Captives of the Kratzen (Hearts in Orbit)

by S. C. Mitchell

  ~ ~ ~

  Carter accompanied Rik to the Dzlozian war council.

  Before taking her seat at the conference table, Rolanda stopped by where he was seated. “Carter, my friend, it is good to see you healthy again.”

  Translators were now standard gear on both sides, and the boxy units had been reduced in size to round pins worn on everyone’s lapel or chest.

  “I’m happy you recovered as well. I trust Tendle is also healthy?”

  A smile lit her face. “Healthy and back at work. New ships fly from his factory every day. Good ships. And we need them so badly.”

  Admiral Wilke, a Fleet commander, took control of the meeting, bringing up a tri-dimensional starchart from the conference table display. He used a digital pointer to show the attack plan.

  “The Kratzen base is located on a small moon orbiting a planet we’ve designated Marshow 5, deep in the heart of Kratzen occupied space. Our Dzlozian allies have been monitoring the base activity. Actar Belsus?”

  A white-haired Dzlozian in a military uniform rose from his seat. “Using the cloaking technology we received from our good friends from the Milky Way, we were able to send spy ships into Kratzen space. We discovered this base with much activity. New construction and many deliveries, guarded by three Kratzen motherships.”

  Holos of bug activity on the planet surface replaced the star display. Black roach types stood guard over ant drones carting crates of equipment into a huge domed building. Occasionally there were also glimpses of the mantis types. Masses of bugs preparing for something.

  Something big.

  At the pinnacle of the domed building, an antenna array sprouted haphazardly in all directions. A chaotic mass of tubes and disks.

  Admiral Wilke pointed at the array. “That is our objective. Our experts think that might be a wormhole generator, similar to the one we have by Andromeda Star Base One. We’ve calculated a safe warp jump. Our eighteen ships with cloaking devices will jump in first to check the current situation and secure the jump point, then signal the rest of the fleet. Jump in, destroy that array, then get out. We’re not looking for a prolonged battle with the bug motherships. Any questions?”

  There weren’t.

  Everyone knew what they had to do.

  ~ ~ ~

  Tina took a round-about way to the throne room, through the palace garage and landing pad. As she suspected, the three transports sat, powered down, on the tarmac. Boxes lined the garage walls.

  The twenty palace guards milling about came to attention, surprise registering on most of their faces.

  She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “Why have these supplies not been shipped out to the refugee camp?”

  As one, the guards turned toward the garage steward.

  His cheeks reddening, he replied. “Orders came down we were to wait.”

  This was one of Calton el Bafron’s men.

  She narrowed her gaze. “Who’s orders?”

  The man straightened his stance, but refused to meet her eyes. “Yours, we assumed.”

  Liar. She’d get to the bottom of this later. Right now she had a camp full of hungry refugees that needed these supplies.

  “Hmm.” She swung her gaze toward the gathered guards. Who could she trust?

  Sol Hano was the son of one of Libby’s best friends, and Tina had noted the young man glancing Antigua’s way occasionally all moony-eyed. He was certainly not in Bafron’s camp.

  “Sol, I’m putting you in charge. Choose ten men and get these crates loaded on a transport. I’ll be accompanying you to deliver these goods.” She’d make sure they got there.

  Sol brought his fist to his chest in salute. “Yes, my queen.”

  Then he turned to the assembled guards. “You, you, you . . .”

  Men jumped into action, hauling crates as the engines rumbled to life on the transport ship.

  The garage steward bowed before her. “M—my queen. Surely you have other obligations. I will see that these supplies are delivered.”

  Was he looking for redemption from his new queen or just to cover his ass?

  It didn’t matter. This one was going down. “You are relieved of duty, pending an investigation. Consider yourself confined to your quarters.”

  Her word was law. Head bowed, the man left.

  Scanning the remaining guards, she chose one at random. It didn’t matter at this point. “You are the new garage steward. Do a better job.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Carter target-locked the Kratzen starship.

