by Tony Healey
“It’s a temple. A religious site. They no doubt worship at the foot of it,” she said. “But no resistance to us means no resistance to Carn. At least, not until it’s all too late. Keep it locked in, and monitor for any Naxor forces making their way toward it.”
She turned back to Hawk.
“My plan is to reveal us at the last minute,” she said. “And then hit him with weaponry he’s never seen before.”
The legendary Captain grinned from ear to ear and turned back to the helm controls. “Takin’ us in. With pleasure.”
“Commander Greene, raise the energy shield and charge the hull plating. It’ll sap the energy reserves, but don’t worry about that. I don’t plan on having this cloaking device running any more than necessary. We’ll need the extra energy for the defences.”
Jessica opened a channel to the engineering section.
“Belcher here,” the voice on the other end announced.
“Lieutenant, please inform the Chief to increase energy output as far as she can get it,” she said. “And activate the weaponry. We’re about to start shooting.”
“Aye Captain.”
He closed the channel on his end.
Jessica buckled up. “Here we go…” she said.
PART ELEVEN
SALVATION
1.
Finally, General Carn thought to himself. I have you within reach. The ultimate power of the universe, in the palm of my hand. At my disposal.
He watched feeble ships from the planet’s surface streak toward them and almost laughed.
Everything will be as it should be. The Dominion will rule all… and I will rule the Dominion.
And eventually, the Queen – and her descendants – would rule under his direction.
As it should be, he thought again. Perfect.
The Naxor battleship took the alien ships out one by one, with short, sharp bursts of firepower that turned them to fire and dust before his eyes.
Carn smiled.
Everything is going as planned, he told himself. Nothing can stop me now . . .
2.
Hawk turned in his seat. “Cap, just how close d’yuh think yuh can get me before they detect us?
Jessica frowned. “Pretty close. Why? Won’t you be driving the car tonight, Captain Gerard.”
There was a nervous chuckle from Greene and Dolarhyde.
Hawk didn’t laugh. “Close enough for a space jump?”
That caught her attention. “Just what do you have in mind?”
“Yuh get me close as yuh can, and I jump over there. Find the controls to that weapon they’ve got and disable it.”
“It’s a suicide mission,” Greene said.
“Nah, it’s a good plan. And I don’t trust anyone else to do it. What d’yuh say, Cap? Let a man do his thing?” Hawk said. “Gotta say, I don’t see how we got much choice.”
Jessica drew a deep breath. “It could work. We’ll have a much better chance of stopping them if they don’t have that weapon at hand… but in all good conscience, I can’t let you do it.”
Hawk shook his head. “I’ve done crazier stuff in the past, Cap.”
“I don’t doubt it, but Commander Greene is right,” Jessica said. “It’d be suicide.”
“Only if I screw up, and I don’t plan on that happenin’.”
Commander Greene shook his head in disbelief. “This is crazy. Going it alone? How will you even know where to look?”
Nowlan tapped the end of his nose. “The Hawk knows, fella. Don’t question a livin’ legend.”
Greene looked at Jessica. “Jessica, you can’t be serious about allowing this. He’s nuts. He’ll get himself killed.”
She raised her hands, admitting defeat over the issue. “What else do we have? We’ve got a mighty arsenal on board, but what use is that if we don’t get a chance to use it? We’ll give Hawk thirty minutes. Once he gives the signal, we reveal ourselves and attack. If nothing happens after thirty minutes, we de-cloak and attack anyway.”
Greene looked incredulously from one to the other. “I thought we only had one cowboy on this ship…”
Jessica’s eyebrows rose and she glared at him. “Del . . .”
Hawk got up. “Commander? Care to take my seat? Looks like you’re at the wheel now, son.”
* * *
“They are launching a squadron of fighters from their base on the surface,” an officer reported.
Carn’s hands made tight fists at his sides.
“Target the Crusher on that location and fire,” he ordered.
The officer did as he was told. His appendages manipulated the controls, shifting the barrel of the cannon to point toward the city the fighters had launched from seconds before.
“Ready.”
“Fire.”
A lance of blinding energy reached from the end of the battleship to the surface of the planet before it. The city was engulfed by an enormous flash and when it dissipated, the sprawl of civilisation that had been there before was a black scorch mark on the landscape. A scar.
“One hundred per cent destruction,” the officer explained. “Our strike consumed several power production plants. The energy was the equivalent to a major asteroid collision.”
Carn thought of the millions down there who had been incinerated within the space of seconds. It sent a wave of pleasure through his body to imagine their cries of terror as the blast obliterated them. Behind his mask, he closed his eyes in near ecstasy.
“Good. Now target those fighters with our guns and pick them off.”
* * *
In the cargo bay, Hawk got into his suit. Jessica helped him with the helmet, and double-checked that it was fastened securely. She handed him an EVA motor unit. The handheld device would power him to where he wanted to go, and was good for several hours use before it ran out of propellant. A few minutes were all that he needed to get to the battleship. The EVA motor units could reach surprisingly high speeds.
Hawk gave her the thumbs up sign. Jessica stepped forward, and snapped to a sharp salute. Hawk returned the gesture.
