“Where the hell did they come from?” Kingston said.
Pierce pointed to the oval portals. “There look at that; it’s a portal.”
Chevallier noticed two sources of light beam into the darkened room, looking like bright sunlight. She looked and saw there were other oval-shaped portals along the walls. Some were allowing additional alien reinforcements to march in, while one other, that was directly behind them, had nothing coming in or going out of it. A closer look revealed green grass, trees, and a bright sun in clear and cloudless skies.
A way out? She pondered as their battle raged on.
A battle that had no end in sight.
All five of them discharged their weapons’ lethal gifts at their attackers. Hostile targets that fell during the battle, as Chevallier experienced, rose up from the dead and limped closer toward them. Their bullets did nothing but slow them down while an endless supply of the alien soldiers continued to march out of the various opened portals. The path back to the exit of the building was blocked by the first wave of grunts as they limped closer, and they were cut off from the transport outside and any possible backup they might have coming, though Chevallier was quite convinced they were on their own.
McDowell insisted on fighting their way back outside and toward the transport. His argument was that their shields were still holding up against the aliens’ weapons and that backup might be coming to assist. Chevallier, after several looks down into the dark halls they came from, neither saw or heard any such backup. They had a perfect escape right behind them, the portal that lead to the sunny pasture beyond. Fighting their way back outside was suicide, there was no telling what the alien’s weapons could do to their shields once they were out of cover. And where would they go? What if the Carl Sagan was destroyed? It would explain why they had lost contact, an alien vessel could have ambushed them then sent their ground troops to finish their team off.
Chevallier’s way was the only way. To hell with what McDowell thought, he wasn’t even supposed to be in command! “Let’s fall back!” Chevallier yelled.
McDowell retorted. “No, we’re pushing through, back into the halls, now follow my lead!”
“Fuck that.” Chevallier lowered her weapon, grabbed onto the arms of Foster and Pierce, and dragged them to the portal with her.
“What are you doing?” Foster asked Chevallier.
“I’m doing my job, Captain. Keeping you and the egghead safe.”
8 WILLIAMS
ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge
SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system
May 19, 2050, 10:47 SST (Sol Standard Time)
“Commander, I have lost contact with the team on the surface,” EVE said as her holographic likeness appeared next to Williams.
He grimaced at the news while he sat in the captain’s chair and gazed out at the planet. “What happened?”
“It would appear they are being jammed.”
“I suggest you prepare yourself for battle,” Tolukei said. It was not the news Williams was expecting from their shipboard psionic.
“This isn’t exactly a battleship, Tolukei,” Williams said to him. “I’m sure it’s just a glitch or something; let’s give them time to reconnect.”
“There are four ships on an interception course to us from the moons of the gas giant,” Tolukei said. “As I said, I suggest you prepare yourself for battle. They have weapons ports opened. It is highly unlikely they are here to meet and greet us to the system.”
Williams faced Ensign Collins. “What do you have on sensors?”
“Nothing sir, but if they just launched it will be another hour or so before we get confirmation back.”
Tolukei was their eyes and ears in the delicate situation, what he said Williams had to trust completely and base all tactical decisions around. “Tolukei, what’s the ETA on those ships?” Williams asked him.
“Two minutes, they are . . . very fast.”
Two minutes to travel across the distance of thirty light minutes, they were officially dealing with ships capable of FTL. Something both Radiance and Hashmedai were incapable of developing, and something that wasn’t surprising when human scientists first learned of how fast their ships travelled as it only confirmed that Einstein was right, it was impossible to travel faster than light. The situation at hand confirmed otherwise.
“This is Commander Williams to Captain Foster, do you copy?” he transmitted, but as he feared there was no reply. “EVE, what was their last known location on the surface?”
“They entered a central chamber located approximately two kilometers into the alien structure.”
Williams considered sending another transport jam packed with Hammerheads to retrieve them, but there were too many risks. If those Hammerheads didn’t return, then he’d be dealing with two missing teams. Even if they did find Foster and her team, they had less than two minutes to get back to the Carl Sagan before the hostile ships arrived. Hell, the whole process of getting a rescue team suited up and a transport down to the surface would have taken two minutes.
What Williams needed was instant extraction and he needed it forty-five seconds ago. He faced Tolukei, knowing full well he was that source of instant extraction. “Tolukei, can you teleport down and recover them?”
“That will leave you without a psionic and at a disadvantage,” Tolukei said.
“I’m not leaving the captain and her team behind!”
Tolukei nodded. “As you wish.”
Williams addressed the rest of the bridge crew as alert alarms began to blare throughout the ship, springing the crew into action. “Everyone, strap in or get your magnetic boots active, we’re gonna lose gravity.”
Tolukei folded his hands together as the cybernetic devices on his body started to glow brightly. Williams couldn’t help but watch as the Javnis psionic used his gifts to teleport away. He had heard all about the abilities of psionics, viewed photos, watched videos. But never in his life had he witnessed one use their skills with his own two eyes, eyes that he had to shield with his arms. Tolukei’s body was consumed by extremely bright blue that dematerialized his body. Once it subsided, Tolukei was gone and the bridge lost gravity instantly.
