Captives of the Kratzen (Hearts in Orbit)

by S. C. Mitchell

  Staying behind to cover the retreat of the Fleet, The Starboard Mist careened through the attack ships, drawing them away from the jump point.

  An explosion rocked the bridge.

  “Shields down to seventeen percent, Captain,” Praxis Taygate reported.

  “Frack, we can’t stay any longer. Kyra, plot a course to the jump point.” Rik spun his command chair toward the weaponry consoles. “Gentlemen, keep our pathway clear.”

  No more fancy shooting. They now needed to concentrate on keeping the pathway in front of the ship free of bugs. Easier, but it didn’t help protect any of the other ships in the fleet, and it left them open to a lucky shot from behind.

  He was responsible for the port side, Quatrain the starboard side. Arcing his gun from the front of the ship to the left, then back, he fired off a continuous stream of blaster shots as The Starboard Mist rocketed at close to warp speed toward the jump point.

  Ion drives whined, and the ship shook with the constant blaster fire. He noted other Fleet ships making their way to the sector exit point. He hoped they could all escape, but he doubted it.

  At the jump point, he spotted the FSS Firebrand lining up for its hyper leap. The Starboard Mist would be next.

  Five bug ships closed on the Firebrand.

  Jump, damn it, jump.

  Another blast rocked the ship. Taygate threw up his hands. “Shields are gone. We’ve sustained some damage.”

  An explosion of sparks suddenly erupted from Quatrain’s console. “Uggh.”

  Gods. “Quat?”

  No answer. Carter glanced to see Quatrain lying face down in his weaponry console, smoke and sparks flying around him.

  Stay focused. He was the ship’s sole gunner now. Luna was already moving toward the young man to check on him.

  Carter took control of both sets of ship’s guns, targeting the bugs attacking the Firebrand. He took out all of them, yet still the craft sat at the jump point. Why the hell wasn’t it jumping?

  “Firebrand, jump,” Rik barked into the com.

  “Misfire in our warp core. We can’t—” The com went eerily quiet.

  Outside, the ship exploded in a ball of rolling smoke and sparks. Chunks of the ship flew in all directions.

  Frack. With so much debris at the jump point, they couldn’t use it. They were trapped here. And with so many frackin’ bugs, they were going to die here.

  Carter had cheated death so often, he’d started to get used to it. It was always just him, not his friends, his crew.

  His family.

  This . . . this hurt worse than the bug poison in his veins.

  Worse of all was the realization he’d never see Tina again. Never hold her. Never kiss—

  “Miss Jansky, plot me a course into that wormhole.” Rik’s command came through clenched teeth.

  Luna’s head popped up from where she was checking on Quatrain. “What?”

  “Sir, that wormhole is breaking down. There is a fifteen-point-three percent chance we won’t make it through.” Harvey was never short of statistics.

  A shot from behind rocked the ship.

  Rik grunted with the impact. “My bet is that there is a higher percent chance we won’t make it if we stay here.”

  “Yes, sir. There is a—” Harvey stopped when Rik held up his hand, index finger extended.

  “I don’t need the odds. Kyra, get me that plot.”

  Carter got a target lock on the bug as it came around and blasted it to pieces.

  Kyra sent the navigation plot to the captain’s consol.

  “Hang on everyone.” Rik initiated the program and The Starboard Mist raced toward the collapsing wormhole.

  The five other remaining Fleet vessels followed.

  Carter targeted and fired at anything in their way until the swirling nonexistence of the wormhole sucked them in.

  Chapter 31

  Tina led the refugees down a back-road she’d only ever seen on a map, and never traversed. The pathway out of the swamps led into a forested, sparsely populated part of her kingdom. Huge temba trees sent green-laced limbs over the trail creating a canopy. Tri-leafed bell poppies and forest fern floated sweet fragrance on the soft breeze. Pintail tree rats argued with squawking cawbellies in the branches above. The walk would have been enjoyable if danger hadn’t threatened at every turn.

