Captives of the Kratzen (Hearts in Orbit)

by S. C. Mitchell

  Tina gripped his upper arm. “What are we going to do?”

  They needed to send for help. Captain Mazar and The Starboard Mist would hopefully be at Star Base One with a task force of Fleet vessels. Probably, even that wouldn’t be enough against four Kratzen motherships. They’d need to send a courier back through the wormhole for any and all ships in the closest sectors of the Milky Way. “I just hope to hell dzlerts aren’t very long periods of time, because we don’t have much.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Tina hustled back toward their apartment, her stomach in turmoil. “We’ll have to take Kirtl with us. We’ll be coming in on an alien ship, but if we can get near enough, and if there’s another Blarmling on one of the Fleet ships, Kirtl will be able to make contact.”

  There were a lot of ifs in there.

  “You and Kirtl will find a way. I have complete faith in you.” Carter hustled next to her down the passageway following a young Dzlozian pilot named Chel, who’d been pulled from the attack squad and assigned to take them anywhere Tina directed.

  She sure hoped she could navigate back to the wormhole. “You make it sound like you’re not coming with us.”

  “I’m not.”

  His statement stopped her in her tracks. “What?”

  His brow furled as he shook his head. “They’re going to need everyone available to delay that attack. I have some tactics and experience maybe the Dzlozians can use. At the very least I can man one of their empty gunnery seats. You and Kirtl don’t need me to go with you.”

  “But . . .” Why did he have to be so damn right?

  She sighed. “You take care of yourself.”

  As they reached their apartment, the door slid open and Kirtl scampered out still appearing on the edge of exhaustion. She’d never seen the usually bouncy Blarmling so glum. “I know. We have to hurry. Let’s go.”

  But he paused long enough to hug Carter’s leg. “And yes, you be careful.”

  Carter dropped to his knees to give the Blarmling a proper hug. “I will. You too. And take care of Tina for me.”

  He rose and wrapped Tina in his arms. Carter’s warm embrace only accentuated the fact that they were parting. Moisture seeped from the corners of her eyes as Tina returned his embrace.

  He kissed her hard, full of emotion and pent up sexual frustrations. She fiercely returned his kiss. Desire rippled through her even as sorrow fisted her heart.

  Damn it, never enough time.

  He disengaged, his hand lingering a moment on her hip as his gaze bore into hers. “I love you.”

  The certainty in his eyes held no room for doubt.

  “I love you too.” Because she did. He was everything she’d ever dreamed of.

  She drew her hand down the side of his face, taking him all in. “Now go, before I drag you with me.”

  He nodded and pulled away, then turned and dashed back down the hallway.

  “And damn it, be here when I get back,” she hollered after him.

  Then he turned a corner and was gone.

  Chapter 11

  Carter sped back toward the hangar bay. Tina’s kiss still tingled on his lips.

  Love wasn’t something he’d considered much before he’d met her. Sure he’d dated when he was younger. The situation, the girl, his head, nothing had felt right until Tina.

  Even before events had landed him naked and caged with her, he’d been falling for her. As navigator of The Starboard Mist, she sat near enough to his weapons station for him to keep an eye on her and occasionally catch a whiff of that amazing honey locust scent she seemed to favor.

  Wanting her near, keeping her close, had only deepened his feeling for her.

  Now she was headed away. At least she was headed toward relative safety.

  On the other hand, he’d be heading into a poodoo tsunami. Four Kratzen motherships meant thousands of bug fighters to contend with. The Dzlozian force numbered less than two hundred. Even if the new Dzlozian ships had been up to snuff, and they had four times the number, the Dzlozians would be fighting a losing battle. There wasn’t much hope unless Tina and Kirtl could bring help from the Milky Way.

  Who was he kidding? Unless a dzlert was only a few minutes, there just wasn’t time. This force wouldn’t be able to delay the Kratzen anywhere near long enough.

  It’s why he’d had to tell Tina he loved her. He might never get another chance.

  Rolanda had invited him to join her crew as a gunner, replacing Chel when he’d been pulled to taxi Tina and Kirtl back to the portal area in search of help. “You have a good eye and a steady trigger finger. Your skill would be invaluable, though I give you the opportunity to refuse. The fighting will be fierce. I have little hope of survival, but want to give my people every chance possible.”

  “Best offer I’ve had all day.”

  Her slight smile told him it translated properly.

  Smokey steam rolled off the new fighters as Dzolzian technicians performed last minute checks. Tri-finned cylinders in shades of purple and aqua that appeared to be popular with these people, though some of the ships were simply silvery metal, as if they’d been pulled from the assembly line before being painted. It’s quite possible they had been.

  Beside them in the vast hillside garage was a motley array of other craft, some with weapons obviously recently added on.

  As he mounted the entry ramp to Rolanda’s command craft, his heart sank. Not nearly enough, yet all the planet had.

  Rolanda assigned him the gun station right behind her pilot’s seat. That way he wouldn’t have to turn his translator volume up and possibly annoy the other gunners if he needed to communicate with her.

  “Web in, we are ready for lift off.” Rolanda adjusted something on the control panel and the ship’s engine pods revved to a higher modulation.