Williams was tasked with the next part of the plan, survival. Survival without a psionic against an enemy that could move faster than sensor scans. “Shields at max, activate all defensive weapons,” Williams ordered, he then opened a comm link with Rivera. “So, Chief, we might be going into our first combat situation.”
He heard Rivera laugh and reply. “I was wondering what those alarms were.”
“In less than two minutes we’re going to be outnumbered four-to-one,” he said. “So, if you have any tricks up your sleeve, now’s the time to get them ready.”
“Commander,” Collins said, directing Williams’ attention forward.
From the horizon of the planet Williams saw two of the four ships arrive on a direct intercept course to the Carl Sagan. The ships were round-shaped almost like an egg, their shiny, grey exterior hulls reflected light from the white dwarf star in the distance. A hexagonal shaped crevice on the front of the ship began to glow red, and Williams assumed it was the opened weapons port.
“Try contacting them on all channels, let them know we don’t want a fight,” Williams said.
The red hexagon on the two ships pulsed briefly and sent out white beams of energy which impacted the shields of the Carl Sagan, distributing blue ripples of energy across it. It was strong enough to send slight tremors throughout the ship and trigger computers to beep with warnings.
“Something tells me they want a fight anyways,” Collins said.
One of the alien ships broke off and sunk into the atmosphere of the planet, while the remaining one continued its assault with its beam cannons.
“Return fire!” The words Williams had hoped he wouldn’t have to use during their peaceful exploration.
The Carl Sagan’s forward rail guns slid out from beneath the hull of the ship. They quickly acqu
ired a target and sent targeting scanner data to Collins’ computer. EVE’s calculations assisted, and helped to compensate for the drift between the two ships. Magnetically accelerated slugs discharged rapidly, leaving behind red streaks of tracer light on their one-way trip to the alien ship. Every bullet that hit put holes into the hull of their target, there were no shields on the alien ships to hinder their performance. And judging by newly collected tactical scans, shields might not have been needed.
The Carl Sagan’s defensive assault left the alien ship with gaping holes torn through not only from the point of impact, but from the opposite end. They swiss-cheesed the hell out of it, and it refused to falter from its beam weapon assault against the Carl Sagan. Whoever the hell was piloting the ship was tough and still alive, much like the internal systems of the ship which should have suffered critical damage by now as another salvo of devastating energy collided with the Carl Sagan.
“Any idea where that other ship is heading?” Williams asked during the weapons exchange.
“To the surface, where the captain’s team landed,” EVE said.
Tolukei hurry up man! Williams thought as he established a comm link with him. “Tolukei, have you found them?”
“My teleport put me further away from them than I thought; it will be sometime,” Tolukei transmitted back.
“You might have incoming from behind, so hurry up!”
The Carl Sagan rumbled again while the next energy beam blast collided with them. “Shields holding sir, one-on-one, we got this,” Collins said as he checked his computer screen.
The remaining alien ships decelerated from their FTL jump and entered the fray, displaying the same deadly show of force the previous ones had. “You just had to say it, didn’t you?” Williams groaned and sighed at the sudden change of events. He had forgotten that Tolukei had mentioned four ships total.
The three alien ships ceased firing briefly and flew closer to one another, entering a tight formation. Energy that looked like bolts of electricity danced back and forth between the three ships and formed almost a triangle shape between them. It was a power exchange Williams figured, and EVE’s computing also agreed with his theory. With the three ships in sync with each other the lead one emitted a long and continuous burst of white and blue energy at the Carl Sagan.
“Forward shield down to sixty-five percent,” EVE reported, “sixty-four percent. Commander, at this rate we will lose shields in approximately one minute twenty-three point eight seconds.”
“Fire on the lead ship, throw everything at them, missiles and all,” Williams said.
The Carl Sagan’s rail guns snarled as its missile ports opened and released multiple plasma missiles at their focused target, white contrails were left behind in the missile’s wake. Williams hoped it would be enough to take it out of play as they had a limited supply of missiles. Until they got a manufacturing plant set up and mines producing enough resources, every missile fired, was a missile they didn’t have for a future conflict. And something told Williams, that even if they got out of this, it wasn’t going to be the last encounter.
The lead attacking ship burst into flames and was flung out of the formation. The all-or-nothing attack worked and the link between the three ships was broken. The two remaining ships, however, continued to fire slow and steady pulses with their beam weapons.
“Forward shields down to thirty-four percent, Commander,” EVE said. “Adjusting aft, port, and starboard shields to compensate.”
EVE’s reports and actions helped to put Williams’ mind at ease. The bridge wasn’t heavily staffed as helm control was tasked with navigation, guidance, and weapons. EVE was filling the role of multiple officers while her hologram stood next to Williams with her hands behind her back as if nothing was happening.
“Tolukei? What’s your status?” Williams transmitted to him.