  Occasionally a bug ship would buzz overhead causing everyone to scatter deeper into the foliage. The forest protected them for now, but up ahead, the land rose into a stark mountain pass. They’d be spotted for sure.

  There’d been no sign of Sol or his transport ship, or anyone else for that matter. An uneasiness fluttered through her stomach. If Calton el Bafron had done something to halt the young guard’s return, Tina vowed to personally boot the troublesome man from the council with the tip of her foot.

  Every cottage along the roadway lay empty. At least it looked like someone had warned and evacuated the countryside. The general population knew to head for the palace in the event of invasion. Its high walls and force dome at least gave a modicum of safety.

  Would they be enough against a Kratzen assault?

  Cona Pelose, one of her guards, came puffing up to her. She’d had him watching the rear with five of her other guardsmen, helping the slowest to keep up.

  “There’s something behind us, stalking us. Dark figures in the trees. I’ve only caught glimpses, but they don’t appear human. More like big insects.”

  Frack. “How many?”

  Cona’s eyes narrowed. “Lots. Hard to discern figure from shadow under the trees, but it appears a large force. And as we slow, they gain on us.”

  Kratzen ground troops, sent to shag them out of the forest.

  “Do you know this road? What lies ahead?”

  Cona nodded. “I’ve hunted these woods many times. The road rises to a mountain pass ahead. There is a place, between cliffs . . . with a little preparation we could set up an ambush. Few could hold for a while, to give the rest time to race toward the palace.”

  “Take some men. Make it so.”

  He nodded again and dashed off, tagging some refugees ahead to accompany him.

  Chrell, walking beside her, had taken in every word of their conversation. “How much danger are we in here?”

  Too much. “We need to hurry.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Luck broke their way, as an abandoned electricart allowed transport for five of the most exhausted of the refugees, picking up their pace. The loss of forest protection and fear of the bug ships seen in the distance also lent new strength to tired limbs.

  Tina encountered Cona and his helpers at the apex of the mountain pass. Piles of debris stood against each of the cliff walls ready to be thrown across the path as cover for the defenders after the refugees had passed.

  “Good work, Cona.” Maybe they had a chance.

  As the main group shuffled through the pass, Tina pulled the healthy and strong out for a quick meeting. “Volunteers only, no one is to be held here against their will, but anyone who does stay gets a weapon if one is available. We will defend as long as we can, but don’t take any chances you don’t have to.”

  As the refugees continued forward, Tina accompanied the defenders back to finish the barricade. The palace towers were in sight now. The refugees could continue on their own.

  All nine of her guardsmen stayed along with twenty-two refugees. Three of those were armed only with clubs they’d harvested from the forest trees. Brave men.

  She looked back down the trail to the edge of the tree line. The swarm emerged. Black Kratzen roach warriors poured from the forest toward them by the hundreds.

  “My queen, you should go.” Cona drew his blaster.

  She shook her head, and drew her ow
n sidearm. “We go together.”

  ~ ~ ~

  As the spinning vortex of the wormhole engulfed The Starboard Mist, Carter left his station to check on Quatrain. There was nothing further he could do from his weapons station anyway. He tamped down the queasiness in his stomach and knelt down by where Luna had him laid out on the floor.

  Blood bubbled from a cut at Quatrain’s temple. The boy wasn’t moving.

  “Is he all right?” Stupid question. He was far from all right. Carter took Quatrain’s wrist, feeling for a pulse. He let out a sigh when he felt a strong beat.

  Quat groaned. “You wanna hold my hand, old man, you gotta buy me dinner.”

  Thank the galactic gods. “You okay?”

  He sat up, stretching his shoulders and neck. “Been better.”

  Then he looked down at his ruined weaponry console. “Frack. I’m going to need one of the Pinder boys up from maintenance to fix this.”

