by Tony Healey
Her, she thought as she fell toward the Defiant. Her. I will find her on there. Kill her with my bare hands. Watch as the life flees her body, then kill the others. All of them. She had her chance to surrender.
The battered hull rushed up to meet her. She braced for impact, ready to grab whatever she could to stabilize herself. It came, her body took the hit, her fingers dragged on the tortured metal until they closed around a small square that jutted out. The housing of a component.
She hung there, hands on the box, getting ready to claw her way back toward the gash. Back to the opening. It would not take long. She gave Risa the signal and watched her follow, leaping from the Jandala's edge.
Captain King I am coming for you.
*
Dollar was already on his way out the door. "The thought occurred to me, too."
Jessica and Chang struggled to keep up with the lively Texan as he bounded ahead of them.
"Where are we going exactly?" Chang asked.
"The cargo hold. I've got somethin' in storage."
"Ah yes. That," King said. "Your kataan. That's pretty much a collectible antique, you know."
Chang tugged at King's elbow. "Are you saying he's got a kataan aboard?"
"Course I got one," Dollar said, as if it were an everyday occurrence, retrieving your sword from storage.
Chang stopped. Jessica stopped a few feet ahead while Dollar continued on. "Commander, what is it?"
"First you tripped up and called him Hawk. Now you're telling me he's got a kataan. It's all too much of a coincidence," Chang said.
Jessica sighed.
I don't have time for this. Nor do I have time for these goddamned secrets, either.
"Look, he's really Hawk. You know, Gerard Nowlan. Captain Nowlan. Whatever you want to call him. It's all true. Commander Greene is the only other person who knows."
"How . . . How does that . . . Huh? . . . I mean . . ." Chang took a deep breath. "Let's get this straight. Dollar, who we've all served with for over a year, is really a long lost hero of the Union? Am I right? How are you even keeping this a secret?"
"You tell me. But it's worked up till now," King said and carried on in the direction Dollar had gone. "With all due respect, right this minute I don't have time to explain all this to you, Lisa. Later, I promise. You have my word."
"Hawk . . ." Chang said, falling into step with her. "Who'd believe it?"
*
Cessqa watched Risa dropped inside the hole. The deck was in darkness, devoid of atmosphere, warmth and light. Ice crystals glittered in all directions, as if the confines of the Defiant were strewn with diamonds.
Sealed from the rest of the ship, Cessqa thought. We need to find whatever means they've used to do so, and breach it.
She led the way, blade out of its sheath. Risa had done the same. Cessqa charged the blade – it would operate as a powerful energy weapon when the time came. Though for close quarter combat, she preferred it as a sword.
They stalked the exposed innards of the Union starship, weapons at the ready. Both of them, Cessqa and Risa, the finest warriors the Namar had ever seen. And both ready to spill as much human blood as possible in the name of what was once a great empire. In the hope – in the promise – that it would be great again.
*
Chief Gunn led the Commander, Ensign Rayne, and Lieutenant Banks out of the engineering section, along with most of her team. She left only those needed for specific tasks. A dozen men and women she trusted to get their respective jobs done without her guidance.
"They'll be all right in here on their own?" Greene asked.
"Sure. Don't sweat it. Right now we need to get these relays sorted. Get the Defiant back up and running best we can," Gunn explained as she led her team away from engineering. She had enough bodies to get the job done quickly. If they hurried.
It's always a rush, she thought with disdain. Always a last minute save-the-world job. Cut the blue wire, cut the red wire.Boom! Boom! B!.
"This way," she said, turning a corner. Had she turned the one opposite, she might have collided with the two Namarian warriors making their way toward engineering with their swords drawn.
They might have stopped what was to come. Or delayed it.
In either case, the continued toward the relays in the hopes of reviving the Defiant.
34.
Eisenhower handed them each a rifle. Dollar had managed to rally together twenty men and women, some of them replicants. Captain King had led them to the hangar deck, where Master At Arms Eisenhower held the key to the best of the Defiant's weapons.
"I see you've got your trusty blade there, Dolarhyde," Eisenhower said as he handed out the last rifle.
"Sure thing," Dollar said.
"Okay. Dollar and I will take the lead. Chang and Eisenhower at the rear. The rest of you will take the centre of our group, and carry the extra weapons. We'll sweep through the ship. Rally together everyone we meet. Lock the ship down section by section," King said.
"If they're here already, we'll find 'em," Dollar said.
"Right. Let's get on it. Quiet as you can everyone. If anyone from the Jandala is already aboard, we don't want to give them any kind of advantage. Now move."
*
Cessqa watched with relative detachment as the last engineer hung off the end of her blade, stuck through his middle, face twisted in agony as she lifted him off the deck. He slid down the length of the sword, blood gushing from his torso.
This is what I have craved, she thought. The killing. The sensation of carving through flesh with steel.
With one swift movement. she flicked her sword to the side, sending him flying at the same time. Another flick of her wrist rid her blade of blood. It spattered up the side of a console in a bright red line.
The engineers' work lights had fallen around them, leaving haphazard pockets of illumination. Risa wasted no time in locating the Defiant's rapidly cooling reactor.