  After buckling his seat webbing across his chest, he opened his weapon control panel. He turned the targeting computer on for now.

  Apparently Tendle had sent a recalibration routine to run on the ships. Supposedly the glitch had been fixed in software.

  Just a few shots to check it out. That should be enough to tell if the problem was fixed.

  The ship hovered for a moment about a meter off the floor of the hanger deck before the engines fired, shooting the ship through the hangar doorway and into the sky. A bank of hazy, lavender clouds obscured space above, and wrapped around the ship as it rocketed through.

  Moments later the clouds thinned and the ebony, star-riddled firmament opened before him.

  Carter used his gun turret camera to scan all around the ship. Behind, the mass of other ships followed, but it was Rolanda’s ship that lead the charge. She certainly was an inspirational leader. He just hoped she wasn’t suicidal as well. The first one in was going to draw a lot of fire from the bugs.

  Rolanda spoke into her com that broadcast to all the others ships. “We have about two dzlerts before we meet up with the Kratzen. Relax if you can. Focus.”

  He took a deep breath and laid his head back on the headrest of his seat.

  At least now he’d find out how long a dzlert was.

  ~ ~ ~

  “That was one dzlert?” Tina estimated they’d been flying for about an hour and a half. Kirtl had dropped into a gentle slumber in his seat. The poor guy was still riding the edge of exhaustion.

  Chel nodded, his gaze locked on the piloting readout screen. “According to your navigation file, we have about four dzlerts to go before we arrive at the destination.”

  His skin tone a lighter, almost baby blue, Chel was far too young for combat. He’d been the youngest of those in the ready room preparing for war against the bugs. Rolanda had seemed relieved to find something else for the boy to do.

  Chel appeared about the same age as Quatrain Tyso
n, the chief weaponry expert on The Starboard Mist.

  Granted, Quatrain’s initial experience with space combat weaponry came from a Comptab Virtua display game, but no adult she knew, even Fleet-trained gunners, could target and fire faster. Not even Carter. The kid was amazing.

  Then she sighed. Still, Quatrain was a child.

  If she found The Starboard Mist and brought it back to Dzlozia, that child would be hip deep in an intergalactic war, just like the child next to her flying this ship. War turned children into adults far too soon.

  But she knew that well. She’d been only six years old when she was snatched from her home world and taken to the Dark Nebulan sector as a slave. She’d been frightened beyond belief when Pirate Captain Phurgus had purchased her off an auction block in Port Hubble.

  With good reason. The pirate captain had been swift to anger, and punished any infractions to his orders with a sound beating. After two years of cleaning his wretched hovel, he’d caught her one time looking at his starcharts.

  She’d cringed, awaiting his blow.

  “You like starcharts, girl?” His rancid breath had caused her stomach to lurch as she stood at attention in front of him. He looked her up and down, a gleam coming to his one good eye. “I’ll make you a deal.”

  He’d run a calloused finger down her cheek. “I was planning on using you different, after you got a few years on you, but I have enough wenches to warm me bed. What I don’t have, is a good, dependable navigator for me ship. I tell you what. You learn those starcharts and how to navigate a starship, and I’ll let you keep your precious Quendorian virtue.”

  The pirate was scum, but he’d kept his word to her. By the time she turned ten years old, she was Captain Phurgus’s navigator on his pirate ship, in combat constantly, but as safe as a slave could expect. Still, he reminded her at every opportunity. “Steer me wrong even once, and I’ll throw you and your virtue to me crew after I’ve had a dip on you meself.”

  She never steered him wrong but his ambition did. Captain Phurgus ended up with a razor knife in his back from his first mate.

  When that same mate tried to have his way with Tina, she returned the favor, sliding the same knife between his ribs. In the chaos that followed, she managed to escape into the slums of Port Hubble.

  That had been two years ago. Shortly after, she’d found a group of refugees trying to escape the planet. She’d joined them and been saved when Rik Mazar, an undercover Galactic Marshal, stole The Starboard Mist from right under the noses of the Pirates of the Dark Nebula.

  He’d needed a crew, and the refugees filled the bill. Tina had become his navigator. She, along with most of the crew, had stayed on when Rik kept the ship and brought the operation under the jurisdiction of the Galactic Federation.

  She’d gotten a pardon for any crimes committed and a good paying job. Not a bad deal for an ex-slave.

  Tina had come to love and respect the crew of The Starboard Mist. How she longed to see her ship and her friends again. Hopefully she was headed straight toward them.

  Sweat beaded on the Chel’s forehead. “I’ve never been this far from home before. I hope we can find your friends.”

  “You’re doing great.” Tina hoped he wouldn’t crack under the pressure. She hadn’t quite figured out how to fly a Dzlozian ship, well any ship, yet. She’d never had the opportunity to learn, though she was sure now that Carter would be happy to teach her.

  If they could ever find some frackin’ time together.

  Navigation, on the other hand, came easily to her, no matter what the craft. Her years on the pirate bridge stood her well aboard The Starboard Mist.

  She checked the starcharts, calculated the gravitational pull from the red dwarf star that dominated this sector, and plotted the adjustment needed to navigate through the system. “Give me five degrees to starboard, please.”

