”
“Even faster now that you have exerted yourself in such a swift and careless manner.” Haddron raised his hand, signaling for Naura to remove hers from her console. “By my estimates, you only have seven hours left. Do you think you can last that long?”
“More than enough time for you.” Irons remained defiant as he readied himself for whatever Haddron was going to do next.
Haddron nodded respectfully then ran straight for the Captain.
Twenty-Six
The Main Bout
James Irons barely had time to block the first blow from Haddron. His speed was unreal but Irons managed to parry the first strike and deliver one of his own. The human’s fist drove straight into Haddron’s gut, doubling the Nordic over. It was a solid hit that gave Irons some hope that he would survive the fight. Maybe even win.
Haddron gabbed his arm and leapt up, twisting around and locking both legs around Irons’s neck. Irons dropped his arm under Haddron’s weight and Haddron used that momentum to roll down and flip the human over.
The Captain hit the floor and rolled to a stop. Another cough and more blood. He shook off the same blurred vision and looked out the window to focus on his ship.
“Your battle is in here!” Haddron shouted as he popped up to his feet. “Do me the dignity of maintaining your focus where it should be.”
NORDIC WRATH (War In the Void Book 2) Page 16