"Here it is," she said.
Cessqa went to her side, regarded the heart of the Defiant with her silvery eyes as if it were something from the stone ages.
"We have slept for a millennia, and this is the best they can do . . ." she said.
Risa knelt on the floor, shrugged off a pack around her shoulder and opened it. Inside were the sort of explosives any terrorist in history would have recognised with ease. Small packages of tightly-packed, moldable material. Bound in shiny polymer.
"Still, it will blow just as well as any other," Risa said, patting one of the explosives. "Like a sun."
An errant memory, of a sunset on their homeworld. It washed over her. She remembered the deep orange light. The warm air on her skin. How it had felt back then, many lifetimes ago.
"Do it," Cessqa ordered, returning to the present. "Blow them to whatever they think of as hell."
35.
Before they reached the engineering section, Jessica and the others found themselves blinded by the lights around them. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the sudden illumination.
"The Chief must've got the backups working again," Chang said. "That means lights, life support and intership communications at least."
"All the better for us," Jessica said.
She was the first one in the engineering section. It was a blood bath. Men and women lay sprawled on the floor, over consoles, some of them intact, some not. And farther away, two tall, pale aliens stood by the reactor. One of them turned around.
Cessqa.
"Fall back! Fall back!" Jessica yelled. She ducked behind a console, grimacing at the sticky puddle of blood under her feet. Chang took her position behind a console on the other side.
There were no translators in the engineering section. Cessqa yelled in her direction, but it was senseless bile. However, there was no mistaking it for friendly chatter.
She's in a rage, Jessica thought. As am I. How many has she killed here?
"Captain," Chang said on the other side. "They're doing something t
o the reactor."
King poked her head up again. They hadn't stopped. Cessqa was evidently not concerned that they would risk firing in the direction of their own reactor. However it didn't stop her taking a few shots at her. The blasts struck the front of the console as Jessica ducked back down behind it.
What was she shooting from? she asked herself. Then she realised, replaying the last few seconds, that the shots had come from her sword. From the blade itself. How?
"Outside," Jessica told Chang. She got back up, aimed her weapon to the right of the two Namarians and opened fire. They ducked instinctively, even though Jessica had no intentions of aiming any closer to them, for risk of hitting the reactor.
Chang dived back out of the door. Jessica let loose a few more shots, backing away to the door herself.
Cessqa lifted her sword, the blade glowed a deep red before bursts of energy came her way, sizzling against the wall to her left. She stepped back into the corridor outside, the doors to the engineering section closed shut behind her.
"What do we do? There's no way of taking them," Chang said.
Dollar strode forward. "I'll do it," he said.
Jessica caught his arm. "Not right now. There'll be a way out of this yet. But going in there like that will be suicide. You'll be fried the minute you walk through the door."
Dollar accepted it. "It's your call. You're the boss."
"Contact the Chief if you can," Jessica told Chang. "Tell her the situation here."
36.
"Chief! Chief this is Chang!"
Gunn looked up at the comm. unit as if it had sprouted a face, arms and legs. She shook her head to clear it, got up off the deck and hit the buttons.
"Go ahead."
"The engineering section has been occupied by Namar. We're in the process of getting them out. But you better get up here. We think they have something strapped to the reactor."
Meryl swallowed. Oh God.
"I'm on my way," she said.
Commander Greene was on his feet, his face grave. "I'm coming with you."
She left with him in tow. Banks looked at the others. "Well I guess that means I'm in charge. Come on people, keep going."
*
They waited in the corridor, a ways from the entrance to the engineering section.
There was cover there, but not much of it.
"So ya thinkin' they'll try and make a quick exit," Dollar said.
"If they're planning on blowing us up, then yes," Jessica said. "At which point we chase them down and the Chief deals with whatever is it they've done."
"You expect an explosive?" Eisenhower asked.
"Could it really be anything else? It's what I'd do," King said. "And if Meryl can't get it deactivated, there's only one other option."
"Evacuation . . ." the Master At Arms said. "Not an agreeable outcome of all this."
"No," Jessica said. "But if I have to, I will. This ship is just a ship."
But that's not true is it? she asked herself as she watched the doors to the engineering section for any sign they were coming out. It's a home. And it will break your heart to lose it.
"Still, it'll be a shame," Eisenhower said.
"Yes," Jessica agreed. "Yes it will."
*
Commander Greene grabbed hold of the Chief's wrist to stop her racing ahead.
"Hey, wait," he urged her.
"Del, we don't have time for this!"
He yanked her toward him, pulled her in close. Kissed her full on the lips.
"There's always time for a kiss," he said.
"Right, now can we go before the ship blows like a firework?"
As if to punctuate her point, several blasts erupted ahead of them. Energy weapons screeching as they were discharged in the confines of the ship.
"Jesus," he said, staring in that direction.
Meryl was already off. "Come on!"
*
Cessqa raised her blade again. It pulsed with red energy, then she fired it at them. Where it hit the floor and the walls, it erupted in thick, acrid smoke. The two Namarians slowly backed away down the corridor.
