by Cheree Alsop
“And we’ll trail along,” Sveth said from the Aphrodite. “We’ll provide cover fire and it’ll get us away from these mercs before they tear us apart. Whatever happens, you two need to hurry.”
Liora and Straham held the Grebe between them and pressed as close to the Kratos as they could. The enormity of what they were about to do filled Liora with adrenaline. The closer they got to the Artemis, the more she wondered if their plan was doomed to fail. A ship that big had to have a hundred eyes watching for just such an action. If that was the case, she refused to go down easily.
“Ready,” Hyrin said over their earpieces. “And…now.”
Straham pushed the lever on the Grebe at the same time that Shathryn fired missiles into the Artemis. The forward guns shifted, following the Kratos’ flight path. The Aphrodite fell back just enough to shield the Grebe from view. Straham and Liora held onto the craft and rocketed toward the Artemis.
Straham used the thrusters to adjust their course. The gaping doors of the cargo hold stood open and Coalition officers readied a Gull in zero gravity. While the craft was generally used for space to ground transportation, it appeared they were prepared to make an exception. The missiles strapped to either side of the Gull weren’t rigged to be dropped.
“They plan to fly the Gull right into one of you,” Straham said over the intercom to Devren. “It’s equipped to blow on contact.”
“You hear that, Sveth?” Devren called. “Back off. Your ship can’t handle it.”
“The Kratos can’t either,” Sveth pointed out.
“Go starboard and watch for mercs. They’re circling around. We need to keep them busy,” Devren told him.
Straham and Liora drew close to the hold.
“We need to let go of the Grebe,” Straham said quietly. “Hold onto the tether. We don’t want the thrust to throw us off course, but I need to make an adjustment.”
It took courage to let go of the Grebe’s handle and rely on the tether to keep her from drifting off, but Liora did it. She watched Straham change the thrusters. He grabbed a band from his suit and wrapped it around one of the Grebe’s handles. He let go of the craft and hit the right throttle. The Grebe sped away from them.
Straham and Liora drew closer to the Coalition officers. The pair’s sniper rifles wouldn’t be much use at the close range, and given the fact that they were drifting at the mercy of their trajectory, they would be easy targets.
“Come on,” Straham whispered. “Yes!”
Liora looked up to see the Grebe enter the cargo hold on the opposite side of them. It smashed into the wall, drawing the attention of the officers who prepped the Gull. Liora landed at the edge of the hold and pulled Straham in. They worked along the wall toward the pressure door. Liora pushed the button and they both waited with bated breaths. Luckily, the commotion of the wreckage behind them held everyone’s attention. The door opened and they stepped inside.
As soon as the pressure was equalized, Liora and Straham stepped into the main bay.
“We’ve made it inside. Where do we go from here?” Straham asked.
Hyrin’s voice came over the communicators inside their helmets. “The Artemis is a newer Falcon. Its schematic is a bit different than the Kratos. Let me pull it up.”
“Hurry,” Straham urged. “If anyone catches onto us, we’ve lost the element of surprise.”
“The Gull is taking off,” Officer Shathryn called.
Footsteps sounded down the hallway.
“Hyrin?” Liora asked.
“Got it,” Hyrin replied. “Straight, then left.”
Liora and Straham took off running.
“Right, then down the hallway,” Hyrin instructed.
“Shields are down to two percent,” O’Tule called out.
Liora ran down the hallway with Straham right behind her. They couldn’t risk anybody seeing them. If the bridge was alerted, they would lock down the transportation room. As it was, the pair could only hope that with the heat of battle, there was nobody standing guard in the chamber.
Liora rounded a corner the same time as two Coalition officers. Liora unsheathed her knife and ran between them. She slammed her blade into the first officer’s back and jerked it upward, severing his renal artery. She spun around and shoved the blade through the back of the second officer’s neck. They both fell to the ground without a sound.
Straham stared at her. “Glad to have you along,” he said with wide eyes.
“Let’s go,” Liora replied.
