by Aaron Frale
Hayden nodded and picked the path with the least armed vessels in their way. He dodged and careened through the cities of Earth, picking up Terristaque vessels that had been mobilized to stop them. Grannork fired on the vessels and took out a few of them. Kal told them to keep casualties to a minimum, so Grannork only fired on a vessel when they had no other choice.
They wove their way through the buildings, shaking one pursuer and gaining three more. Grannork blasted a Teristaque enforcer ship from the sky, and it crashed into a farm building that was growing acres and acres of corn in vertical stacks hundreds of stories high. The Teristaques attempted to set up blockades, but Grannork would blast through them, or Hayden would fly around them. They were the fastest and most maneuverable ship in the fleet.
Just as they were becoming overwhelmed and Kal debated taking orbit, they saw the Scitronite flying over the rooftops towards them. It had only one lonely enforcer chasing it, most likely to ticket it for a no–fly or speeding violation. When Kal had contacted the rest of the crew, she had ordered them to drop whatever they were doing and board the Scitronite. Once they all were aboard, Maker was instructed to fly the Scitronite towards Seattle as fast as he could go.
The Scitronite was a smaller vessel, much smaller than the ship they were in the process of stealing. It was tiny enough that she wagered it would fit into the cargo bay of the prototype vessel. She opened the cargo bay doors, and Hayden steered towards the Scitronite.
Maker did not stop or slow down. They were counting on the parking breaks of the cargo bay to dampen the momentum of the Scitronite when the prototype engulfed it. Kal quickly reprogrammed the cargo bay to divert all the breaking power to counteract the forward motion of the two ships barreling toward each other.
The prototype scooped up the Scitronite, but Hayden had miscalculated by a fraction of a second. Metal against metal shrieked as the ship scraped the ceiling of the cargo bay. The parking brake force fields did the trick and stopped the ship from colliding with the rear walls. The gravity manipulators couldn’t calculate so much force, and any crew member in the Scitronite who wasn’t strapped down tumbled forward and got banged up. One even suffered a concussion.
After acquiring the Scitronite, the prototype veered upward at an incredible angle to avoid smashing into the enforcer on the Scitronite’s tail. The enforcer nicked the bottom of the prototype and spun out of control, crashing into a small historic downtown building where the fancy tourists ran out of the way, screaming.
Kal yelled, “We got them. Let’s get out of this solar system.”
“Copy that,” Hayden said and punched it towards the atmosphere.
They wove through the countless space stations in Earth orbit where they were met with more Teristaque. A large destroyer fifty times the size of their vessel had been deployed. Hayden ducked underneath it. One of the perks of being a human and ex-military was that he knew most of the weaknesses of the ships. Even as a foot soldier, they all had to learn space combat. Foot soldiers could be drone fighter pilots while they waited for deployment on the ground.
Combined with Hayden’s superior flying, a fact he didn’t know about himself when he had signed up to be a grunt, and the rest of the crew taking up a weapon system, they were able to break free from Earth’s orbital rings. They had to dodge just about every laser, plasma, missile, and space weapon imaginable, including a beam from the destroyer which burned a twenty-mile diameter hole in the moon. Hayden had dodged it at the very last moment with a feint that sent several Teristaque ships to their demise.
Kal’s reckless act had a hidden advantage. Even though they were in the heart of the Teristaque Empire, the government wasn’t ready for an enemy from within. All of their solar forces were focused on threats outward. Stealing the ship caught them completely off guard. However, no matter how true Grannork aimed or how well Hayden flew the ship, they would eventually be outnumbered. Once they were free from the mass of civilian and military stations orbiting Earth and they were in open space, Kal ordered Hayden to punch it to the edge of the solar system.
The prototype was much faster than anything Earth could muster. Once Hayden didn’t have to worry about dodging between space stations and ships, their vessel outmatched their pursuers in both acceleration and speed. The pursuing armada turned into pale dots on the horizon.
_______
They arrived at the Blast Sphere a full half hour before any nearby ships could reach them. The satellites were waiting for them to approach, no doubt with instructions to converge all their firepower on the prototype vessel. The Teristaques were no doubt thinking of ways to destroy the ship rather than let the secret project go free.
Maker stood at the science station behind Kal. Goop from Haath-Nlo dripped from Maker’s arm after the quadhelix had tumbled from his post. Maker had insisted that he could just throw away the arm if it was damaged, and Haath-Nlo grumbled about wasting a perfectly good arm. Eventually, Haath-Nlo won the argument when he sprayed Maker with his goop just to shut him up.
Maker addressed the other crew members. “It looks like I won’t be able to fool the sensors or hack into the satellite network. The defense grid is not connected to the rest of the galactic network.”
“Maybe if you had more time!” Seayolar said. The crew didn’t want to say it to her face, but Kal sensed some animosity from the crew for her reckless act.
“It’s not a function of time,” Maker said. “It’s a closed network. The only way to hack it is to land on one of the individual satellites. However, if you land on one, they will destroy it and you.”
“Don’t they send a protocol to the grid to tell it when a ship can pass through? Can’t we fake a safe passage protocol?” Haath-Nlo asked.
“In normal circumstances perhaps, but they declared an emergency the moment this ship left the hanger. No ship getting near the grid is considered friendly.”
“Well we better think of something fast,” Hayden said. “A Flagship is headed our way, and it’s charging a planetary bombardment.”
Flagships were the largest class of vessel in the UPE military and one of the many reasons why species called them the word Teristaque, an Egradrenial word for the Great Terrorizer. Flagships were large rectangular ships the size of a moon. They were well armed, housed vessels of all sizes, and had a planetary bombardment energy weapon that could bore a crater on a planet large enough to destroy a civilization. It was rarely used because most planets with civilizations would lose their value if the invading force caused an extinction level event. The weapon was mainly used for terror rather than as an actual weapon.
If the energy weapon was used against their tiny vessel, it would atomize them. Even though Flagships were slow, lumbering weapons of destruction, the beam was wide enough that even the prototype would have trouble dodging it. Their best bet was to avoid it all together. The Flagship was inching towards them, and they were no closer to finding a solution.
“What if we don’t try to circumvent the defense grid but fly through it?” Kal said. The image of the planetary bombardment energy weapon tearing through their vessel gave her an idea.
“I’m afraid even this vessel couldn’t fly fast enough,” Maker said.
“But what if we destroy the satellites and make a hole?”
“The grid is vast. Others will take their place. It would have to be perfectly timed,” Hayden said.
“But what if we send a shuttle with a nuke on board?” Kal said. “We can time our escape to be right on the tail of the explosion.”
“I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. The defense grid was always just an invasion deterrent meant to slow ships down while the fleet mobilized.”
“Exactly,” Kal said. “It’s meant to keep ships out rather than keep them in. Hayden, make the calculations.”
“Already on it,” Hayden said.
“Seayolar, Rys, Maker. Prep the missile.”
“Ay, sir.”
The crew scrambled to make the preparations
to punch a hole in the Blast Sphere. There was a full complement of tactical ship-to-ship nuclear weapons aboard. Launching a missile would be something the engineers would account into the defense grid programming. The satellites would blast any missiles headed towards them. A shuttle would be torn apart just as easily, but a missile could be reinforced to survive the death of a shuttle. It would be just another piece of space debris. The sensors on the grid wouldn’t fire at it.
The key would be to make sure the missile was on a trajectory to intercept the grid after the shuttle was destroyed. It would be useless if it was blasted in the wrong direction after the shuttle blew. It wasn’t hard for Maker to rig a containment unit that would fling the missile towards the grid as the shuttle exploded.
The missiles already had containment units that would survive a crash. Maker put explosives on the unit to ensure the force would propel the missile in the direction he wanted. It wouldn’t be too accurate, but it didn’t need to be. It just needed to fly toward the Blast Sphere and get close enough to detonate.