“I’m under attack,” Tolukei replied, the sounds of explosions and weapons fire in the background.
Williams gritted his teeth. The longer they stayed put, the closer to death they got. True, they had enough firepower to do damage to the hostile ships, but it took an all-out assault to severely damage one. Keyword, damage, they didn’t destroy it.
“Tolukei, return to the Carl Sagan,” Williams said reluctantly.
Puzzled, Collins asked. “Commander?”
Williams pointed to the image of the ship that had left the battle to travel to the surface. It was returning to orbit and probably was going to enter that multi-energy-exchange attack again with the other two. They could attack, kick, and scream all they wanted but there was a high chance the Carl Sagan could receive critical damage during the next assault.
“We’re getting our asses kicked. We can’t do this. Not without psionic support,” Williams conceded.
Bright light briefly lit up the bridge as Tolukei reappeared from his teleport and returned to his post, gravity gripping onto Williams’ body once again. It was perfect timing, for the three alien ships took up a similar formation again, and began to exchange power between one another and release another continuous beam of white hot energy onto the Carl Sagan, blue waves of energy danced across the failing forward shields.
“Shields are dropping rapidly,” EVE reported. “It would appear the ship from the surface is more powerful than the others.”
Williams winced. “OK same deal; target the lead ship with everything—”
“More ships about to enter the sector,” Tolukei interjected.
Williams spun the captain’s chair around to face him. “How many?”
“Three hundred eighty-four,” Tolukei said. “ETA three minutes.”
“Well . . . shit.”
Three ships combining their firepower had the power to destroy them in minutes. Three hundred plus, there wouldn’t be much of a wreckage left in the aftermath of that battle. Williams looked about and saw the faces of everyone on the bridge, they were likely processing the grim facts that he just did.
Escape was their only option.
If Rebecca was still alive, she was on her own, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to change that.
“Get us outta here now,” Williams said.
Collins began to input an escape course into his helm controls, and asked, “What about the Captain?”
“We got thousands of colonists that just wanted to build a new home,” Williams said. “Take us out of the system, now.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Tolukei. Overshields on our aft section.”
The Carl Sagan pulled away from the planet as its shield flickered rapidly from the onslaught of the aliens’ weapons. Once clear it slipped away into a sub light speed jump while a psionic barrier was cast on the rear of the ship thanks to Tolukei’s powerful gifts. The three attacking weren’t finished with the Carl Sagan and began to chase them and briskly discharge their beam weapons. The Carl Sagan traveled at half the speed of light, the alien’s traveled faster than light, it took a whole five seconds for them to catch up. The alien ships came about and faced the Carl Sagan head-on where its shields were the weakest and didn’t have the protection of the psionic barrier.
“Oh, come on!” Williams yelled, clenching his fists.
The alien’s attacks were swift and shattered what remained of the Carl Sagan’s forward shields. Tolukei didn’t have enough time to compensate and cast a new overshield.
The bridge was exposed to direct fire and its crew felt the consequences of that. An explosion erupted and started small fires. Collins tried to force the Carl Sagan to swerve to the side to minimize what damage was coming to them. Another hit landed, forcing Williams to shield his face from the sparks and wiring that fell from the ceiling, while damaged pipes released white mist, or was it smoke? There was too much happening at once for Williams to have a solid idea.
A third explosion erupted, and it sent Collins flying backward as his terminal was turned into smoldering hunks of cables and shattered computer parts. Collins landed on the ground back
first, his face covered in blood, his breathing shallow, and parts of his uniform ablaze.
Williams got up from his chair to check on the fallen helmsman. “Medic!”
“I have notified sickbay, they are on their way,” EVE said.
Williams looked at the windshield which thankfully was still in one piece, cracked in some sections, but holding together. He considered taking the helm as there was officially nobody in control of the ship. The flames and inoperative computer systems however made him think twice.
Williams faced EVE’s hologram. “Can you get us out of here?”
She nodded. “As you wish, Commander.”
EVE remotely took over all navigational control of the Carl Sagan and accomplished multiple evasive maneuvers that were preprogrammed into her AI for combat situations. With the Captain missing, their helmsman down, and the bridge slowly burning, the Carl Sagan was at the mercy of its AI and psionic.
“Tolukei, extend the overshield to cover the whole ship,” Williams said as he dragged Collins’ body closer to the exit of the bridge. “These guys are too damn fast.”
“I can do more than that.” Tolukei left his post and stepped closer to the windshield amidst the burning computers and flames. He looked at the three attacking ships strangely, as if he sensed something important, something they might have overlooked. They did. “These ships do not have mind shields.”
Mind shields were a programmable damping field installed on all ships to prevent enemy psionics from teleporting aboard, and or using their psionic power effectively. Radiance programmed their mind shields to block all Hashmedai psionics and vice versa. If the aliens before them had no mind shields, then the Carl Sagan had just gained the advantage they were looking for.
The Siege of Sirius: A Splintered Galaxy Space Fantasy Novel Page 8
