by Tony Healey
The bridge shook around her, metal on metal rattling as if the entire ship were constructed from pots and pans.
"Shields at fifty-seven percent!" Gentry cried, hanging onto his station for dear life.
"Return fire!" Chang called out. Banks did not answer her, except with the roaring fury of the Intrepid's canons. They chased the Namar's tails, caught them from behind, and blew them apart in a white haze of explosive power. "Target the last ship. Launch torpedoes."
"Aye!"
The Intrepid turned. The last of the six ships came about to meet her, head on. Chang leaned forward, her face slick with sweat. Smoke pumped from one of the reserve stations, from an electrical fire Dana had dealt with moments before. The bridge stank of burning plastic, perspiration, and extinguisher that the filters struggled to pull from the air.
"She is locking weapons. Preparing to fire."
The two ships rushed toward one another. Chang beat the side of her chair with her fist, caught up in the moment. "Fire! Fire!"
Two of their torpedoes tumbled toward the ship, and to her astonishment, it weaved out of the way. The torpedoes took their time turning to follow their target, as the Namar ship led them directly into the front of the Intrepid. They erupted against the energy shield, and clamped into the Intrepid's nose with awful, heavy thunder.
"The energy shield along the bow is out of action," Gentry reported, coughing on the smoke, waving a hand in front of his face. "Dorsal section crumbling. We are about to lose our protection."
"Target all canons on that ship. Fire immediately."
"Yes Captain," Banks said, firing all that they had at the ship. The viewscreen changed to show their port side aft. The canons fired at the ship as it made a pass, punching through its hull and disabling it. The black ship tumbled away, powerless. Two of the Intrepid's fighters buzzed past, fired into it and blew it apart.
Chang slumped into the Captain's chair. She felt exhausted already. "We need to get some cover until we can restore our shield. Dana, recall our fighters."
"Yes Captain," Dana said, talking into her comm. equipment, holding the earpiece in place, her face set with concentration.
Doctor Gentry coughed. "Captain, it would appear the Amarax is launching yet more ships."
"Banks?"
He turned to look at her. "They're aboard. Hangars closing."
"Excellent. Helm, get us out of here."
"Where to?" Banks asked.
Chang ran a hand over her face. It felt good. She folded her arms. "We'll go to the other side of the sun. Exactly opposite to the Amarax," Chang said, a plan forming in her mind. "Ensign, take us around the sun, maximum speed."
"Yes, Captain," she said, the Intrepid already heading off.
Banks swivelled about, legs braced on the deck. "What's the plan?"
"We'll hold position there on the other side, out of their sight. Then we will launch a probe either side of us, to maintain orbit in a fixed position, forming an equilateral triangle of sorts."
"Ah," Banks said, grinning. "We'll use the probes to monitor their activity, without being spotted ourselves."
"I'm sure we can find a suitable asteroid to mask our presence, should Cessqa send a ship after us."
"A good plan. But then what?"
She sat back down. The Intrepid raced toward the sun of that strange, alien system. A shattered kingdom of broken planets and moons – a sanctuary for Cessqa and whatever it was she had in her possession. Chang crossed one leg over the other as she watched the viewscreen.
"Restore our shields. Then we head back. It's clear to me that Cessqa is trying to hide whatever it is she is doing, at whatever cost. It's important to her. I plan on going back and disabling the Amarax from the inside."
Banks frowned. "How?"
"When we're safely on the other side, hidden from enemy eyes, I'll explain everything," she promised.
* * *
In Chief Kolvin's experience, starship Captains rarely, if ever, considered how something would get done – they took it for granted that someone would see to it that it just did. Luckily for the Intrepid, the Chief had his wits about him. The order to head toward the sun appeared on his status boards, and he did his best to act quickly. The forward energy shields were completely down. What Chang and the others had failed to consider was that heading toward a sun, with a section of the energy shielding inoperative, was tantamount to suicide.