They were ready to go with five minutes until the Flagship arrival. The tower housing the large energy weapon resembled a staff with an eye on the top. It was charging with crackles of white lightning. There were slews of other ships following the Flagship. Even though the beam would do the trick, the Earth military wasn’t taking any chances. Rys hailed to the bridge that the shuttle was ready.
The shuttle flew out from the cargo bay doors. They had used one of the Scitronite shuttles. It was about to fly towards the grid when nothing happened.
“What’s going on down there?” Kal yelled.
“The shuttle stalled out,” Rys said. “The docking thrusters work, but the main thrusters won’t fire.”
“We won’t get it to the grid in time with just the docking thrusters.” Maker reminded Kal.
“I’m going out there.” Kal got up from her seat. “I’ll tow it with the other shuttle from the Scitronite.”
“You can’t do that!” Hayden said. “You’ll die.”
“I got us into this. I’ll get us out,” Kal said.
“No…” Hayden said and grabbed her arm. She pulled away, and he sidestepped to block her exit. “I can’t allow you to do this. We wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”
“Stand aside.”
“No.”
Kal paused. She still had the Teristaque weapon. She could shoot him in the shoulder. Haath-Nlo could patch him up. He would survive.
Before she could go for her weapon, Grannork broke the silence. “It’s too late. Look.”
Grannork pulled up a view screen at the front of the bridge. Another shuttle was leaving the cargo bay. It locked the first one with a tractor beam and towed the vessel towards the grid.
“What the hell. Who?” Kal said.
Seayolar’s voice clicked on the radio. “Hey, captain. I couldn’t let you go. The crew needs you. Hell, none of us would have a life if it wasn’t for you. I would have died from lung disease in the asteroid refinery or as one of Dr. Feslerk’s experiments. I enjoyed our time on this ship. I’m honored to have been under your command. But let’s face it, implants were never for me.”
Before Kal could say a word, his shuttle flew in range of the Blast Sphere. Energy bolts tore apart the shuttle in seconds. The other shuttle was quick to be destroyed, too. Maker scanned the debris field. The containment unit was successful. The missile was hurling through space towards the grid. Hayden quickly calculated the trajectory. The angle was off, and the impact would take a bit longer than expected.
The Flagship lumbered into view. They could see the weapon charging. The missile tumbled close enough to the grid, and Maker detonated it. Hayden didn’t wait for Kal’s order or to even see if the missile had worked. He punched the accelerator.
Within the span of a second, the prototype careened through a hail of plasma fire while the nearby satellites moved to close the gap. A behemoth sized beam emerged from the large staff on top of the Flagship. The beam annihilated everything in its path, defense grid and shuttle debris alike.
The prototype barely avoided the beam. Hayden accelerated to the maximum velocity. They were suddenly alone in the inky darkness of space. Kal, for the first time in a long time, felt sleepy.
_______
A few weeks later, after they were just becoming comfortable with the ship, Maker knocked on Kal’s door. The captain’s room was the largest, though in space that was a relative term. It would never be considered luxurious at any rate, which was ok with Kal. She was a simple woman with simple tastes. At least she had a living room and a separate bedroom. Most of the crew’s couches were also their beds.
“Come in,” Kal said. With her implant, she willed the door to open. There were a lot of functions that just needed thought to activate, though she could also create a control panel in her field of vision if she wanted. Hayden was attempting to teach himself to maneuver the ship with thought rather than use the virtual controls. Kal still preferred tactile sensation, so she turned on the virtual panels.
“I have decrypted the data drive, captain,” Maker said.
“Oh?” Kal said. “Thank you for your effort, but I don’t see much point since most of us are self-learning the ship’s systems.”
“I think you’ll find this information quite useful.”
“What did you find?”
“This ship wasn’t the only one.”
“You mean…”
“Yes, they had built another.”
_______
Makiuarnek crawled towards the wounded soldier. The man’s name was Briggs. He was a good soldier who had served under Makiuarnek for many years. From the contorted mess of Briggs’ body, it looked like a spinal injury. It was a treatable wound. Broken bones were easy to mend. However, Briggs would not recover.
