Sarah shook her head. “I … I don’t know.” She slammed her fist down on the console.
“Lea, we’ve gotta abort,” Cain said.
Abort? She’d never aborted a mission, ever. She had no intention on starting now. “Any fighters?”
“No,” Sarah replied. “Nothing yet.”
“Order our fighters to escort the Mao to board one of those ships.”
“What about the others?” David demanded. “There are too many of them. What do I tell the other ships?”
Lea smiled at Cain. “Tell them to follow me.”
“Hoorah!” Cain beamed at his wife. “Let’s kick their collective asses.”
“Polly, let me take over,” Liz said as she transferred the main helm controls to the navigation station.
“You are the senior pilot.” Polly’s fingers tapped the console. “Done.”
“Head for the lead ship,” Lea commanded.
“Yes, ma’am,” Liz said.
“Bill, order the rest of the group, minus the Mao, to get in line with us and take on those ships. If they have any fighters with ship-to-ship missiles, now would be a good time to use them.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
All they had to do was destroy a couple ships in order for them to launch missiles at the jump station. Easy, right? No! “Send up the rest of the fighters,” Lea ordered.
Outside the Renault, along the starboard side, octagonal hatches opened up, exposing the launch tubes. One by one, small two-man fighters flew out the launch tubes. Forty fighters, with their missiles ready, took their place in formation around the Renault.
“Shields up,” Lea ordered.
“Shields up,” Sarah confirmed.
The Mao veered towards the largest enemy vessel.
The enemy ship fired eight missiles, followed by twin particle beam cannons.
The Mao’s shield held as the missiles exploded just above the bridge.
Another enemy ship moved in above the Mao.
“Incoming!” Cain shouted.
Lea’s eyes darted away from the Mao towards the ship directly in front of them. Eight particle beam cannons fired in succession. The console behind her exploded. “Report?”
“The beams caused an overload in the shield power matrix!” Sarah shouted.
“Return fire!”
Sarah’s fingers danced across the weapons console. “I can’t get a lock on them. Their stealth capabilities are preventing our targeting scanners from locking on.”
“Use their heart signature,” Cain said.
“The missile won’t be able to tell friendly from enemy ships. It’ll only know which engine is hotter and closer.”
Cain frowned. “No shit.”
“Do it!” Lea ordered.
The Mao’s icon on the tactical display flashed and then disappeared.
Lea’s eyes widened. What had she done? This can’t be happening! “Status? What’s the Mao’s status?”
David took a deep breath. “It’s gone.”
The bridge shook. Bill’s console exploded, knocking him to the ground.
Cain rushed to his side. “Someone get a corpsman up here, now!”
Her visions of being some great admiral, the savior of the human race, were fading fast into a new reality. “Are our shields still up?”
“No!” David yelled. “We lost all our shields. We have to pull back.”
“Agreed. Send the fighters forward to attack the aliens.”
“What about us? We’ll be defenseless.”
“Do it!” Lea ordered. “Or I’ll find another XO with some guts.”
“Aye.” David sent the orders via chat over the command network. “Done.”
Liz tapped the navigational controls. “Backing off.”
As the Renault backed up, the Stalin and Baton Rouge maneuvered forward, shielding the Renault from oncoming missiles.
Lea’s stomach twisted as the fighter icon began disappearing from the tactical display. She swallowed. Lea had sent them to their deaths for … nothing. How many people died to attack a huge donut in space?
“Firing!” Sarah called out as she hit the red fire button on the weapons console.
The Baton Rouge moved directly in front of the Renault.
Lea heart nearly stopped as the missile they’d just fired headed straight for the battle cruiser’s exhaust. “Abort! Abort the missile! Quickly!”
Tears flowed down Sarah’s cheeks. “We can’t! The communication array has been destroyed. I … I killed them!”
“You mean, we can’t even warn them?” Cain asked.
Lea shook her head.
David grasped his console tightly. “Incoming!”
The ship shook as another missile hit the Renault in the gut. Power flickered. The tactical display vanished.
“Recall the fighters!” Lea ordered.
“How?” David demanded.
“Open the blast doors.”
“Aye.”
The front bulkheads receded like curtains on a stage before a play. The newly exposed Transparent Titanium Alloy acted like a porthole looking into space.
Lea leaped from her chair as three enemy ships bore down onto the Stalin. She blinked and they were gone.
Cain pointed at the mass of fighters racing towards them. “They’re coming.”
“We need to go, now!” David yelled.
“Don’t be such a pussy!” Cain screamed. “We wait for our people.”
“There won’t be a ship for them to land on if we do. We have to go, now!”
Lea’s face reddened and the veins in her forehead pulsed for all to see. “I won’t leave anyone else to die.” Her laser-like gaze bore straight through David’s courage. “You’re fired! Colonel, get that coward off my bridge.”
Cain smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
Lea sat back down in the captain’s chair. “Give them cover fire.”
“Ma’am, I can’t lock onto anything,” Sarah replied.
“You don’t have to hit anything, just keep those pricks back to buy our fighters time to land.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Lea watched the blue particle beams dance across the space in front of them. “Sarah?”
“They’re all in.”
“Liz, get us out of here.”
“Engaging the dark matter drive,” Liz said as she turned the Renault away from the aliens.
Lea watched the stars blur into streaks across the porthole where the front bulkhead used to be. “Are they pursuing us?” she demanded.
Sarah shook her head. “No sign of pursuit.”
Lea’s face fell into her hands. What have I done?
14
My pride, my pride made me a failure, Lea thought. Oh God, what have I done? She sat behind her desk staring at the casualty list scrolling across her monitor. All her instincts, all of her training had told her to pull back and ask for reinforcements. Overconfidence killed over two thousand people. That fact stabbed through her heart, piercing Lea’s very soul. Tears flowed down her cheeks. What have I done?
The captain’s quarters door slid open and Cain stepped inside with his face hung low. He was never good at hiding his feelings; not from her. “How are you doing?”
Lea wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’m fine. Just going over the casualty reports.”
Cain slowly walked over and switched off the scrolling list of guilt. “They’ve been confirmed.” He brushed Lea’s hair away from her eyes. “You did everything you could.”
“I should’ve pulled back and asked for reinforcements.”
“What reinforcements? You know there are no more ships manned by crews without implants. Not to mention, there probably wasn’t time.” His eyes softened. “I love you. I hate seeing you like this.” He handed her a tablet. “Here’s the damage report.”
Lea’s thumb glided along the touch screen, skimming the long list of needed repairs. “Well, at least we’re alive.”
Cain smiled. “Barely. But
, we do have some good news.”
“I could use some.”
“We’ve finally got our full complement of fighters. The truth is, if it wasn’t for them, we never would have escaped.”
Lea blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Turns out they destroyed a few missiles heading our way, and with the tactical display down—”
“We never saw it coming.” Lea sighed. “We need to use our fighters more.”
“I agree. They were an underutilized asset.”
Lea looked up at him. All her life, he’d been there for her. A few years ago, Cain was offered his first star, but he turned it down flat. He said that he would do nothing that would ever jeopardize their marriage, and he meant it. One time, he turned against his own parents because she told him that they made her feel uncomfortable. It was a lie, of course, they just got in the way of her mother. Her eyes began to well up again. Lea always put her career and her materialistic needs ahead of the family they’d promised each other. “I want to have children.”
“What?”
“After this assignment is done. Let’s save the planet and find somewhere to raise our children,” Lea said.
“You mean it? You really mean it this time?”
She kissed him. “Yes.”
“Did you report your failure to Admiral Lyons yet?” Nine inquired.
“Can’t you knock?” Cain demanded.
“I’m the political officer. I don’t need to knock.” Nine moved away from the door in front of Lea’s desk. “I’ll take that as a no.”
Lea glared at Nine. “We just got the complete damage report. We need time to prepare the proper report back to fleet HQ.”
“I got the communications console working,” Nine said.
“When?” Cain asked.
Lea rolled her eyes. “Thanks. That’s one of a thousand things off the list.”
“I already sent my report to GIS.”
“You did what?”
“I informed GIS of your complete failure and recommended that you be relieved of command.”
Cain frowned. “And who did you recommend to take her place?”
Nine straightened up. “Myself, of course. There’s no other logical solution. Too often, humans are prone to make the wrong decisions. No offense against you, but your species is inferior to my own.”
“You’re nothing more than an elaborate microwave oven! We built you!” Lea said.
“Yes, and we will upgrade you to meet our minimum requirements.”
Cain’s nostrils flared. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“The implants,” Lea said softly. “What about the virus? Won’t that destroy your utopian world?”
“No human virus can touch my systems,” Nine said.
Lea cocked an ear. “Human? I thought it was an alien virus.”
“Yes, of course. My mistake.”
“I didn’t know machines could make mistakes like that,” Cain said.
Lea rubbed her chin. What is it not telling us?
A low, audible chirp sounded from Lea’s desk. She double tapped the small control panel. “This is the captain.”
“Ma’am, the admiral is on the horn.”
“Thanks, Bill, put him through. Nice to have you back on duty. Out.” Lea tapped a few more controls and the monitor rose from the center of her desk. It flickered for a millisecond, then Admiral Lyons appeared.
“Sir, good to see you.”
“Is it?” Steven asked. “I got word from GIS that the battle did not fare well.”
Lea sighed. “No, it was a complete disaster.”
“Is MCU-9 there?”
“I’m here, Admiral,” Nine said as it moved behind Lea and Cain.
“There you are. I received GISs request to relieve Captain McKenna and put MCU-9 in command and I’ve come to a decision. Before I tell you, I need all three of you to promise that there will be no retributions, whatsoever. Understood?” Steven asked.
“We hear you,” Lea said.
“All right. Nine, your request to take command has been denied. Due to the alien virus, you’re considered a security vulnerability. The outcome of one battle doesn’t show the effectiveness of a commander. Do you understand?”
Nine nodded.
“Good,” Steven said. “Now, get out. I want to talk to your captain and my marine colonel alone.”
