by Crucible
“How did you manage to reach us so quickly? A hyperspace transit would have taken years.”
“We came across a StarLock,” Matthew told him. “An ancient device that transports ships across vast distances instantaneously.”
“That is intriguing,” Christmas said. Christmas blinked at him. His face was a ghostly white, marked by one natural blue eye and another that looked like a scanning orb. “As for the battle, I am having difficulty accessing that information. I am still in the process of recovering from the stasis process.”
“Are there any other survivors on the ship?” Matthew Driver asked.
“I do not… believe so,” the man said. “There is only myself and…” he paused and turned toward the other cryostasis chamber. “Her, if she is alive. She is the only survivor. I am dead.” He had begun to turn his attention to the other cryostasis chamber. “I ordered her to evacuate with the other survivors. I knew she would disobey me.”
“Her?” Driver asked.
“Muffy.”
“Muffy?” Trajan Lear repeated.
“My sex slave.”
Lexington Keeler – Secondary Command Center Lear stood on a Grand Balcony, the entire City of Alexander spread out before her.
Republic’s day was segueing into Republic’s nights. Behind a bank of blue-gray clouds, an indeterminate lavender-pink smear marked the location of Republic’s almost-never-seen sun. The languorous pace of Republic’s rotation coupled with its perpetual cloud cover made the transition from daylight to dark so gradual that you could sit outdoors reading for hours, and your eyes would adjust and you’d find yourself reading in near-total darkness.
She realized it had been a long time since she had looked at her city. The array of her towers and habitrails had been the landscape of her whole life. But she suddenly became aware that the perspective before her was not the view from her family’s apartments in Jacet Tower. Nor was it the view from her mother’s penthouse in the Ryder Complex. The only place where this view of the city was possible was from the Ministry of Faith and Religion Tower.
“Lovely view,” said a voice.
She turned to see a woman standing near her on the balcony. “You have a lovely world,” the woman said. She turned to Lear, and as she did, the clouds receded from the sky, providing a pure view of the stars such as had almost never happened on Republic. Lear saw it all reflected in her eyes.
“Do I know you?” Lear asked.
The woman smiled. “In a manner of speaking. I am Helen, Triptych Prophetess of Vesta. I lived 620 years ago on a planet called ‘Archangel.’”
“Triptych?” Lear asked.
“An order that apparently was founded after your world was cut off.”
”So, this is a vision.”
“No, you’ve just suffered a severe head injury. Your brain is repairing itself. Meanwhile, you need to sort through some priorities and things. I’m here to help you.”
“What abut my priorities?” Lear demanded.
“Your priority is here,” said Helena. “This world.” She mad a hand gesture toward the City of Alexander that seemed to take in the planet, the city, all who lived or ever would live upon it. “I’m not here to tell you what you should do. I’m only collating what you already know.”
“That hardly seems… prophetic,” Lear argued.
“Do you really want some prophecy?” Helena asked. “O.K. One of your son’s is already lost to you,” Helena said. “And you will lose the other, but your daughter has a very important part to play in this.”
Lear frowned. She was sorry she had asked.
Helena stared her down. “So, let me ask you. What do you want?”
“To serve Republic.”
“O.K., what do you really want?”
Lear gritted her teeth. “I want Keeler’s command.”
“O.K. Honesty. What are you willing to do to get it?”
“Anything short of murder.”
“Now, doesn’t it feel good to get that out?” Helena said. “How would you go about getting his command without killing him?”
The stars seemed to twinkle overhead, as though sending her advice in code. “His command is illegitimate as it is. If only the rest of the crew could be convinced. They would turn on him. The ship would become ungovernable. He would be forced to resign. I would be very gracious to him. I would let him serve, quietly, as ship’s historian.”
“He’s commanded the ship for five years,” Helena pointed out. “I think it might be too late for that. But if the crew lost faith in Commander Keeler, his position would become tenuous, especially in a situation where people were dying .” Lexington Keeler – UnderDecks
Driver and Lear would have repeated “Sex Slave,” in astonishment if they weren’t feeling a bit self-conscious.
“I don’t recall seeing that functional description in the crew manifest,” Trajan said finally.
“She was not a member of the crew,” said Christmas as he activated a control interface on the side of the other chamber. “I saved her life on a colony world known as ‘Wolf’s Head,’ by local custom, she became betrothed to me.”
“Oh, so she’s your wife in other words,” Driver said.
“She is not my wife, she is my sex slave. It was what she was trained to be on Wolf’s Head.” The lights cycled from red to yellow then green then blue. A readout of her life-signs appeared and the cryo-chamber hissed open.
