by John Walker
“That might be enough to build on.” Avania hummed. “Our own technology in that regard isn’t too different.”
“You mentioned spirit,” Victoria said. She didn’t turn around as she spoke, maintaining her focus on the mothership. “Is that why they came here? Why they picked humans at all? Willpower?”
“Absolutely,” Avania replied. “Your kind has always been special. Disciplined, strong, perseverant. The process requires vitality and vibrancy. To be honest, our people would work as well but of course, none of them volunteer for such things. The hypocrisy of the privileged, trickling down until your kind suffers for it.”
“Sounds sick,” Nicolas muttered.
“It is,” Warren replied.
“Update from control,” Madeline said. “The shuttles are returning to orbit. Several of the flights took heavy damage and losses. They …” She paused, clearing her throat. “Sixty percent casualties.”
Nicolas turned in his seat, eyes wide. “Jesus Christ, those things really went crazy then! Sixty percent?”
“I know.” Warren held up his hand. “Stay focused. Madeline, did they say the stolen shuttle launched?”
“Yes, sir. It’s on its way.”
“Then our distraction needs to begin now.” Warren nodded toward the screen. “Engage engines, Nicolas. Close on the ship and get ready to hit it with everything we’ve got. Madeline, remind everyone to keep their environmental suits handy. If those EMP shields don’t work, we’re definitely going to need them.”
“Are you ready for this?” Avania asked. “When you start shooting them, they’ll direct their weapons your way.”
“And hopefully ignore the shuttles.”
“This thing isn’t going to be able to evade anything.” Avania moved to look over Nicolas’s shoulder. “We’re going to pretty much be entering a punching contest. I’m going to run some scans over their ship and see if my parting shot did any damage we can exploit. Just on our way out, I sent a shockwave through the hangar to give them something to do.”
“Repairs?” Nicolas asked.
“Essentially,” Avania replied. “Nothing too bad, but something to prevent them from trying to wormhole out of here. Some types of damage are severe enough that using a wormhole can tear the ship apart. We’ve seen it during combat when a vessel desperately attempts to escape only to destroy themselves in the process.”
“Sounds … dangerous,” Victoria added. “Is there any way around that?”
“Seal the damage,” Avania explained, “and perhaps pray. On occasion, fortune has provided.” She sat down and started tapping away at the console. “I’ll let you know what I find momentarily. Um …” Warren looked back, noting her furrowed brows and frustrated look. “This is your scanning software? My goodness …”
“Let me guess,” Warren said, “not up to your standards?”
Avania sighed. “Antiquated, that’s all. It will take a few minutes more but I’ll get it. If there’s a weakness, I’ll help you exploit it. For now, the distraction will be enough. Besides, they’ve got a lot on their minds at the moment. Adding more to it will definitely test their powers of observation.”
“Nicolas,” Warren said, “tell me when we’re in range. Power up the weapons in the meantime and Madeline, ensure our shuttle pilots are ready to go to get those people out of there. We’ll get as close as we can but they’re going to have to move fast. This is why we’re out here, folks. Make it count.”
Chapter 11
Dex checked his watch for the tenth time since they felt the shuttle start to move. Tension filled the room, getting worse with every passing minute. Approaching the mothership held a number of unknowns. Did the aliens know they were there? Could they open the door when they arrived? Would the Leviathan’s pilot help them escape in time?
More importantly, would they detect the bombs? Their technology was ridiculous and might easily put them in a position to catch on to the radiation. None of the people on Earth know one way or another. Dex tried not to second guess it, tried to brush it off as pre-combat nerves. He rarely suffered from such things but he gave himself a pass this time.
They hadn’t even been on Earth for five hours before he was heading back to the one place he never wanted to go again. Had the aliens not killed Gary, Jake, Debra and countless others, he might not have volunteered. This was a matter of honor. He owed the aliens for what they did and, to be fair, he was the most qualified to lead the attack force.
“The vibration stopped!” Jumie shouted. Dex smirked, remembering the moment they figured it out the first time. Then, they were armed with desperation and anger. Now, they carried their own weapons and enough cover to protect themselves in a lengthy fight. “Does that mean we’ve docked?”
“It sure as shit does,” Dex said. “Stay in cover. If the door doesn’t open right away, I’ll take care of it. You’ve already heard it before from me but these guys have solid weapons and you can’t rely on headshots. Their helmets will probably absorb concussion damage. Aim for center mass. Kill shots only.”
“Is there any other kind?” Someone asked, drawing a chuckle from the crew.
Dex drew a deep breath, aiming his weapon at the door. He counted to thirty in his head before slipping out of cover and pressing himself against the wall. Inching his way along, he let the rifle hang from the shoulder strap and extended his hands in preparation of pressing them against the two plates to open the thing.
Just as he arrived, it started moving. He cursed under his breath. If he ran, the aliens would hear him and if he stayed there, he’d be directly in their line of fire. After what happened before, they would definitely be on the lookout for wily humans ready to jump them. Surprise wouldn’t be on their side.
Dex crouched and shuffled backward, once again aiming his rifle. Jumie muttered into the com, “how many will there be?”