  At least, he assumed it was a Kratzen ship. The design was different than anything they’d encountered before. Smaller than a mothership, yet much larger than the Kratzen attack craft or the vessels, with the pulse energy weapon.

  Rik was up from his command chair, pacing the bridge. “Take us in closer, Mr. Taygate, but keep the cloak and shields up.”

  Kirtle hopped up into his new console seat as Luna slid a silver cowl over his head. From the back of the cowl, wires led to a boxy machine.

  This would be the first test of a device dreamed up by Luna and her sister, Phoebe, to extend the reach of the Blarmling mind-reading capabilities. Blarmlings were limited by range, especially in space, but this device used the ship as an antenna to bring in a wider range of signals.

  The Starboard Mist was still cloaked, one of the first ships to make the jump to the Kratzen base. While the other ships prepared to assault the planet-side facility, Rik had noted the odd ship. It stood out as different, unique, yet drifted with the three Kratzen mother ships.

  A huge, delta winged craft, like a sleek wedge of silver. Starlight winked off a facetted hull. Lights blinked erratically at the wingtips, and portholes glowed with light from the ship’s interior.

  “She’s here. On that ship. The new queen.” There was an edge to Kirtl’s soft tone.

  Tina?

  Kirtl’s gaze shot to Carter. “No, not Tina. Kristin Devenport, the new Queen of the Kratzen. This is her command ship. The Andromeda Oracles warn her. She knows we’re here.”

  “We’ve got an intrusion on the com, Rik.” Luna’s alert came on the heels of a warning claxon.

  The main cabin screen blinked twice, then filled with a face that made Carter’s skin crawl. Kristin Devenport.

  “Rik Mazar. What a pleasant surprise. Well, not really a surprise at all, as you will see.” She grinned, her eyes aglow.

  In the dark space on the other side of Kristin’s command ship a misty swirl of energy coalesced.

  Rik’s eyes widened. He threw himself into his command chair and pushed a button to broadcast to the fleet. “Begin the attack. Now. Don’t wait for the rest of the ships.”

  A wormhole was forming. But where was the other end?

  Ships closer to the base decloaked and made an attack run toward the domed building. The moment the first photon torpedo struck, the Kratzen facility exploded, shooting shrapnel into space, destroying the lead attacking ship and crippling two of the others following it.

  “Fools. Stay here and die as I lay waste to your galaxy.” Kristin cackled, then the transmission broke.

  The screen returned to viewing the space outside the ship. The wormhole continued to coalesce. Carter checked his tracking cameras. The Kratzen facility on the planet below lay in rubble.

  “What the hell? How is that wormhole still forming?”

  “Miss Jansky, give me an attack vector on Kristin’s ship.” Rik spun back to his command console. “Carter, Quatrain, Markus, as soon as we get in range, hit it with everything you’ve got.”

  But before they could get into range, Kristin’s command ship did a warp-skip into the wormhole followed by the three Kratzen motherships.

  “Frack!” Rik thumped his fist on his chair arm. “Kirt
l, do you know where she went?”

  The Blarmling nodded. “She’s insane. Her thought patterns so chaotic. But I think she’s heading back to the Dark Nebulan system, a sector she knows well. The Kratzen use her mind to direct the wormhole. It’s why they changed her. She’s somehow linked to the generator.”

  Kristin was taking the Kratzen to the Dark Nebula. Home to a host of planets that until recently had been held by pirates. Planets that included Quendor, Tina’s homeworld.

  But it didn’t make sense. “She’s planning on conquering the Milky Way with only three Kratzen Motherships?”

  They’d destroyed the building below with the wormhole generator. She certainly couldn’t call for backup from Andromeda.

  Kirtl’s eyes went wide. “Captain Mazar, call off the attack. We need to get out of here. That building wasn’t the wormhole generator. Kristin’s ship is. This is a trap.”