They waited several minutes for the thawing process to take place.
It was finally Trajan who spoke. “Sex slave, huh?”
“Indeed,” Christmas responded.
Another awkward silence ensued while the reanimation sequence proceeded.
“We went to a planet called ‘Bodicea,’” Matthew Driver offered. “It was dominated by women, who kept men as slaves for breeding purposes.”
Trajan added, “At one point, my mother tried to trade me as a sex slave in return for…” Christmas interrupted with an impatient but informative lecture. “Wolf’s Head colony is heavily forested. Within the forests lurk highly sophisticated predators. Humans confine themselves to heavily fortified cities on the edges of the forest. Fire Tower is the largest settlement and the planetary capital. Although they are technologically advanced, they have not managed to control the population of predators. As a result, humans on the planet have a high rate of mortality, especially among juveniles and the elderly. We lost several entire expeditionary teams.
“In such an environment, it is imperative to maintain high rates of procreation. Particularly attractive specimens of mainly females are selected to maintain the societal interest in procreation. They are trained in erotic arts, and encouraged to mate promiscuously.”
“And all I had was a simulator,” Trajan muttered.
The process completed and a bed-like contraption slid out of the chamber, slowly going from vertical to horizontal. A woman lay on it, in minimal clothing made from animal skin, her hair lay about her in wild tangles, her lips and breasts were fulsome.
“She needs respiration,” said Christmas. “One of you, breathe life into her. I can not, because I am… ”
“Dead… we know,” Trajan said as he and Driver took up positions on either side of the table. They knew, untelepathically, that Driver would be doing the deed. He leaned over her, parted her lips with his fingers, and breathed warm breath into her cold lungs.
Coming to life, she wrapped her arms around him and began sucking his tongue sensuously. Driver pushed away from her in a desperate effort to free himself. She then tried to slap him across the face, but Driver’s reflexes were too good.
“Who are you to violate me?” She demanded.
“He told us it was okay,” said Driver, indicating Christmas. Then, her eyes lit up… not with eletro-optical fibers, but the joy of reuniting with her… “Lover. Master. Protector,” she cooed.
“She remained behind rather than evacuate with the others,” Christmas explained.
“The others
evacuated? How? Where did they go?” Driver wanted to know.
An answer would have to wait, because just then, there came from above, a noise of grinding, straining metal, followed by a loud bang, and then a thunderous rumble, and finally a long series of explosions and percussive impacts.
Lexington Keeler – Landing Bay Command Post In the Landing Bay Command Post, the rumble came from below, and shook the entire deck like a moderate earthquake.
“What the Hell was that,” Duke demanded.
Technician First Class Stuntman was on the Ship’s Condition Monitoring Station, and therefore in the best position to answer. “We just lost the deck underneath this one,” he said.
“Lost it?” Duke demanded.
“It probably took some structural damage when we blasted out of the atmosphere,” Stuntman guessed. “We don’t have sensors down there, but it looks like we lost Sections K
through W.”
“That’s almost the entire aft deck!” Duke said. “Is it all gone.
“It looks like it collapsed onto the deck underneath.”
“Good Lords,” Duke exhaled sharply. “That’s the deck where I sent TyroCommander Lear’s son.”
Chapter Nine
Space Above the Second Planet of the 15 215 Crux System Three Aves emerged from Pegasus’s forward launchers and arced toward the surface of the planet at a leisurely 100,000 kilometers per hour. Amy led, flanked by Desmond II and Chloe in an elongated triad formation. They were quickly joined by six Accipiters.
The formation entered the stormy, smoky, debris-laden atmosphere of the planet, cutting wake trails as bright comet trails, brilliant white against the sooty red.
Two minutes later, they were followed by the Aves Basil and Leo, flying tight and parallel to each other.
From Basil’s command deck, Halo Jordan hailed Pegasus. “Hammer One to Pegasus. Launch successful. Holding course.”
” Pegasus acknowledges, Hammer 1. We’re watching you.”
Jordan turned to TyroCommander Redfire. “Time to interception.”
Redfire responded. “We will intersect the point where Lexington Keeler was attacked in four minutes, forty seconds.”
“Did you round to the nearest ten?” Jordan asked.
“You know it, baby,” Redfire told her.
Forty seconds later, Leo and Basil broke through the cloudbank and took some slams from the hurricane-force winds. Auroras of charged electricity built up around the tips of their wingblades.
“Anything?” Jordan asked Redfire.