  Carter ruffled his hair. “I’ll give ‘em a call. You take it easy.”

  “Who’s hurt?” Magda shuffled out of the elevator. “Damn Oracles screaming at me to get my old ass up here. How the hell did we get back to the Milky Way?”

  “Quatrain,” came from just about everyone’s mouth on the bridge. Some also pointed his way.

  “If he needs to go to sickbay, drag him there. If not, I may still need him.” Rik’s attention never left the front display.

  On the screen, the spinning swirl gave way to inky, star-dotted space. Home. They were back in the Milky Way. Magda’s connection to the Oracles confirmed that much.

  Rik expelled a long breath. “Miss Jansky, where are we?”

  Kyra’s fingers flew over her station’s input keyboard. “Sector 45-E. The Dark Nebula is fifty-six degrees to our port side.

  “Harvey?” Rik turned to the science droid.

  “Three of the ships that followed us into the wormhole are exiting now. The other two . . . didn’t make it.” Lifeless, monotone, yet somehow filled with sorrow. At times Harvey seemed more human than android.

  “Any bugs on scan?” Rik spoke through gritted teeth.

  A servo inside Harvey clicked and whirred. “I count eight Kratzen motherships in the immediate area. Three in orbit around Arkos Prime, two approaching Pluton, and three orbiting Quendor.”

  “Quendor?” Carter’s heart froze. Tina.

  ~ ~ ~

  Rik caught Carter’s gaze. “Your mission is to assess what’s going on down there. With one of our weapons stations down, I can only use one gunner anyway, and Magda says Quatrain’s fine for duty.”

  “Just assess?” Carter needed to be clear on his mission. It would be easy to overstep.

  All four of the surviving Fleet vessels were in need of repairs before they could go into battle again. They’d managed to connect to Galaxynet and send messages to the Federation Fleet and Galactic Marshals about the situation here in the Dark Nebulan system. Hopefully, help was on the way. There really wasn’t much he could do onboard right now anyway.

  But taking a scout ship to Quendor offered him a chance to check up on Tina. How far off mission would he be able to go?

  “Scanning hasn’t turned up any sign of Kristin’s command vessel, but she’s got to be using it to bring more of the Kratzen motherships over. Is this an attack or an all-out invasion? That new GRT-11 gunship in the docking bay needs a good test run anyway. Take her out for a spin. Check out Quendor first. Find out what’s going on down there.”

  The GRT-11 was the latest, state of the art, personal gunship. It featured cloaking and asteroid avoidance technologies, rapid fire phase canons, full range photon torpedoes, and a control center that made it all available to a single pilot. A few lucky Galactic Marshals were already using them on patrol, and Fleet was rolling them out to augment their forces as well. Because of their mission in Andromeda, The Starboard Mist had been one of the first ships to get one but because of their busy schedule, no one had had time to even take it out for a test run.

  The ship did have two seats, but all the weaponry and gadgets could be accessed from the pilot’s seat, so the ship only required one operator.

  Rik gestured for him to board. “Be careful. Use your own judgment. If you see a situation that needs it, feel free to use the ship to its full capacity. And if you happen to run across my favorite navigator, bring her home if you can.”

  Rik’s wink took Carter by surprise. No doubt about it. He was giving him permission to go off mission to look for Tina.

  Who knew what condition Quendor was in? Three Kratzen motherships were sending wave after wave of ships down to the surface. For sure, Quendor would be fighting back. Carter had no idea the state of their armed forces though.

  It was time to go find out.

  Chapter 32

  Carter dropped into the atmosphere over Quendor. Bug ships flew patrols over vast areas of devastated landscape. Buildings burned and bodies littered the streets. The Kratzen weren’t here to conquer. They were trying to destroy.

  He flew over the kingdom next to Tina’s finding nothing but devastation. His fingers hovered over the weaponry console every time he spotted Kratzen ships or ground units, but here there was nothing left to defend. So he kept cloaked and continued on.