  As the last of the Fleet ships warped in, eighteen Kratzen motherships appeared, surrounding the armada. Fighters swarmed from the launch tubes.

  “Abort, retreat,” Rik screamed into the com.

  But there wasn’t time to get ships turned back to the jump point. Already the Kratzen attack ships were among them. Explosions rocked The Starboard Mist.

  Chapter 30

  “I’m sorry this took so long. There were some complications.” Tina shook hands with Shrell Zonal, the leader at the refugee camp.

  “You give us shelter in your lands when no one else would have us. You have been more than gracious, my queen. We shared what we had. Hunted a little. I hope that was okay.” Shrell bowed.

  Kathryn and Tanis’s old rebel camp was now the refugee’s relocation center. Refugees came here first for processing before being filtered into the general population. Tucked in the dank swamplands, the refugee camp was isolated enough that no one would miss a few hunted animals. Almost no one lived out here anyway.

  “Of course. Supply your needs as you see fit. My land is now your land.” Tina hoped she could deliver on that promise. The council was still split, but it was moving slowly in her favor despite Calton el Bafron’s machinations to the contrary.

  At least none of the refugees had died because of them.

  “That’s the last of the supplies, Queen Christina.” Sol had a smile and a healthy glow of sweat.

  He and his men had started unloading food and supplies, but it hadn’t taken long for the refugees to step up and help them. An impromptu celebration had broken out, and Tina ordered the broaching of a cask of Barvonian ale and a case of Clairian Mulbec wine. She’d included them in the supplies for diplomatic purposes. Alcohol always helped smooth negotiations, though it didn’t seem there would be any problems with this group of refugees. Using the drink to celebrate seemed like a wonderful alternate usage.

  Music filtered through the throng as an impromptu band of musicians took up instruments. Hot foodstuffs began funneling out of preparation machines. Revelers broke into dance and song.

  Shrell offered her a goblet of the wine, and she gladly accepted. It would be nice to spend a little time away from palace politics.

  ~ ~ ~

  Okay, that third goblet of wine was probably her limit. She needed to get back before her council sent out a search party, or worse, actually decided to do something besides blow hot air.

  She was so sick of the politics. She probably shouldn’t have come out here, but it sure had been fun playing hooky from the palace for a few hours.

  Give me a starship to navigate and a new space sector to explore. Anything but this. Politics really wasn’t her thing, she knew that for sure now. If only Kathryn could take over, Tina would catch the next ship off planet toward Carter.

  Gods she missed him. Was this even worth it? Quendor wasn’t her world anymore. Too closed off. Too rigid. Each day, what happened here mattered less and less to her.

  Well, it mattered to these refugees. Shrell and his people would be in dire need if she hadn’t offered them refuge in her kingdom.

  Sol and the other guards she’d brought with her had gotten a good lesson, as well as had a good time, with these people. In most cases folk were the same no matter what their skin color or planet of origin. The more people in the kingdom that learned that, the better.

  “We need to be going. Round up your men, Sol.”

  He’d limited himself to one glass of ale, then taken up position behind her as the queen’s personal guard. A good man. She’d need to find a way to promote him.

  “Yes, my queen. I . . .”

  Tina turned to find him staring up into the sky, his mouth hanging wide open.

  Above, something huge and spherical slid across the sun. An eclipse?

  No. Quendor didn’t have a moon.

  Tina squinted against the light from the sun and was able to make out the eight launch tubes protruding from the huge spherical ship.

  “Frack.” How had a Kratzen mothership gotten to the Milky Way? Had the wormhole been compromised? She’d have heard something about that, wouldn’t she?

  Small black specks swarmed from the flight tubes. Thousands of Kratzen attack ships.

  “Shrell, organize your children, your elderly, and your infirmed by my ship. We’ll fly them back. Get the rest of your people ready to move out as quickly as possible. We’ll need to head toward the palace.