But fixing the forward shield projectors would take time – more time than was available to him – and so he had to think on his feet. Kolvin took the only option open to him, and prayed that it worked.
"Chief, I feel I should remind you that the hull of the Intrepid is only rated to take a certain amount of heat and radiation. This close to the sun, we are already at–"
He waved him over to where he was working. "Chip, watch this, will you? You might learn something."
"But Chief–" the Droid's voice sounded anguished, if that were even possible.
Kolvin fixed him with a glare that would have melted iron. "Here."
Chip stood next to him. Kolvin shifted to one side so that the droid could see exactly what it was he was doing. "Ah. I see, Chief."
Kolvin manipulated the shield emitters on either side of the unprotected bow section, and shifted their angle. On his monitor their range of cover moved to protect the front as well as their own portions of the Intrepid's external structure – the energy shield now resembled the bud of a flower, the petals not yet opened, protecting the stamen within.
"It's not as powerful as having the real deal, but it's strong enough to handle that sun, and will last us until we can find somewhere to lay low."
"A very clever alteration," Chip said.
"I'm glad you approve. I actually think we can make permanent alterations to all of the emitters at some point," Kolvin told him.
The droid nodded. "Yes and in that way they will support one another, making the likelihood of a future breakdown less likely. We will have to take this to the Captain."
"Yeah, sure, when the chances of us being blown out of the sky aren't such a done deal," Kolvin said with a roll of his eyes.
"Of course."
Kolvin checked that the shields were holding as they should, then turned his attention back to the blown coupling that had injured so many of his people and put them out of action. "We're really tight down here, Chip. I don't know how that coupling went the way it did."
"A fault in its engineering, Chief. I have had the internal structure tested. It was not anything we could have taken precautions against."
"Human error," Kolvin said, shaking his head. "Years ago something like that would have been the death of those people."
"Lucky for them," Chip said.
"Yeah . . ." Kolvin said, voice trailing away as he pictured the victims of the blast being ferried to the medical bay, their skin torn, bright red from the burns, men and women crying in agony. Hard to think that a simple treatment from Vassili – coupled with ample rest – and they'd be back on their feet in no time with barely a scratch to say that they'd ever been hurt.
"I will continue with my work," Chip said.
Kolvin waved him off and called up to the bridge. "This is the Chief. You may have been noticing the temperature along the bow section rising at an alarming rate."
"This is Lieutenant Oriz. We were monitoring it, yes. It seems to be falling now."
"That's because we've managed to restore some energy shield cover to that section, which will get us safely past this sun and into hiding, barring a disaster."
"Oh, great. I thought I was going to have to call for the Captain."
"Where is the Captain?"
"She's stepped out for a moment with Lieutenant-Commander Banks. Would you like me to get her for you?"
"No, no. I'll check in on the bridge soon. Kolvin out."
He knew why Chang would have pulled Banks to one side – to share the knowledge of what she'd had Kolvin make for her. The sticky bomb, as
she called it.
Kolvin didn't know about that. What he did know was that it would make for an awesome explosion when eventually it went off. Though preferably not while aboard the Intrepid . . .
* * *
Answering Kyle Banks's questions about the bomb, Chang decided she would let his moment on the bridge slide. Yes, she couldn't have him questioning her orders like that, not in front of the crew. But on the same token, there was a good chance that, if he accepted the mission to help deliver the bomb, he wouldn't live to tell the tale.
"It's in secure storage right now. Only myself, the Chief, Chip, and the Master at Arms know anything about it."
"Why the secrecy?"
Chang frowned. "What, just tell the crew we've made a Do-It-Yourself mega bomb that's completely experimental? Tell them that it just might detonate when it's reactivated for all we know? It's untested. Does that sound good to you?"
"Okay. I get it," Banks said. "So how are you delivering this bomb?"
"Well that's why I thought of telling you now," Chang said, walking back and forth in her quarters. "The Chief has modified a fighter to carry the bomb into the Amarax, but I'll need a good pilot . . ."