“Good luck Captain Nowlan. Remember, Commander Greene believes the controls to the cannon will be mid-ship. The strong energy signatures from that section were a match for whatever it is the Naxors are firing. The target area should appear in your reticule as you approach.”
“Understood. Good luck.”
She stepped back, toward the bulkhead. “And you.”
Jessica reached over, activated the controls to the doors. They slid shut in front of her, sealing her off from the hangar bay. Hawk got into position before the bay door as the atmosphere leached out of the room. The green light flashed, and the door opened to reveal black space and the bright curve of the planet to the right. He stepped to the edge, held the EVA unit in front of him and, with a flick of its controls, burst free from the ship.
Jessica hurried back to the bridge.
“Report! Track him on the viewscreen.”
Greene cycled through the controls until they showed Hawk hurtling away from them, the exhaust from the unit making him appear as a comet on a collision course with the Naxor battleship.
“Ten seconds to contact.”
King bit her lip. I hope he doesn’t forget the braking thrusters…
“Five seconds.”
The viewscreen increased in magnification to show Hawk slow, but not enough to stop him clanging against the hull. He appeared to be in one piece as he manoeuvred to the side, toward an emergency access hatch. Designed to give access to the ship for stranded astronauts, Jessica was relieved to find they weren’t just a human concern. The Naxor valued their crew enough to include such an addition to their ship design too.
They watched as Hawk activated the manual controls, letting the EVA motor unit float away, then pulling the hatch open and stepping inside. He shut it behind him.
“That was quick and easy,” Dolarhyde remarked.
“Now comes the hard part,” King said.
3.
> The minute the door shut and locked, the tiny access chamber filled with breathable air. Hawk removed his suit and helmet. With pressure equalized between the chamber and the ship’s innards, he opened the next door onto a corridor.
It was empty save for one Naxor.
Hawk didn’t waste a second. He leapt from the doorway, flicked his kataan from his belt and sliced the Naxor’s head clean from its body. It rolled along the corridor. As the headless body staggered toward the wall then fell in a heap, Hawk retrieved the head and tossed it into the access chamber. Next, he dragged the body in there before it could be discovered.
Kataan back on his belt, he clambered in after it and set to work liberating the Naxor from its uniform.
“Thanks fella,” he said as he got back out and shut the door behind him.
He looked left and right, then got moving, confident that if he was as fast as possible, the Naxors aboard wouldn’t pay too much attention to the southern gent in the ill-fitting uniform wandering the decks of their ship.
Or, for that matter, the deadly blade at his side.
4.
Captain Praror reached the controls for the comm. circuits and opened a ship-to-ship line with the Warrior. He doubted very much that whatever was said would be detected. General Carn and the Naxors visibly had their hands full. They probably hadn’t even noticed his little ship floating nearby.
Still, it was a risk that had to be taken. After all, how long could they stay out here with their paws behind their backs?
“Captain King, do you receive?” he asked.
“Yes. What is your status?”
“We are ready to strike when you are.”
“Glad to hear it,” King said on the other end.
“We will await your signal, dear Captain. But I warn you not to hold out for too long. They are blind to us at the moment, but it will not stay that way forever.”
“Agreed, Captain. Warrior out.”
* * *
The General tilted his head to one side as he watched the various screens at the tactical stations. The cameras mounted all over the exterior of the ship covered every possible angle.
That was how he spotted Captain Praror’s ship drifting off the port bow.
“What is that ship doing there?” he asked.
An officer zoomed in, at the same time running a scan of the Naxor vessel. “One of ours, sir.”
Carn’s mind ticked over. “However that does not answer my question. I asked you what it was doing there.”
The officer stammered nervously in an attempt to produce an answer, but already Carn was beyond it. He turned to the Naxor next to him.
“Monitor that ship’s transmissions,” he ordered.
“Working,” the officer said.
Carn folded his arms as he waited for the Naxor to perform his duty.
“I am detecting ship-to-ship communications with an unidentified vessel!”
The General turned on his heel and walked to the middle of the bridge.
“Target the Naxor ship off the port bow,” he snapped. “And open fire with standard warheads. I do not want them destroyed, not yet.”
* * *
“Sir! They are locked on and preparing to fire!” the Krinuan helmsman yelled.
Praror looked up in shock. “Full power to the shields!”
The pilot barely managed it in time as three warheads hurtled away from the side of the Naxor battleship and headed straight for them. One struck the ship to starboard; the other two barely glanced off the hull.
“Evasive!”
* * *
Jessica saw it happen with the kind of shell-shocked detachment that comes with facing many battles and fire fights. She watched as the warheads emerged from the firing tubes of the battleship before them. She registered them striking Captain Praror’s command, and when she saw his ship start to move away, it finally dawned on her. She snapped to.
“Disengage the cloak! Every ounce of power to engines, energy shields and weapons!”
The lights on the bridge dimmed to red and an emergency klaxon wailed before Dolarhyde had a chance to silence it.
* * *
Carn pointed at the Warrior, shimmering into being before them.
“Fire on that ship! Use the Crusher!” he barked.