“Negative,” Redfire answered. Everything now hung on the word “nearly,” as in, ”tracking alien fighters in a highly charged atmosphere is ‘nearly’ impossible.” Redfire touched a panel. “Deploy Accipiters on my mark. 5…4…3…” At 1, the Accipiters decoupled from the wingtips of the Aves, and two ships became six.
They streaked under the scorching clouds and emerged over the ruined surface of the planet.
This was the first time anyone from the crew of Pegasus had laid eyes on the planet’s surface. 5,000 meters below them was a good facsimile of Hell. There was not a living thing on the landscape, not a blade of glass, not even a bacterium. The very rocks were scorched black.
And between them ran streams, lakes, and rivers that were on fire, burning red and filling the sky with a black smoke, as scary, as thick, as chaotic, and as merciless as the mind of the darkest monster.
“Kumba yah,” said TyroCommander Redfire. “It makes me feel insignificant somehow.” The Weapons Officer on Leo caught it first. “Three contacts.”
“I see them,” Redfire acknowledged as the Tactical Heads-Up Display on Basil updated..
“Hammer 1, prepare to engage the enemy.”
“Time to intercept, 2.8 minutes,” said Leo’s Weapons Officer.
Jordan gave the orders. “Leo, increase your flank distance by 4,000 meters and altitude plus 100 meters.” Leo acknowledged and let his ship fall back.
“Hello, enemy,” said Redfire. “How many in your party tonight. Only three? What a shame. We have some wonderful new tactics to try out on you.” Jordan ordered. “Move Accipiters into a Flying Wedge formation, 10,000 meters ahead of us.”
“Oh, let’s do,” Redfire agreed. The Accipiters doubled their thrust and moved out ahead of the Aves formation.
“20 seconds to intercept,” the Weapons Officer on
“Enable Metalstorm,” Redfire ordered. “Activation on my mark.” 10,000 meters ahead, the auxiliary weapons bays on the Accipiters opened up, showing racks on which thousands of small, dart-like missiles were arrayed. Redfire suppressed a crooked grin. “I’m almost hoping this doesn’t work.”
“It will be better if it does,” Jordan said.
“10 seconds,” Leo’s weapons officer repeated.
And seconds later, the first blazing blue lights of the alien ships thrusters appeared at the edge of their vision.
“Weapons hot,” Redfire ordered and reported.
“Weapons hot,” the Weapons Officer on Leo reported.
“Metalstorm,” Redfire ordered.
The Accipiters released their missile loads, and the air was briefly filled with slim black projectiles. As the alien bladeships closed, these became quickly embedded in the metal skin of their fuselage, and detonated. Each explosive charge on its own, a mere flesh wound, a paper cut, but cumulatively it was thought that they could some serious damage.
It didn’t work out that way because the alien ships were too fast. They blew through the metal storm and roared on the Accipiters. One ship smashed through an Accipiter’s wingblade and sent the small ship into a death spiral.
“They blew through the line,” Redfire shouted. “Here they come.” He welcomed them with a brace of Hammerheads. “Eat-high energy projectile death, my knife-shaped friends.” The attacking ships managed to evade the hammerheads and answered with some hard-charged particle blasts of their own. As planned, the Aves scattered.
An image of Leo flashed on the Head’s Up. The ship was trailing a stream of smoke and plasma.
“We took a hit on our ventral power coupling. Ventral weapons are down.” Leo’s pilot reported.
“Break off and break cloud cover, reverse course to Pegasus, ” Redfire ordered. Both Aves turned up and roared toward the roiling cloud cover. The enemy ships wheeled, and maneuvered to box in the Accipiters.
“Oh, look, they’ve got us surrounded,” Redfire said. “Poor, stupid bastards.” Both Aves and the three surviving Accipiters broke through the black clouds and into the edge of space, the three alien ships driving hard behind them. They were through the clouds and at the edge of space when they found they were not alone.
James, Hector, and Zilla were waiting for them. All three ships were SuperAves, on which all upgrades in systems and armaments had been completed. They had the best speed and the best weapons in the fleet. And they had a dozen Accipiters with them.
Basil and Leo broke hard starboard and let the alien ships fly past them and into the line of fire of the hidden fleet.
Taken by surprise, one ship, then two exploded into spectacular fireballs as Hammerhead missiles and a barrage of ion blasts ripped into them.
“Two splashed,” reported PonyBoy James from his semi-eponymous Aves.
The third alien ship flipped on its wing and began a hasty retreat. Hector closed in and lit it up with its ion cannon.
“I need that ship, Flight Lieutenant Bazooka,” