Star Chaser (ESS Space Marines Book 3)

by James David Victor

  Any advantage was one worth taking, but it was beyond her as to why these things would fire for humans and not for any other species. Of course, it was still just supposition, but their brief experiment seemed to corroborate it enough to work with it. Hopefully, the Arkana wouldn’t have as much defense against their own weapons. If they did, they always had the others. It was always nice to have options.

  Two members of Delta came over with their wounded squadmate between them.

  “Adams needs medical attention,” Krall said.

  “We’re heading toward the bridge,” Andy said. “The Arkana, that’s what they call themselves, have control of the bridge.” Krall’s eyes widened and Andy held up a hand. “As far as I know, the bridge crew and Alpha Squad are still alive, but I don’t know for how long. They have control of the ship’s communication systems, so don’t call anyone unless you want eavesdroppers.”

  Krall pressed his lips together and nodded tensely. “Got it,” he said. “We’ll get to sickbay, but be aware. They may have people there too, but we’ll take them out.”

  “Good. We don’t know the location of Beta, Epsilon or Theta right now,” Andy said. “If you find any while on the move, let them know the situation.”

  “Theta was assigned to cover sickbay, so hopefully we’ll see them there. Epsilon went to engineering,” Krall said. “I’ll try to get someone down to engineering to scope the situation. We don’t need these Arkana getting a hold of the ship’s engines too.”

  “Having the bridge is bad enough,” Andy agreed grimly. “But we’re going to do something about that.” After a moment, she turned to her squad. “Anallin, I’d like you to go with Delta. They’re down one man with injuries, and more with helping to move him. Watch their backs, and then help make sure sickbay and engineering are secured.”

  Anallin didn’t look pleased to be sent with Delta, but didn’t argue. The Hanaran simply nodded sharply before moving to join Krall and the rest of his squad.

  “Good luck, Sergeant,” Krall said with a single nod.

  “And to you,” she replied. “Take care of your marines, and then we’ll take care of the ship.” She looked at Anallin. “Keep your eyes open and be cautious. I’m not going to lose any members of my squad, understood?”

  Click. Click. Click. The Hanaran bowed in the human gesture that it had adopted after its years in the ESS. Turning toward Krall, they also nodded at each other and the mismatched squad headed out. Andy made sure Delta Squad was safely away before turning back to the remaining three members of her own squad.

  “We’re going to the bridge,” she declared. “I think if anyone can get in there and have a shot at freeing our people, it’s going to be me.”

  Chapter 10

  The air was filled with tension as they left the shuttle bay and started toward the bridge. No one said anything. What was there to say that hadn’t already been said? The Arkana were holding their ship, and they couldn’t communicate with each other. If there was more time, maybe they could have rigged a secondary communication system—maybe someone in engineering still would—but that wasn’t anything Andy could do.

  They quickly reached an access port to the maintenance tubes. Andy didn’t want to use the lifts in case they were monitoring, or even controlling, them from the bridge. She didn’t intend to give up the element of surprise and the maintenance tubes were the best way to travel undetected.

  Dan unlocked the hatch and pulled it open. Roxanna went in first, then Jade, Andy and finally Dan, who closed the hatch behind them. From there, they went to the service ladder and started climbing. They had six floors to climb up, and for once, Andy appreciated the seemingly sadistic training they had endured. Carson had run more than a few climbing drills using these service ladders, so they were certainly very familiar.

  After one deck, Andy’s ear-piece chirped and she stifled a groan.

  “Have you been thinking about what I said?” Shakti asked, her voice still drawling and languid, without any care or concern. Did she really feel that way, or was it an affectation? Andy couldn’t tell.

  “Of course I have,” Andy replied, still climbing. She wasn’t going to let on that anything was happening, although this Shakti woman would have been an idiot to not think that they were working on something. Or could she really have been thinking that Andy was just sitting around in deep contemplation while her crewmates were being held hostage? “How could I think about anything else?”

  “I thought you’d see it that way,” Shakti said. “I’m sure you’ve come around to our way of thinking, or will soon.” She paused. “It’s not that I don’t understand some hesitation. Change is frightening, and it can be difficult to leave what you have known up until now, even if leaving is for the better.”

  “Yes,” Andy agreed. This part she could agree to without playing along. “When you’ve spent your whole life knowing one thing, the idea of changing that is scary.”

  “Of course it is,” the Arkana woman replied, sounding sincerely understanding, which Andy found as unsettling as anything. She didn’t want this woman to have anything about her that Andy might find positive. This woman was the enemy. “But you know that what I’ve been saying is right. You know that you belong with us.”

  Andy bit her tongue to keep from saying the first thing that came to her mind, or the second. She reminded herself of the crew being held on the bridge, and her squadmates climbing up the ladder behind her. She reminded herself of what she was doing, and who she had to protect. It helped to keep her calm.

  “You make a strong case,” Andy forced herself to say, “but fear is a terrible thing.”

  “What is that saying? You have nothing to fear but fear itself? Yes, it’s a change, but it’s a good change. Do not let fear rule you.”

  It never had, but Andy didn’t make that point out loud.

  Her mind raced. It came to her after a moment that the communications on the bridge were open, not like the earpieces the marines used. That meant that people on the bridge could likely hear the conversation. At first, she worried that the captain and the major might mistake her stall tactics for truth. However, the second thought was that she could use this and maybe let them know she was working on it.

  “I just don’t want to put the bullet before the gun,” she said. It wasn’t a phrase that necessarily made sense, but it was the first thing that came to mind that she thought might get through to Carson without raising extra suspicion in Shakti.

  “That’s an unusual phrase for you to use,” the Arkana woman said slowly.

  “Well, I’m an unusual girl,” Andy replied, “as you well know.”

  There was a long pause and then Shakti laughed. “Yes. Yes, I suppose you are. It’s not unheard of for there to be human hybrid children, but they are not common. You are something of a treat for us since most of you don’t survive to adulthood.”

  That statement threw her a little bit, but she wanted to focus. Now wasn’t the time to wonder about why that was. “Well, lucky me, I have survived to adulthood.” She set her mind to figuring out the best way to work in the second part of what she wanted to tell Carson. There weren’t many words the 33rd held as “code words,” but there were a few.

  “Yes, you have,” Shakti agreed.

  “I’m a long way from Schenectady, but I’m glad I made it,” Andy said, knowing it didn’t make as much sense as it could, but it got the word in. Carson had chosen code words that had personal meaning to himself, so the code for “help is coming” was his hometown.

  She just hoped that he was alert enough to hear it and recognize it for what it was.

  Shakti took another few moments before replying. “You do have a strange way with words. I imagine that must come from your human side.”

  “Well, my mother certainly had a way with words,” Andy said, and that was definitely the truth. “Hers usually went toward the explicit, however.” She made a snap decision to try a little excess honesty to stall longer while they kept on
climbing and climbing. “I would like to say that prison took the culture from her tongue, but I have a feeling she was always like that.”

  “Prison?” Shakti replied. “Your mother was in prison?”

  Andy sighed. “Yep,” she said. “I was born in the prison nursery.”

  Shakti made a “huh” sound, then let silence linger for a moment before she went on. “I would not have guessed that.” Perhaps other Arkana who wanted to breed with humans had better taste, Andy thought but didn’t say. “Why was she there?”

  The gamma squad leader looked up to see all the rungs she still had yet to climb. “Oh, all kinds of things,” she replied. “Usually possession and dealing of narcotic substances, but there was an occasional assault charge here and there. Usually she went after another dealer who she thought was trying to move in on her territory. She was a fierce one.” It was perhaps as much of a compliment as she could pay her mother. She loved her mother, as best she could, but she wasn’t willing to be dishonest about her either.

  “Interesting,” was all Shakti said.

  Although upon reflection, in meeting her father’s people, she was finding more affection for her mother and regretting wasting so much time wondering about her father. Maybe it was unfair to paint him with the brush the others were creating in her mind, but she couldn’t help it.

  They passed the hatch marked for deck three. Two more floors to go. She looked down and checked on the others. They looked concerned, but determined.

  “I need just a little more time,” she finally said aloud. “But...I’m almost there.”

  Chapter 11

  Shakti reluctantly agreed to let Andy have a little more time, but there was a thinly veiled threat that her patience would not last forever.

  Andy knew that she had very little time left to sort this out. Of course, if Shakti had been lying and Andy got to the bridge to find that her crewmates were harmed or worse... Shakti would learn a thing or two about fear.

  Gamma Squad finally reached deck one and Andy had to blindly take the risk of opening the hatch and hoping that there were no Arkana on the other side to hear them. She pushed on the hatch and it opened. There weren’t any suspicious sounds, so she poked her head out and looked around. She didn’t see anyone and crawled through, waving the other three through after her.

  Dan closed the hatch and they all pulled up their weapons, moving forward cautiously but without wasting any time.

  Down one corridor and around a corner, they could hear the sounds of a fight coming from ahead. They exchanged quick looks and then hurried along. The nearer they got, they were able to see an exchange of energy weapon fire. It didn’t take long to realize that the ones they were coming up behind were not their people but the Arkana.

  Andy was surprised by their luck to come up flanking the enemy like this. She tried to peer past them, almost hoping to see alpha squad fighting back like they had come upon delta squad doing, but it wasn’t Carson leading the firefight. She could just make out Atad, Beta Squad’s leader.

  They got in range, and Andy gestured for the conventional weapons. She didn’t want to risk the heavier firepower reaching past the Arkana to hit their own people.

  Andy and Roxanna took the first shots, bringing down two of the Arkana. And when the other two turned to see what had happened, they were both blasted by pulse rifle fire. It wasn’t enough to take them down, but it kept them from shooting straight. They both got off a shot, but it hit the wall above gamma squad instead of hitting gamma squad itself.

  It was Jade who took out the next, but the final one gave up on the shooting and tried for the more direct approach. He threw down his weapon and simply ran at them with a loud shout. He moved fast and shifted side to side, preventing a clean shot to drop him. A bullet glanced his shoulder before he was almost upon them.

  Dan leaped forward to meet the charge, ducking down and catching the Arkana with his shoulder, flipping him back over his shoulder and onto his back. The alien gasped and then coughed, trying to get his wind back. Dan spun around and jumped on him, a few quick punches to the face eliminating him as a threat.

  “Glad to see you guys,” Atad said as she approached, nodding to Andy. “Not the best of situations we’ve got here, have we?”

  “Not in the least,” Andy agreed. “I presume you know the situation?”

  Atad nodded. “Carson managed to contact me before they were overwhelmed on the bridge, and we’ve worked our way up here. We’re hoping to mount a defense and retake the bridge.”

  Andy half-smiled. “That was our plan too.”

  “Did you actually have a plan?” Atad asked with a tilt of her head.

  “Somewhat,” Andy replied. “I found Krall as well, and sent Anallin with him. Adams was injured and they took him to sickbay, where they were going to secure it and then check on engineering. With luck, they’ll secure all the pressure points.” Andy pulled a spare gun from her gear and handed it to Atad. “We’re having better success with these.”

  Atad took it and looked it over with a single nod. “The more the merrier,” she said. It was a human phrase that her species, the Ronnor, especially liked.

  “Right now, the bridge is of the most importance, and I think the best chance we have of getting on there is me,” Andy continued. She didn’t say it with any trace of arrogance, just a lot of discomfort as she rolled her shoulders.

  She was in a unique position, straddling the lines between the ESS and the Arkana. Any tactician worth their salt would know that something like that should be exploited, and the plan brewing in her mind would do just that. She hoped that she could pull it off, but she wouldn’t let herself give in to self-doubt. The fate of her ship might well be in the balance, so she knew she would be able to do it.

  “You?” Atad asked doubtfully.

  Atad had only been promoted to squad leader since the Zenith mission, so the two women hadn’t had much chance to get to know one another. Andy didn’t take her doubt personal, because she knew how it had to sound from the outside.

  Andy nodded. “I can’t get into it now, but you’ll have to trust me. I have a plan, and I think it’s the best chance we have.”

  “I trust you, Sergeant,” Atad said. “What’s the plan?”

  With that, Andy gathered both the remaining members of Gamma Squad as well as Atad’s Beta Squad members. Once they were all together, she outlined what she had in mind for getting them onto the bridge and in a position of advantage. She could see her own squad-mates weren't thrilled about it, but none of them argued.

  She understood their feelings, but this was what had to be done.

  “When you’re in position, use the ship’s communication systems to give me a quick signal and then we’ll have to move fast,” Andy went on.

  “We can do it,” Atad said, and everyone else nodded. “Both sides will have to be extra careful, because we don’t know where on the bridge Major Carson and Alpha Squad are being held or how many Arkana are on the bridge, let alone where.”

  “Cautious but quick all around,” Andy agreed. “Just another day in the life of the Thirty-Third, right?” She gave them all a half-smile with far more confidence than she felt. “Let’s get this done and get our ship back.”

  “Oorah,” Jade said, her green eyes locked on her sergeant, drawing confidence from the more experienced woman.

  “Oorah,” Andy echoed, forcing another smile. “Let’s get this done.”

  Chapter 12

  The plan was actually very simple.

  While Beta Squad was taking the long way around to a secondary entrance onto the bridge, Andy and Gamma Squad stood at the main entrance. They waited while she stripped off her body armor and divested herself of the majority of her weaponry. With every piece that came off, Dan looked more uncomfortable, Jade looked more nervous, and Roxanna’s skin swirled faster.

  None of them liked this part, but she knew that she had to look as non-threatening as possible. It was hard to look harmless when deck
ed out in full marine gear and armed to the teeth.

  She gestured them all to get out of sight of the doorway and once they had, she stepped up to it and pressed the panel. The door slid open and she took a deep breath, stepping through with her hands in the air.

  As she entered the bridge, she immediately saw the woman who had to be Shakti sitting in the captain’s chair. Andy’s blood pressure immediately spiked, but she stuffed it down. There were eight other Arkana standing around her with their weapons trained on Andy, and then two others keeping their eye on the bridge crew and Alpha Squad, all bound and sitting in the corner.

  Andy caught Carson’s eye and his dark brows knit, wondering what she was doing but making a visible effort to stop himself from asking.

  She turned her gaze to the woman at the heart of this invasion, who now stood up. She was inches taller than Andy, slender but toned. Her pale skin seemed to reflect the flashing red lights around them, while her ice blue eyes were shrewd and unblinking. Half of her mouth curved up in an arrogant smirk, and suddenly Andy thought that she seemed more like a villain out of a cheap superhero story than the leader of an alien race that had managed to take control of her ship.

  “I see you’ve come to your senses, Andrea Dolan,” Shakti said.

  Andy pressed her lips together to stop from correcting her. This woman wasn’t allowed to call her Andy. “Just about,” she said. “You make a lot of sense. I guess I’ve always known there was something different about me. Somewhere I belonged.”

  The Arkana woman shrugged casually. “I told you as much. Your story is not an unusual one among the small number of hybrids.”

  “I would...” Andy began, then swallowed hard. “I’d like to know more. I’m still confused about a lot of things.” She tried to calculate how long it would take beta squad to move into position. “How can the Arkana produce children with humans? No other race we’ve met has been able to do that without medical intervention. I never got the impression my mother went through that for me.”