The Naxors hurried to complete his command. The giant cannon repositioned from where it was housed at the front of the battleship, mounted to a firing platform. The Naxors settled their sights on the relatively still Warrior and got ready to fire.
* * *
“Locking on with their cannon,” the Krinuan helmsman announced. “Targeting the Warrior.”
Praror grimaced. “Quickly. Move between them. We cannot allow them to destroy the Warrior. Our fates, too, rest on their shoulders. Full power to the thrusters.”
“Aye,” the pilot replied and, with deft manipulation of the helm controls, he moved their little ship between the Naxor battleship and the Warrior.
“Divert weapons power to shields on our port side –” was all Captain Praror had time to say.
The Crusher fired, and in an instant his ship, his stolen Naxor bounty, was incinerated in a blinding white explosion. There was no time to regret. No time for last words. Only the brief perception of something happening. Of light all around him.
And then Captain Praror, and his crew, were no more.
5.
His head down, but taking quick stock of his surroundings, Hawk followed the flow of foot traffic on the other decks toward the cannon. None of the Naxor noticed him, so focused on their own orders and objectives, they paid no attention to him as he wove in and out of them, rushing for the cannon’s controls with a kind of tunnel vision.
And if any of them had noticed him, he didn’t wait around to find out. The doors to the control room parted for him and he bounded in. His eyes took in the whole room in a single sweep. The control stations for the cannon were lined along one wall. Four stations, each with two crewmen stood before them. On the right were what he took to be conductor coils for the cannon itself, housed behind thick glass.
Not wasting a second, Hawk took his blade in hand and rushed them. The second Naxor looked up in surprise as the first one fell, sliced through the middle. It managed to let loose a single cry as Hawk jammed his kataan into its chest and withdrew in a burst of body fluids.
The other Naxor raced toward him, a couple attempting to pull their weapons free from their holsters. Hawk leapt upon the nearest console, beheaded two of the Naxors in one swift stroke. A Naxor fired at him, the shot hitting the wall behind him. Hawk jumped down, skidded forward and hacked at the Naxor’s legs. It fell, blood pumping from its stumps. He finished the others off with a butcher’s efficiency, then walked back to the legless heap on the floor and finished it off. He wiped his kataan on his trousers and put it away.
Panting, trying to catch his breath, Hawk looked from one console to another.
“Right. Which one of yuh buggers control this cannon then, eh?”
He reached down, activated the tiny beacon on his belt, then set to work putting the cannon out of action.
* * *
Dolarhyde looked up. “He’s signalling. Mission complete.”
Jessica nodded. She shifted in the command chair. It was true, the battleship no longer fired at them. Commander Greene brought them into a more stable flight path over the mighty vessel. But what had it cost them?
The after-image of Captain Praror’s ship blowing up in front of them was still burned into her retinas. She couldn’t quite believe it.
“Order?” Greene asked.
“We’ve taken a few licks,” she said. “Now let’s show them what we’ve got up our sleeve, see if they can do the same. Let’s honour Praror and his sacrifice. Because of him, because of them… we get to kick Carn’s ass.”
6.
Chief Gunn nodded at Lieutenant Belcher. “Go.”
He threw the switches at the same time as her, diverting power to the we
aponry they’d rigged to the Warrior‘s power core. It amounted to a twin set of Neutron lasers, a Duotonic Cannon and two dozen warheads designed to break apart the molecular structure of metal alloys. Literally dissolve an enemy’s hull.
Gary Belcher quickly checked the readouts for the new weapons. “They all look good, Chief.”
Gunn contacted the bridge. “We’re hot.”
* * *
“FIRE!” Jessica yelled.
Commander Greene shot the Neutron lasers at the battleship as they rumbled over its surface. The twin shafts of bright green energy left thick lines of melted destruction in their wake. Wherever it hit, it burst through the battleship’s hull. Atmosphere tore free from the blistered skin of the vessel, as if the lasers were scalpels making incisions.
“Their hull is compromised,” Dolarhyde said, monitoring both the tactical and communications stations. “You know, I always thought ‘If this baby gets hit, she’ll go supernova with the amount of hardware below decks.’”
Greene spun about. “Dammit, don’t say that NOW! You make me feel like I’m flying a giant bomb!”
King snapped her fingers. “Del, eyes forward. Bring us about for another pass and prepare to fire the experimental warheads.”
* * *
The battleship shuddered from the multiple hull breaches.
General Carn pointed to the tiny Union ship performing a tight roll to double-back on itself and attack them again.
“Target that ship! Full power to the Crusher. Blow them out of the sky!”
“Yes General!”
* * *
Hawk grinned from ear to ear as the power levels for the cannon dropped to nothing. Then he ripped out every cable he could. “That’ll fix ‘em.”
He headed for the exit, the battleship lit by deep red emergency lighting. The air was thinner out there in the corridor.
Breach somewhere, he thought to himself as he ran in what he hoped was the direction of the shuttle bay.
Several Naxor stopped to watch him run past, and a handful of them took chase. Hawk freed his sword and turned to hack away at them, Naxor body parts flying left and right as he chopped at their bodies.