  “Wha . . . what is that?” Sol’s voice trembled.

  “Something bad.” Tina patted the blaster at her side. Thank the galactic gods she hadn’t gotten out of the habit of strapping it on in the morning.

  The black Kratzen ships stayed in the distance, across her border in the next kingdom. Ships skimmed the planet’s surface, occasionally emitting blasts. House Falshon was under attack.

  Sol pulled his blaster. “Pirates?”

  She shook her head. “Worse.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The transport made two trips back to the palace filled with refugees by the time Tina and Shrell had the rest of the refugees ready to move out. The bug ships had been moving nearer as they buzzed the surface.

  When the transport landed for its third trip, Sol stormed down the ramp toward her. “Calton el Bafron refuses to release the other two transports, and he’s placing the refugees under heavy guard. The whole palace is in an uproar.”

  It figured Calton would be a pain in the ass over this, but the refugees would probably be safer under guard anyway. Tina would fix things when she got back. If she got back. “It’s okay. This is the last load of refugees that need to fly. The rest of us can go on foot. It’s a few hours walk to the palace, but the bugs don’t appear to be getting any closer. We should be able to make it.”

  Occasional explosions still echoed in the distance. Hopefully the Kratzen were being met by resistance from the neighboring kingdoms. Tanis and Kathryn were better suited to organizing defenses for House la Cross anyway, so Tina didn’t feel the need to return to the palace quickly.

  Sol held up his hand. “Surely you’re coming. Your wellbeing is of utmost importance. And there appears to be some problem brewing between Princess Kathryn and Bafron. He tried to forbid me to come back this time. I ignored him but I worry I won’t be able to make another trip. You’d best come with me.”

  “And take some child’s seat? I think not.” It was still a very full load of passengers, and all of them needed to fly. Even some of those going by ground should still have been airlifted, but they couldn’t wait any longer to move out. Kratzen ships had been swooping dangerously near the camp.

  Sol shook his head. “Majesty, please. You could fly the transport. I will stay.”

  She didn’t have a clue how to pilot this craft. Placing her hand on Sol’s shoulder, she caught his gaze. “I’m a navigator, not a pilot. Go. Come back if you can. We’ll be taking the Manteron Trail to Palm R
oad.”

  If he could make one more trip, picking up some of the lesser wounded, or older children, it would speed them along faster. The worst cases had already gone. She had the other nine guards and her fully charged blaster. Some of the refugees also had weapons. If the bugs found them, they could at least put up a fight.

  As for problems back at the palace, Kathryn could certainly handle those, couldn’t she? Tina had made it an executive order that Kathryn spoke for the queen in her absence, and more of the council and people were coming to recognize her as the rightful heir to the throne. Damn Balfron. Maybe it had been a mistake keeping him on the council.

  Sol hardened his features, looking ready to continue his protest. Gods bless the young man and his loyalty, but she was queen. He had no choice but to obey.

  At last he nodded. “Yes, my queen.”

  Tina clapped his shoulder. “Good man.”

  Sol followed the last of his passengers up the ramp and closed the hatch. As the transport ship lifted off, Tina turned to Shrell. “Let’s move out.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “Quatrain, the Pel Tazer ploy.” The ridiculousness of calling out Comptab video game moves in the heat of battle, had Carter shaking his head, but they worked, and Quatrain knew them as well as he did.

  His blaster shot ricocheted off the wing of one attack ship, tilting it sideways, then blasted on into a second ship. Quatrain then hit the tilted ship’s engine to send it careening into a half dozen other Kratzen vessels. The ships veered to avoid impact. Out of position, they were easily picked off one at a time.

  Markus Stout, the third man on The Starboard Mist’s weaponry team, programmed the vessel’s photon torpedoes. He loosed an array of ordinance, taking out still more of their foes. Grunting, he proceeded to set up his next barrage. “I wish I knew what the hell you two were talking about, but whatever it is, keep it up.”