"You know you don't have to ask me, don't you?"
"Well . . ."
Banks smiled. "I'm sure there are other, better pilots aboard the Intrepid you could get to do it. But you need one you can trust, don't you?"
"It's why I have to ask. It could be suicide flying that bomb in there, attaching it, then getting out in time."
"I'll do it."
"Are you sure? I don't want you to feel that you have to. I've broken enough regulations having the Chief build the thing, let alone sending a man on a suicide run."
"It won't be suicide. I can do this."
She looked at him, wondered how she'd been so lucky to land him as her number one. "You know what? I'm getting tired of saying Lieutenant-Commander Banks. From now let's make it plain old Commander, huh?"
He saluted her. "Commander Banks, at your service."
The bridge alert sounded. Chang headed for the door. "Come on, let's get to work. Commander."
4.
They fought well.
Cessqa watched the human vessel depart, heading away from them with its tail between its legs. And yet it had destroyed a respectable number of their fighters and light attack drones. They'd proved themselves more than capable in combat. As the human Captain had before, when Cessqa held the Defiant at bay in order to allow the Amarax time to flee to the Chimera Cluster . . .
"Recall our ships," she ordered.
Beltine looked up. "Cessqa?"
"Do as I say. We must conserve our forces for what is to come."
"You expect more of the human ships?" Axrav asked from her station.
"Count on it. The humans have caught wind of what we are doing here, and they will make it their lot to ensure we are stopped."
"Our plan?" Beltine asked.
"Continue to prepare the Array. Have our forces ready to launch at a moment's notice." She stood next to the primary visual display, hands clasped behind her back. "We will fight until our last breath. We will fight until we can bathe the stars with their blood."
We will fight until we can call our brothers and sisters home.
* * *
The asteroid was the shape of a potato, and more than adequate in size to accommodate the Intrepid. A deep crater on one side, where the two ends of the rock curved upward, sat beneath the shadow cast by both bulbous ends and proved a perfect hiding place.
"Easy on those thrusters, Ensign," Banks warned Ensign Gordon.
He just can't help it, Chang thought. She shared a look with Dr. Gentry.
"We are two hundred metres above the surface," the Doctor said. "One hundred and eighty, one hundred and sixty . . ."
"Slow it down a bit," Banks urged her.
"I know," Gordon spat, growing impatient. "I've done this in the simulator a hundred times. Never crashed once. Sir."
"Difference with a simulator and real life is, here you only get one shot," Banks said. "You're landing a heavy starship on six spindly legs. On uneven terrain. The slightest miscalculation, we'll be stuck here."
"One hundred and forty, one hundred and thirty-five . . ."
Chang turned to see Chief Kolvin walk onto the bridge. "Chief? How're we doing down there?"
"Close to restoring the forward shield emitters."
"I heard about your modification. A fine idea. I took it for granted that the hull plating would take that kind of punishment," Chang said.
Kolvin shook his head. "Not with this class. Your old Archon class ship, it wouldn't have been a problem. A different alloy was used in the construction of the Intrepid."
"Why not go with what's tried and tested? The Defiant could withstand all kinds of punishment."
"Cost," Kolvin said. "But I shan't worry, Captain. I have a list of recommended modifications for when we return to the Station. I'll see to it we don't have this problem again. Believe me."
"You're going on the assumption we get to fly in her again," Chang said with a grin. "This could end up a one way trip."
Dana looked over. "Thanks for making me more scared than I was before . . ."
"One hundred and five . . . One hundred . . . ninety-five . . ." Gentry continued his countdown.
"The trick is matching the asteroid's movement, and holding her steady for descent at the same time. It's no mean feat," Banks said, returning to his station. He could feel the Ensign's tension with him hanging over her shoulder like a parrot.
"Extending landing gear," Ensign Gordon said, followed by the grinding of the gears as they rolled out beneath the ship. A loud clunk throughout the inside of the Intrepid meant that they'd been locked in place. "Firing thrusters to slow our descent further."