“Three to ten,” Dex whispered. “Have I cleared your line of fire?”
He received a quiet affirmative.
The door reached Dex’s head. He drew a deep breath. Several targets presented themselves, six aliens in all, each armed and at the ready.
One looked in his direction just as Dex depressed the trigger, riddling his target’s torso full of bullets. The alien danced backward and flopped on the ground in a pool of blood. Chaos erupted as the marines all started shooting. Each burst drowned out the buzzing hum of the beam weapons, echoing in the tiny room.
Fortunately, the helmets suppressed some of the noise, preserving Dex’s hearing. He redirected and fired again and again. The aliens stayed in motion, making themselves moving targets but it didn’t help. Their beams splashed against the mobile cover, harmlessly leaving behind black stains.
Someone screamed, one of the marines went down but the aliens fell back toward the door and the hallway. “Take them!” Dex shouted. Jumie and three others charged the door, blasting away. Only one alien made it out and he favored an injured leg. Dex raced over slammed into the wall near the opening, waiting for backup.
The other two joined him and he nodded to them. Jumie threw a flash bang grenade into the hall. It made a dramatic pop and the three marines burst out, Dex going right while the other two went left. The injured alien was maybe twenty feet away, fleeing down the hallway directly in front of Dex.
He fired twice, popping his target in the back. Red mist exploded in front of it as it fell to the ground, twitching before lying still. “Clear this side!” Dex shouted.
“Clear,” Jumie added. “Looks good through this hall.”
“I want a perimeter,” Dex ordered. “Thirty yards in both directions. Get those bombs out of there.” He boarded the shuttle again. Two marines were down, one dead with a shot to the face and the other wounded, a blow to the shoulder. “Damn it. Soldier?” He knelt in front of the injured one.
“Yes, sir?”
“What’s your name?”
“Corporal Corbin Derreks, sir.”
“Derreks, I need a no bullshit asse
ssment from you right now. Are you still combat effective?”
The man’s left shoulder was blackened but he appeared to be right handed. Derreks nodded, clenching his jaw for a moment before replying. “I can and I will, sir. Whatever it takes, I won’t let you down.”
“I’m leaving you with one other person to guard the bombs until we’re ready to get the hell out of here. You get me?”
“Yes, sir!” Derreks fought to claim his feet and moved out into the hallway.
Dex found Jumie in the hall. “We need to get on with this and get the bombs in position as well. I’ll take point. This hallway is a circle, it loops around to all the shuttles that connected up with the mothership. The aliens must be grabbing our people now. You’re with me as we blaze the path. You ready?”
“Always, sir,” Jumie said.
Depositing the payloads by the converters might’ve done more damage but Dex felt it would be impractical to move the things around while trying to recover prisoners. Spreading them to different parts of the ship made sense and they’d tear the hull open anyway. The goal of destroying the place wouldn’t be a problem, not with that firepower.
“Listen up,” Dex addressed the rest of the crew. “We’re falling out. Jumie and I will sweep and clear. The rest of you bring the bombs. If you have to engage, drop your payload and shoot back. We’re going to rally at the entry point when we have the hostages. So grab some shit and fall out, boys. We’ve got some work to do.”
***
Avania struggled an overwhelming desire to slap the console and curse at the slow software the humans used to run their scanning suite. She sat watching it compile data for nearly two minutes before it began to deliver information. If everything operated at such a speed, they would never get anything done.
The returned data seemed to be missing well more than half of what she expected. Structural integrity of the collector was blocked by the shields. Previous damage, also blocked. She knew for a fact she’d caused some trauma and yet it didn’t show up. The information felt like an incorrect report, a halfhearted attempt to deliver important messages.
I’m not going to be able to give them anything with this. Avania stood. “I need to get to your engineering section right away.”
“I thought you were going to tell us about the weaknesses of their ship,” Warren said.
“I tried but the shields are blocking your scans,” Avania explained. “So if I’m to be useful, I need to be down there. I would like to check out the EMP shield I heard about. I should be able to tell if it’s going to work and believe me, at this point, we want to know. There may be no reason to get any closer.”
Warren frowned, glaring at her for a good ten seconds. “Alright. Commander Serling, please escort our guest to engineering.”
“Sir?” Victoria asked. “Are you sure? I believe she knows the way.”
“I’m sure.” Warren nodded. “Turn her over to Delgado and come back up.”
Victoria sighed. “Yes, sir.” She stood. “Let’s go.”
Avania followed her onto the elevator, taking a moment to appraise the woman. Short brown hair, blue eyes, a bit plain but on the prettier side, she carried herself with an obvious confidence. Something about her screamed competence, the type of military leader who would’ve gone far within the alanta military.
And clearly, she’s done well here as well. It seems to be a male dominated military.
“Have you served a long time?” Avania asked.
“I have,” Victoria replied. “What about you? Did you join your armed forces for a time?”
“Everyone in my culture is bound to government service,” Avania replied. “Nobility has their own unit … but we weren’t treated all that differently from the commoner troops. It was determined a long time ago that we were a distraction to some of the lowest born individuals so we were segregated.”
“Seems like there wouldn’t have been enough of you to make that happen,” Victoria said. “Were your units small?”