They aren't sticking around, Jessica thought. A knot of dread tied itself in the pit of her stomach. That means something's going to blow on here. By the looks of things, it'll be the reactor.
Someone threw himself down next to her. She glanced to see who it was.
"Commander, pleased you could join us," she said, handing him a rifle.
"Thanks," Greene said. He checked it had charge, then started moving. "Dollar, you're with me."
"No Del!" Jessica shouted, but it was too late. The moment the words left her mouth, she knew they shouldn't have.
Greene moved, firing at the retreating Namar warriors. Dollar rushed them with him, also firing.
And there was a third person, close behind them. The Chief.
*
She ran into the engineering section, Jessica and all the others behind her. There was only one place Gunn knew she had to look. And sure as anything, there they were.
Explosives.
"Chief," Jessica said, walking toward her. "Do you think you can deactivate them?"
"Not sure. I'll have to look."
The Chief wiped sweat off her brow. Always a last minute save-the-world job. Cut the blue wire, cut the red wire. Boom! Boom! Boom! she thought again. Boom! Boom! Boom!She knelt down next to one of them, and with trembling hands began to uncover it.
37.
They ran after her, racing along the corridors of the semi-dark Defiant, a silent scream in their throats. A battle cry they didn't give airtime to.
At the threshold of another deck, Cessqa spun about, levelling her weapon in their direction. She had it pointed directly at Dollar.
Cessqa fired. Dollar stepped to the side. Her discharged energy bolts struck the wall he'd previously stood by.
She took a step forward, advanced on him, weapon still raised.
Right then, Greene took a shot at her. It narrowly missed. Cessqa roared with rage and contempt. She knocked Dollar to one side. He staggered, hit the bulkhead.
Greene aimed his rifle, got ready to fire. To end her.
But the Namarian female was a shade faster. As Greene diverted his eyes to the rifle, as if it would protect him from everything, Cessqa lunged in with a spear. By the time it was done, Cessqa was already on the move again.
Del had dropped to the floor, on his knees, holding his midsection.
38.
Cessqa once more braved the void. With Risa close behind, she consigned herself to the immensity of open space, to the simplicity of merely existing.
What lay beyond was the Jandala, her now broken ship. She hurtled from the open gash along the length of the Defiant, crossing from one to the other, as if there were a rope bridge.
*
On the secondary command deck, all systems had booted back up.
Jessica slipped into the pilot's station and started to fire the Defiant's engines. To her delight it was all working.
But will we pull apart?
"Well there's only one way to find out," she said aloud.
*
It was unlike anything she'd ever seen. Whirring from some hidden, alien mechanics, the sound was disconcerting. The design made it very hard for to discern which wire did what, but she took an educated guess anyway. After all, none of it was much different to what she'd cut her teeth on back at the Academy.
Cut the blue wire, cut the red wire, Boom! Boom! Boom!
With an assertive snip, she followed her gut instinct in choosing which set of wires to cut. The device stopped dead.
"Good work, Chief," Jessica said. "I'm going to the secondary command deck. Get us out of here. Keep me posted."
"Aye," the Chief said. Then she tackled the second one, hoping beyond hope that she still had time.
*
The Defiant tore free of its entanglement with the enemy. Under Jessica's heavy handed approach to piloting, the Union vessel p
ulled free from where it had become trapped amongst the broken hull of the Jandala. It left a huge open gash there.
*
Dollar hit the nearest comm. unit and called for the Chief. Then he sat near Commander Greene, holding his hand tight.
"Hold in there, pal," he told him. "Hold in there."
39.
The Jandala had spawned more drones to cope with the enormous job of repairing the ship's primary systems. They'd cleared Gelvin's body away. It would be recycled, possibly into more of the drones – if that had not happened already.
The Namar were not a wasteful, uneconomical species. The intelligence that performed many of the Jandala's functions, allowing only a skeleton crew to command her, had appointed them to the areas needing the most attention.
"We've got power back," Risa told her. "Shall we attack?"
The holodisplay still broken, the two of them peered at a monitor at the back of the command deck. It showed the Defiant moving off.
Cessqa shook her head, took to the controls and set about piloting them away. Risa's face reflected the disbelief she felt at Cessqa's actions. "We do not attack?"
"Not yet. We have more important things to do. The refuge is not far from here. We need to know if it's still in one piece," Cessqa said.
Risa crossed her arms. "I do not understand . . ."
Cessqa raised an eyebrow. "Fortunate since you are not in charge. Assist me by getting the repairs done so we get there as fast as possible, and in one piece. We still do not have shields. They will easily outgun us. We must regroup."
Risa nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, of course."
"We will have our moment, Risa. We will have our retribution. You must trust my instincts in this matter," Cessqa told her.
Moments later, they initiated the Jump and were gone.
*
"They've jumped," Chang reported. "Shall I attempt to ascertain –"
"No. Let them go. There's been enough fighting for one day," King said, exhausted.
"Yes Captain," Chang said, though King found it hard to determine if the Commander sounded relieved or disappointed.