"I will admit I have never been on a ship of this size as it attempts a landing," Kolvin said. "I simply had to return to the bridge, if only to watch the Ensign at work."
"Thanks for the support," Gordon said. "And who said anything about attempting to land? We're doing it!"
"Eighty . . . seventy-five . . . seventy . . . sixty-five . . . sixty . . . fifty-five . . . fifty . . ."
The braking thrusters rumbled, the Intrepid slowing to a near halt a mere fifty metres above the surface of the asteroid. And then it happened very quickly. The Ensign settled the Intrepid upon its six landing gear. Their hydraulics absorbed the shock of making impact with the rock and dissipated that energy through the entire hull. Without such support, the Intrepid would have broken in two upon landing.
A slight jolt was all there was to say they'd landed. The Ensign breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Chang got up, walked to her, and gave the girl a pat on the shoulder. "You did well, Alanna. I think some down time is well earned."
"Thanks, Captain."
"That goes for all of us," Chang said. "I for one could do with a shower. I know you could, Kyle."
He frowned. "Huh?"
Gentry looked up. "I'd much prefer to analyse the data we collected from the Array."
"Go ahead. But grab something to eat first, will you? This is going to be one long day," Chang said, already unbuttoning her tunic. "I don't plan on facing another fight on an empty stomach."
"I will have us enter stealth mode," Kolvin said. "Shut down all but essential power until our repairs are made."
"Do it," Chang agreed. "Thankfully, they showed no sign of pursuing, and we're well hidden here."
"And the probes?" Gentry asked.
"When our repairs are completed, Doctor," Chang told him. "I don't want to risk our detection before we're back in fighting shape."
"Oh, very well," Gentry grumbled.
* * *
Cessqa walked through the central habitat and watched her people at work. Woken from their slumber of a thousand years, they had performed admirably thus far.
We are all prisoners of time, she thought, stepping aboard one of the trams that ran through th
e spine connecting the three cylinders together. Waiting for our people, our worlds, our whole civilisation to crumble to dust. Then returned to life, to open a doorway to the past . . .
She looked out at the ships, the weaponry they had been afforded.
Prisoners of time, and yet custodians of the future.
The Amarax was a marvel of engineering, a colossal achievement paled only by the Namar's significant achievements in the field of time travel. The ability to tap into the timeline, to head back through it.
She wondered if what was stopping them from going forward in time was not simply a limit to their powers, but the limit of time itself. If the future was written – as etched in stone as the past – then she saw no reason why future travel could not be possible. But if it were not written, if it were fluid as water around a stone, then that was a worthy explanation. It meant the present was in flux. Nothing was preordained. Her people had died, but there was nothing to say she could not pluck them from the past and bring them to the present.
The Amarax was the ark of the Namarians. And she, Cessqa, was their saviour.
The tram plunged into darkness as it sped toward the first habitat, the front cylinder where it was intended her crew would live. She closed her eyes.
Everything she had told Beltine and Axrav was correct. She knew it. The humans would return, would attack her, would try to stop the Array from burning a hole through time. It was what followed, logically.
But they would not succeed. They had had a taste of the forces at her disposal. When they arrived, the humans would know her full fury.
In the darkness, Cessqa smiled.
5.
Will Ardai carried the tray of food in one hand, doing a fine job of balancing it with a jug of water in the other. The hybrid was exactly where he'd been since coming aboard the Spectre.
On his bunk – not that his gigantic form actually fit on it.
"Hey, I thought you might be hungry."
The Namar-Human creation looked up. "Yes. I am."
Ardai set the tray down on the only surface in the quarters, a shelf barely large enough for the tray, that was usually covered in whatever the crew could fit on it. Pictures of their families, aftershave, things of that nature. Punk had been sure to clear everything out of the tiny room before assigning the hybrid to it, and for good reason.