“No, there are many noble families.” Avania tilted her head. “You don’t have royals here?”
“We do, but the civilized nations have turned them more to figureheads than actual people of power.”
“Ah. Our culture discussed that before I was born. It was turned down by the common folk, if you can believe it. They said they wanted to continue to trust in our judgement, in our wisdom.” Avania scowled and looked away. “Little did they know my cousin would rise to power and make them regret that decision.”
“I’d love to hear more about that when we have time.” The elevator doors opened and Victoria gestured outward. “Here we are. Just down this hall to get into engineering. Chief Delgado’s in charge down here and I’m going to warn you in advance, he’s been a little stressed all day. We’ve had a lot of challenges.”
“I understand. To the best of my ability, I won’t annoy him. I just want the opportunity to look over what’s been done to see if I can assist in some way.”
“Good luck.” Victoria led her into the engineering area. “Delgado! I’ve got a visitor! Where are you?”
“I’m busy!” Delgado shouted back. He emerged at the catwalk just above them. “What’s going on?”
“You should tell me,” Victoria replied. “Is something the matter?”
“Yes, the artificial gravity modules are operating at different settings than expected. We’re looking into it now. Couple that with those EMP shields drawing more power from the generators than the engineers told me they would and you’ve got a real shit show.” Delgado paused, eyeballing Avania. “That the guest?”
“Yes, this is Avania …” Victoria gave her an apologetic look. “She’ll tell you the rest of her name. Anyway, she’s going to take a look at those EMP shields really quick to see if they’ll genuinely help. Afford her every courtesy. She’s down here with the captain’s permission. If you have any questions, contact him.”
“I don’t have time for a tourist!” Delgado complained.
“I assure you,” Avania said, “I’ll be able to help. Just show me where they were installed and I’ll look now without getting in your way.”
Delgado grunted and crawled down to their floor. “Fine, just … come with me then.” He gestured at two black boxes on either side of the room. “They’re inside those casings. They were pretty delicate. They essentially use magnetics to cast a field around our electronics that should, in theory, absorb EMP.”
“I’m heading back to the bridge,” Victoria said. “You’ll both be alright down here?”
“Fine.” Avania waved at Victoria to leave and approached one of the boxes. “They did a good job by keeping it surrounded. If they’re doing what you say, that’s why they’re pulling so much power. Magnetics require a great deal of energy to be at all effective. We experimented with them for artificial gravity years ago.”
“Really? We tried that. It proved to be too heavy to be effective.”
“Exactly!” Avania smirked. “Is there a way to see the components inside? Even if it’s with a computer?”
“Yeah, there are these panels on the sides.” Delgado showed her on the one to the right. “You just tap here and you can access the diagnostics.”
Avania watched the screen come alive, displaying a high definition view of the components within the box. She tapped through each one, reading what the humans called them. Unfortunately, the parts were so unnecessarily large, they might’ve been particularly fragile. Hopefully, we don’t take damage to this section.
The ship rumbled and she had to grab the device to remain standing. Delgado shouted for everyone to hold on. Technicians scrambled about, strapping themselves into seats or grabbing rails depending on their current location. Avania made her way to the edge, near to the chief.
“What just happened?”
“Felt like we hit something,” Delgado replied, “but to be honest, I’ve never been in space before. I don’t know what happened.”
I think we just exp
erienced our first attack. Avania didn’t want to announce that too loudly. It might cause some unnecessary panic. “Do you have scans down here? Something we can use to see?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a view screen with a tap into the main cameras. It’s in my office over there.”
“May I?” Avania gestured.
“Yeah, go for it.”
She rushed across the way, hurrying inside and sitting down. Engaging the com link, she made a request for the bridge then tapped at the screen until it came on. Outside, they were still approaching the collector’s ship. Only a few shuttles hadn’t docked yet and they were closing in quickly.
The marines may already be on board. They might be engaged with the enemy.
“This is the bridge,” Madeline’s voice greeted her.
“This is Avania in engineering. We just shook. Can you tell me what happened?”
“We’re not sure,” Madeline said. “It was like … turbulence.”
Hm. Avania shook her head. They have a great deal to learn about traveling in space. She continued tapping at the computer until she found the same pathetic scan suite they used upstairs. Bringing it online, she noted they had indeed struck an object, a large rock that was damaged but remained intact.
She found it, some thousand kilometers behind them and scanned it. The composition was not entirely natural. Garbage. She recognized the metal and radioactive bits. That thing was jettisoned from the collector’s ship. Did they do it on purpose in order to slow this ship down? Avania didn’t know what they’d do when they saw the Leviathan.
While the human vessel wasn’t quite as large as the collector, it was built for battle. That probably intimidated the mercenary bastards. Would they toss out garbage to hide something else? She wouldn’t put it past them. It would be an obvious ploy to a space faring culture but to the humans, making their first forays into space, they might not think about it.
And fly right into a bomb.
Avania scanned ahead, finding a cluster of junk coming up fast. “Madeline, order your pilot to go up. We have a considerable amount of space debris off the bow and I assure you, we do not want to run into it. Make it happen right away!”