Makiuarnek tore the med pack from Briggs’ suit. He attached the med pack to his armor, and the drugs began to fight the infectious metal of the Taurilian blade. His entire body burned, and he almost passed out from the pain. Makiuarnek turned over to see Briggs. The soldier died. He would die too if the Taurilian poison could finish its foul work. Makiuarnek only needed to hang on just a little while longer. The medics would be here soon enough.
Part V
Makiuarnek's Ascension
1
Makiuarnek hovered in a green, swirling life support field. His body was exposed as clothing wasn’t an option in the medical pod. Nanomachines coursed throughout his body, fighting the infectious metal from the Taurilian blade. They replaced the dead and dying cells as quickly as the disease killed the healthy ones. It was a war playing out in the tiniest parts of his body, and the Taurilian poison was winning. Even with the most advanced medical care in the universe, Makiuarnek didn’t have long, days at most.
The worst part about his situation was not the inevitability of his death. He never really cared about death. Even being faced with it didn’t scare him. What irked him more was that he didn’t see it coming. Makiuarnek had brought lots of prisoners to justice and had killed many more in the line of duty. Even though he had been working for the greater good of humanity, he was bound to make some enemies along the way.
He prided himself on knowing who they were and when they would strike. He had never dropped his guard, even on Earth. Despite the fact that he displayed his dedication for all of humankind over and over again, there were still plenty of people on Earth that would rejoice if they heard of his death. His vigilance was not in question. It was that he made two mistakes. The first mistake was that he had underestimated the Nigs, or more accurately, one Nig in particular.
The one that would be his undoing didn’t know the difference between body armor and skin when they had first met. He had spared her the traitor’s fate not just because she was too young and stupid to know what she was doing, but mostly because he saw something special in her. Makiuarnek had an eye for talent. He captained the best IF Enforcer ship in the galaxy not because he was specia
l, but because every member of his crew was handpicked for their ability. The whelp from the Nigramotoian village had that same talent, even if it was unrefined and untrained.
A few years in prison would have beaten the rebellious side out of her. It would also have taught her valuable life skills that she couldn’t get anywhere else. When he met her again in her first feeble attempt to cause him harm, he began to think of her as an informant at the least and at the most maybe a recruit one day. However, before prison had a chance to harden her like he would have liked, she staged a rebellion, which of course proved his ability to recognize talent.
However, the little prison riot at Fendpaake led him to his second and more vital of the two mistakes. He thought she had died when several sections of the station decompressed. He ceased to think of her when he thought she was dead. Had he recognized her sooner, he might have anticipated the attack.
Now, there was nothing left but to replay the moment over and over as the poison turned his cells into a corroded metal. He pictured her face as the blade narrowly missed his heart. She was empty inside. It was a look he had seen many times before. It was the look he saw in himself every time he stood in front of a mirror.
_______
“Makiuarnek, Makiuarnek,” the maid had called across the great hall of the estate. Makiuarnek attempted to contain his giggles as he hid in a shallow nook behind a tapestry that depicted seven planets. Each planet represented a different world from ice to the desert, to the verdant jungle. The hall was gigantic by Earth standards. Most families lived in a space about a tenth the size of the great hall of Makiuarnek’s home. It was a space designed to dwarf the visitors, so they know who held the true power. Makiuarnek didn’t care about such things at the age of eight, though. He had much more fun causing trouble with the staff.
Much to his amusement, the maid passed the tapestry without a second glance, unaware that her charge was hidden feet away from her after his wily escape from tutoring. Most kids his age didn’t have human servants as household tasks were relegated to robots long ago. However, his father was a traditionalist. When he had bought the house and the surrounding one hundred and thirty-three acres of untouched British countryside long before Makiuarnek was born, it seemed a shame to let a way of life die out. Especially because the blue outline of distant skyscrapers could be seen in every direction from the grounds. The grounds themselves were worth the cost of a small solar system, and that was only a fraction of the family’s wealth.