  Crossing over the mountainous border, he noted less destruction. A good sign.

  In the distance, the palace walls stood strong and intact. The town looked ravaged, but scans detected no life-forms or bodies. People must have been evacuated. That meant they’d had some warning.

  A swarm of Kratzen ground troops crept up the side of a mountain ahead. Suddenly blaster fire erupted from behind a barrier of debris thrown across a narrow pass. Someone here was still resisting the swarm.

  He hovered over the scene. Beyond he saw another group of people rushing toward the palace. Those fighting were trying to cover a retreat. Carter smiled as he brought up his tactical display. “Rik did say . . .”

  The GRT-11 was a masterpiece of modern weaponry. Blasters reacted with split-second timing as he strafed across the Kratzen warriors. Some of them fired up at him, but their blaster shots sizzled ineffectively against his shields. On his return pass, he added two photon torpedoes to his array, and blasted huge swatches of Kratzen roach warriors.

  Radar picked up two enemy ships overhead, so he banked upward to engage. Dual autolocks made it easy to blast both from the sky before they even got off a shot.

  The remaining bugs pulled back into the forested area at the foot of the mountain after he made one more pass across, and Carter noted the defenders retreating toward the palace. They’d all make it easily, so Carter felt confident to fly ahead.

  He’d make a wide circle around the palace, looking for anyone else who needed help while scouting the enemy positions, then land at the palace and find Tina.

  She’d probably be in her throne room. He could get a briefing from her as to what’s happening. Then he had to somehow convince her to come with him back to The Starboard Mist.

  That part was probably going to be a challenge.

  ~ ~ ~

  Was that a GRT-11?

  Tina had only had a quick glimpse of the new fighter craft in the landing bay of The Starboard Mist, and she wasn’t very good a naming ship types anyway. Carter had raved about the ship’s capabilities.

  Gods, Carter. Where are you now? Are you safe?

  But that ship above, whatever it was, was a gods’ send. And whoever that pilot was, she owed him or her big for the save. They’d have never held that mass of bugs long enough to ensure the refugees safe passage to the palace without the help.

  The ship appeared to be flying off toward the palace. Hopefully it would land and she’d be able to thank the pilot personally when she got there.

  ~ ~ ~

  �
��She’s not here? Where is she? What have you done to her?” Carter clenched his fists, but resisted striking out.

  Pavel Fenrus’s smug face could use a good punch. What was this villain doing on the throne of House la Cross?

  “She and her cousin Kathryn have been taken to a place of safety. These are dire times for Quendor. This is not a job for a woman. The council, in its wisdom, has placed me back on the throne . . . temporarily.”

  Carter didn’t recognize any of the guards standing at the base of the dais. Where were Tina’s people? Had this scum gotten rid of all of them?

  “You know, war is on your doorstep. I scared off a Kratzen invasion on my way here, but they’ll be back.”

  Pavel snorted. “We don’t require the aid of aliens here. The Quendorian army is the best in the universe. You are no longer welcome here.”

  House la Cross didn’t stand a chance, and suddenly Carter wondered why he cared. But he wasn’t leaving without Tina, in any case. And he’d find her if he had to tear the palace apart with his bare hands. “Goodbye, Captain Fenrus.”

  Pavel’s eyes narrowed. “King Fenrus.”

  Carter shrugged as he turned to exit the throne room. “Only for another hour or so, probably. The Kratzen won’t give your crown any more legitimacy than I do.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The cold, dank cell lay deep under the House la Cross palace. Tina had never been down here before. Secret, secure, she hadn’t even known of its existence.

  She’d been captured by unknown House guardsmen as she entered the palace, even as all the refugees, including those she’s sent on ahead by transport, were sent packing out the front gates. Ordered out of the kingdom by sundown.

  Damn it. Had she saved them only to lead them to slaughter?

  What the hell had happened in her absence?