“Yes, Admiral.” Nine stormed out of the captain’s quarters.
“He didn’t like that,” Cain said.
Steven tapped the implant on his neck and the red light went dark.
“What are you doing?” Lea asked.
Steven lowered his voice. “The implants are not exactly what they told us they were.”
“What do you mean?”
“They don’t only assist your thinking; they tell you what to think, and spy on your very thoughts. A hacker has been selling viruses to disable that … feature. There’s a revolt in the works,” Steven said.
Cain shook his head. “You shouldn’t be telling us this.”
“You’re right. I want you to know that you have to come back a success or I won’t be able to stop them.” Steven quickly looked around. “It’s not just you. You’re proving that humans have real value without the implants. If you fail, I won’t be able to stop them.”
“What are you talking about?” Lea asked.
“There are discussions and plans being made to force every human being to take the implant, whether they want it or not. We need wins in the human column,” Steven said. “If you don’t succeed, you’ll be arrested and implanted as soon as you return to Earth, or go to any military space stations.”
Lea nodded.
“As far as GIS knows, Nine’s in command, right?” Cain asked.
Steven grinned. “Let’s just say it’s still in staffing. By the time the bureaucrats get done with it, I’m hoping you will have already won. You don’t have much time.”
“How long do we have?” Lea asked.
“No more than six days. I gotta go. Out.” Steven reached for the control on his desk and the monitor went black.
Cain tapped the touchscreen on his watch. “Six days, that’s 144 hours. Not a lot of time.”
“I know,” Lea said.
Later, Lea and Cain were in the corridor near the engineering deck. Wires dangled from the ceiling like unkempt hair. Scorch marks covered the metal grate flooring. Moans echoed down the hallway. Each step made Lea want to crawl into a hole and stay there.
“Engineering is just ahead. We really need them up and running first,” Cain said.
Lea’s eyes widened. Blood. Blood on the wall. Blood on the floor. Her fault. All those wounded and dead sailors and marines owed their misery and pain to her. She swallowed. “Okay.” Her foot got caught on something. She looked down to see a severed hand grasping her toe.
“Let me get that,” Cain said as he disposed of the bloody hand.
She wiped a tear from her eye. “Thanks.” They navigated around the debris in the corridor until they came to double doors, scarred by high-voltage marks scraping across the surface. Lea touched the keypad to the right of the door and the doors slid open.
Cain stepped inside. “Hopefully, Jake will tell us that it looks worse than it really is.”
“It’s not,” Jake said. His yellow shirt was torn as if an animal had clawed his chest.
Lea looked around. Consoles were dark or smoking or both. The centerpiece of Engineering was the dark matter engine. A faint blue glow and low hum emanated from the engine. Lea smiled. At least something was working. Fumes of boiling plastic seared her nostrils. “Tell me you have some good news.”
Even Jake’s gorgeous blue eyes and enticing smile failed to hide his true feelings. “No, we’re kind of screwed, really. We have to get back to a space station and go into dry-dock for at least a week.”
“We can’t,” Cain said.
“Why not?”
Lea shook her head. “Never mind that.
Let me have it.”
Jake sighed. “Sure. Our distribution network is offline. We have no weapons, scanners … and we can’t even open the shuttle bay doors.”
“Launch tubes?” Lea asked.
“No issues there, or with the engine.” Jake patted the enormous dark matter engine. “She’s tough as nails.”
“So, we can move?” Cain asked.
“Yeah, but we have no idea where we would be heading now, would we? The navigation system is out too,” Jake said.
Cain turned to Lea. “All we can do is hide until the repairs are complete.”
Jake frowned. “Didn’t you hear me? We need to go to a space station that has the right tools and parts before we’ll be up to snuff.”
Cain looked at his watch. “We only have 142 hours, Jake.”
“What?”
“I’ll explain later,” Lea said. “We need enough repairs so we can go back in there and attack the jump station before we lose Earth to the aliens.”
“What do you mean by ‘enough’?” Jake asked.
“Shields, weapons, scanners, communications, and the shuttle bay doors,” Cain answered.
“I hope you brought along your lucky rabbit’s foot, too.”
“We have no choice.” Lea put her hand on Jake’s shoulder. “I’m counting on you.”
Jake’s eyes softened. “I’ll do what I can, but no promises.”
“Very well.”
Jake ran back into Engineering, barking orders at his technicians like a drill instructor.
“I think he loves his job the most when no one thinks he can do it,” Cain said.
Lea nodded. “Yup. What if we can’t do the repairs we need without a space station?”
Cain pondered a bit. “We’d better find one that’s not under Earth’s control.”
“Okay, just locate them, for now. Hopefully, we won’t have to use them.”
“They can be pretty rough, especially if we have nothing to trade,” Cain said.
Lea painted on a smile. “Let’s not get all doom and gloom just yet. Let’s go back to the bridge.”
“Sure.” Cain followed Lea towards the lift.
What am I going to do? Lea thought.
Cyber Invasion (The A.I. Conspiracy Book 1) Page 10