  As Chel complied, the ship suddenly lurched. A heavy vibration shuttered through the craft and the stars streaming by outside slowed to a stop.

  “What happened?” The ship was an older craft. One that would have proved more liability than help in the battle. Hopefully, whatever the problem was, it could be fixed. She wasn’t a mechanic. Was Chel?

  The boy shrugged. “I don’t know. Everything looks fine. No warning lights or anything. We’ve just stopped.”

  Not good.

  Then a light did start flashing on the controls.

  Chel’s eyes widened. “Now we’re moving backward.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Kratzen motherships filled Carter’s viewport. Huge, menacing. Fighter ships poured from the launch tubes by the dozens. Hundreds had already massed and were heading their way in a swarm.

  The computer targeted one of the lead ships and he fired off his first round.

  The ship disintegrated in a rolling ball of fire.

  At least the targeting was fixed. That couldn’t hurt. The Dzlozian armada needed every advantage it could get.

  Rolanda banked the ship to port.

  He adjusted his gun to the side, sighting in another bug. The longer range of the Dzlozian guns gave them an early advantage. One that would all but evaporate if the Kratzen closed in on them.

  Explosions erupted all along the bug’s front lines, but for every ship taken out, four more surged closer. And still more Kratzen fighters continued to pour out of the four motherships.

  He fired rapidly, moving along the front lines of the bug ships and picking the foremost targets.

  Flying at an angle, Rolanda pulled the bugs further away from their slower moving base ships. And further away from Dzlozia as well. Smart. They needed to delay the attack on the planet. Give Tina and Kirtl as much time as possible to bring back help.

  Rolanda had filled him in on her battle plan during the flight here. Hit and run. Delay without losing too many of their own ships. That’s why she wanted to meet the swarm so far away from Dzlozia. More room to maneuver and pull back.

  For the most part, it was working. The armada pulled one way as far as it could, then looped back to cut across the front of the Kratzen lines in the other direction. A zigzag battle plan designed to keep the Kratzen busy and at a distance while the Dzlozian armada stepped slowly back toward their home world.

  Then a group of the ships broke off from the main swarm, powering in on a tangent toward some of the older, slower ships in the Dzlozian armada. Those ships couldn’t maneuver as precisely. The fighters caught them, swarmed, and they exploded one by one.

  Rolanda issued commands over her com unit to the other ships and the armada shifted course, angling further away from the pursuing bug ships while covering the escapes of the slower craft with another strafing run.

  But the sudden tactic had cost the Dzlozian armada over a dozen ships.

  Every pass was costing them a couple of ships anyway, valiant fighters Dzlozia needed. Still, he couldn’t think of any other tactic they could try that would be safer, especially for the older, slower ships?

  As Rolanda brought the armada around for another pass, she ordered the older ships back to Dzlozia. “They’ve become more a liability than a help.”

  He agreed. Now each ship in their small armada had exactly the same specification, making maneuvering less tricky.

  As the remaining ships attacked across the middle, closest to the motherships, he noted doors opening along the massive ships’ middle. More bug ships, dozens of them, joined the fighters already in pursuit.

  But these were the larger vessels, with the pulse energy weapon.

  Frack.

  This just got trickier.

  Tina and Kirtl probably hadn’t even reached Star Base One yet, let alone had a chance to put together a task force. And that was if they’d even been going in the right direction.

  He did some quick mental calcu
lations. At the rate they were losing ships, the Dzlozians couldn’t delay the Kratzen anywhere near long enough. If the Milky Way Fleet ever did arrive, it wouldn’t be in time to save Dzlozia.

  Chapter 12

  A large starship appeared out of the nothingness of space, directly behind their ship, but Tina breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. Only a few Fleet vessels had the new tractor beam and cloaking technologies, and only one was a Vega class starship.

  How the hell had The Starboard Mist found them in uncharted Andromedan space?

  “What is that?” Chel had gone white. The poor kid had to be scared near to death. The Dzlozians didn’t have any ship near as big as a Vega class Fleet ship. She had to give him credit, though. He was struggling to bring the ship’s one, small blaster weapon to bear. Not that it would have any effect against the Mist’s shields.

  She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Shut the power down, Chel. It’s okay. These are my friends. We’re safe.”

  Though he probably didn’t know Tina and Kirtl were on the alien vessel, Captain Mazar would never attack an unaggressive ship. She couldn’t wait to get onboard The Starboard Mist to see her friends and find out what they were doing this far out in the Andromeda galaxy.

  Doubt lingered in Chel’s eyes as he shut the craft down, allowing the tractor beam to tow them right into the hangar bay of The Starboard Mist and set the craft down next to the shiny new GRT-11 gunship.

  Carter had gone on and on about how he wanted to be the first to fly the new scout ship.

  I hope you get your wish.

  An armed contingent of Fleet marines held blasters on the ship as it settled on the deck of the hangar, but she also noted Captain Mazar and his wife, Luna Callista, standing in a small group to the side that included Marcus Stout, Quatrain Tyson, and the seer, Magda Konicie.