“Is everything alright?” Hyrin asked. “Things are falling apart here.”
“How close are we?” Liora asked.
“Down the next hall, first door on the left and you’re there.”
The door slid aside to reveal an empty chamber.
“Thank goodness,” Straham breathed. He rushed to the computer. “Hyrin, the access codes.”
“Shields are down,” O’Tule said.
“My poor Aphrodite,” Sveth wailed over the intercom. “She’s getting torn to pieces!”
“The Gull’s locked on. Swing around behind the mercs,” Devren instructed. “If we can shoot it, we can take a few of them with it.”
“Merc missiles are locked,” O’Tule said, her voice tight.
“I’ve lost my starboard thrusters,” Sveth announced.
“Hyrin, the access codes!” Straham demanded.
“Zero, five, alpha, ocelot, seven, bravo, three, five, five, delta, lima, seven, five, zero,” Hyrin replied.
Straham typed the code as quickly as Hyrin called it out. When he hit enter, the chamber buzzed to life.
“We’re in,” Straham told him.
“Lieutenant Argyle, you’re on,” Devren directed.
“Sending now,” Argyle replied, his voice gruff. “You’ll have to arm it, then run. You have less than two minutes before it detonates.”
“Got it,” Straham said.
The door slid open behind them. Two Coalition officers’ eyes widened at the sight of strangers in the transportation chamber. One officer opened his mouth to call for help.
Liora threw her knife. She slammed the second officer’s head against the wall as the first tried to pull the blade from his throat. Liora drove an elbow into the stomach of the officer she fought. When he doubled over, she grabbed his head in a headlock, flipped forward, and forced his body to follow. His neck gave a sickening pop as he slumped to the ground. She withdrew the knife from the first officer’s throat and finished the job by driving it through his heart.
As she wiped the knife on the officer’s sleeve, she found Straham watching her with a worried expression.
“I’m starting to think you’re a little too good at that,” the officer said.
Before Liora could respond, the chamber flashed and a block of tubes and wires appeared.
They could hear the commotion from the Kratos over their headsets.
“The Gull’s locked,” Shathryn said.
“The Artemis is relentless,” O’Tule called out. “The Kratos is falling apart!”
“We’ve lost the rear thrusters,” Lieutenant Argyle informed them.
“Fly closer to that merc, Sveth,” Devren commanded.
“Are you insane?” Sveth shouted back.
“We have one chance at this. Let’s make it count. Ready Hyrin?”
“Arming the bomb,” Straham said. “Hope everyone’s ready.”
When nobody responded, he met Liora’s gaze. “What’s your call? If we arm it and can’t get enough space between us and the ship, we’re done for.”
“And if we don’t, the Kratos and Aphrodite are done for,” Liora replied. “Do it.”
Straham connected two wires and pressed a button. The bomb let out a hum.
“Run,” he shouted.
Liora took off out the door. Straham’s footsteps followed close behind. She used Hyrin’s directions backwards and led them to the cargo bay.
“Come on,” Straham urged when the pressurization door took i
ts time to open.
They darted inside. Liora’s heart thundered. She watched anxiously through the door behind them, ready in case they were followed.
The second door opened to the exposed cargo hold. Two dozen officers in atmosphere suits turned to face them. Eyes widened at the sight of the strangers. Guns raised.
Liora grabbed Straham and pushed off the ground. They soared upward. As soon as they were high enough to clear the officers, she kicked off the wall. Bullets soared soundlessly through the space around them. One tugged at the sleeve of Liora’s atmosphere suit. Another glanced off her shield. Officer Straham let out a cry of pain.
The explosion rocketed through the Artemis. The officers below scrambled as the floor of the hold buckled. There was no way they would get far enough away from the explosion in time. Liora searched for options. Fire burst outward and disappeared. The silent destruction of the Artemis was unnerving. A huge steel beam soared toward the pair.
“Hold onto the tether,” Liora shouted.
She pushed away from Straham. The motion rocketed her to the beam. It slammed into Liora hard enough to steal her breath. She felt the tether tighten, then Straham was next to her. She looked down in time to see the Artemis break in half. She held tight to the beam that carried them away.
Chapter 13
“Glad to see them go,” Hyrin said.
“The Aphrodite is limping, but least they made it,” Devren replied. “Good job everyone.”
Officer Straham and Liora exchanged a glance. The officer’s arm was in a sling, but he had refused to stay in the medical bay despite Tariq’s recommendations. Everyone was anxious to see the Aphrodite reach Gaulded Two Zero Five. Instead of leaving them at the Maffei Two Galaxy, Devren had chosen to escort them all the way given the condition of their ship.
Tariq waited on the bridge as well. “You said you hid the Diamond Albatross somewhere nobody would find it, yet it’s close by,” he told Devren. “I want to see the answer to your riddle.”
“The answer isn’t far,” Devren replied evasively.
Smiles were exchanged by members of the crew. Relief that they had survived the Coalition encounter coupled with something else.
“The Atlas is in sight,” Shathryn said a few minutes later.
Liora scanned the monitors, but she couldn’t see a ship anywhere.
“You mean by that star?” Tariq asked.
“Something like that,” Devren replied.
Liora heard a few chuckles at his response. She looked closer. Something seemed strange about the star. It should have been far larger considering the distance the monitor said was between the star and the Kratos; in fact, there was no way they could be that close to a real star.
“The star is the ship,” she said, staring out the window.
Tariq glanced at her, then back at the screen. His eyes widened.
“How on Titus did you do that?”
“It’s the same reason the Atlas was lost for so long,” Devren replied. “It has a cloaking mechanism that reflects all surrounding light and gives off the same signature as a distant star. Stone said he thought his equipment was malfunctioning; they almost ran into it when they realized it was a ship.”
Tariq leaned closer to the window. “That’s incredible,” he breathed.”
“Stone, requesting permission to land,” Hyrin said.
Stone’s face appeared on the monitor. He was older than most of the Kratos crew, and his long dark hair had a white streak that ran from his forehead back. It gave him a grizzled, warrior’s appearance. “Permission granted, Officer Hyrin. Welcome back. By our count, the rest of the Coalition and mercs followed your trail. That should give us some time to strategize.”
“We know what the next course of action needs to be if we’re going to get rid of the Omne Occasus,” Devren told him. “I hope you don’t mind if we borrow the Star Chaser.”
The rebel’s eyebrows lifted with interest. “Only if I come along.”
“Deal,” Devren replied.
Liora had trouble wrapping her mind around how big the SS Atlas was. The Diamond Albatross was the biggest ship ever built by the Coalition. Lost under mysterious circumstances and found by Stone years later and without the crew who had vanished as well, the Atlas loomed far above them as though the Kratos was a mere speck and the Albatross a whale in the vast ocean of space.
The huge doors of the cargo hold opened. Hyrin steered the Iron Falcon inside and landed the ship carefully next to Stone’s Copper Crow. The doors closed and lighting flickered on, illuminating so much floor space sixty ships the size of the Kratos could have fit with ease.
Stone and several of his rebel comrades waited until the chamber pressurized, then entered the cargo hold. The Revolutionary leader gave the Kratos a critical look.
“You’ve had a bit of trouble,” he commented.
“Our fair share,” Devren replied, stepping down the loading ramp. “My crew will be up all night making repairs. Apparently the Coalition’s upgraded our warrant from alive to preferably dead. They seemed to have no qualms about filling us full of holes.”
“Welcome to the rebels,” Stone told him.
“We’re not rebels,” Shathryn reminded him. She fluffed her purple hair so that it stood high above her head when she followed Devren down the ramp.
Liora and O’Tule walked down after them. O’Tule shot Liora a wide-eyed glance that said they were walking into trouble.
“That’s right,” Stone corrected himself with a wry smile. “You are Coalition officers just taking a hiatus from your duties by fleeing with the very galaxy imploder you were supposed to bring back to them.”
Shathryn rolled her eyes at Stone. “We can’t risk it getting into the wrong hands.”
“Doesn’t it worry you that the Coalition you give your allegiance to is the same one you’re calling the wrong hands?” Stone shot back.
“Now you’re twisting my words,” Shathryn said. Her fingers were balled into fists.
Liora leaned against the Kratos’ hull, convinced she was about to see the start of a very brutal war.
Stone raised his hands, cutting off Shathryn’s argument before it began. “I’m not trying to get you upset, beautiful Shathryn. Please calm yourself. I’m merely pointing out that I would much rather have you on our side than against us. Perhaps this business with the Omne Occasus has happened for a greater reason than just the possible destruction of an entire galaxy at the hands of the Coalition or rebels.”
Shathryn eyed him carefully. “Are you saying it happened to bring us together?”
Stone raised a shoulder and gave her a teasing smile. “Perhaps.” He glanced behind her to Devren. “So you want my ship?”
Devren nodded. “We know a specialist on Titus that can analyze the Omne Occasus so we can figure out how to destroy it.”
“And since landing the Kratos on Titus would be signing your own death warrant, you figure we can sneak the Omne Occasus to Titus on the Star Chaser,” Stone concluded.
“Exactly,” Devren said. “Do you have any problems with that?”
“None,” Stone replied with a chuckle. “Except for the fact that my death warrants are even older than yours. I’m not sure landing with a bunch of rebels is your best idea, either.”
Devren stared at him. “You have warrants out? That means….”
Stone nodded. “That I was once a Coalition officer like yourself. Sometimes, Captain, things aren’t always what they seem.”
Stone put his arm around Shathryn’s shoulder and he walked with her across the wide cargo floor.
“Come on, Straham,” O’Tule said, motioning toward the older officer. “Let’s go explore. Maybe we can figure out where everyone disappeared to.”
“Are we sure we want to know?” Straham asked, but he walked with her out the door.
Tariq wandered down the ramp to join Devren. “Don’t worry,” he told his friend. “You’re just getting a glimpse of what our future might look lik
e if we don’t resolve this issue with the Coalition.”
“Thanks,” Devren replied dryly. “That’s helpful.”
“Just trying my best,” Tariq said. He put his hands in his pockets and walked backwards in front of Devren. “Would being rebels be that bad?”
“Are you serious right now?” Devren asked, following his friend toward the door.
“I’m not sure,” Tariq replied. “Things are changing. Not having an alliance has made me rethink a few facts. It seems we might not be fighting for what we thought we were.”
Devren lowered his voice even though Liora was the only other person within earshot. “That’s traitor talk. You need to button that up.”
“Think about it,” Tariq said.
“I don’t need to think about it,” Devren replied. He stormed out the door.
Tariq shook his head. He turned and glanced back at Liora. “What do you think?”
Surprised that the human was asking for her opinion, Liora thought for a moment. “I guess the path that makes sense is to join whichever side fights for what you believe in.”
Tariq opened a hand as if conceding to her. “Yes, but what if neither is right?”
“Then maybe it’s the fight that’s wrong.”
Tariq watched her for a moment. When he nodded, it was with a thoughtful expression. “You might have something there, Liora Day.”
She turned back to the Kratos.
“Want to check out the Atlas?” Tariq offered.
Liora glanced back at him. “No, thank you. I’ve spent a lifetime on starships. I’d rather lose myself in a book.”
“The Count of Monte Cristo?” he asked.
Liora nodded.
“Enjoy,” Tariq told her. “Keep it as long as you want.”
Liora walked back up the ramp to the Kratos. As much as the others were eager to explore the Coalition’s lost Albatross, she longed for her quiet room and the book Tariq had lent to her what seemed like ages ago. She couldn’t imagine anything that sounded better than stealing away into someone else’s life upon a distant planet on the other end of the Macrocosm.
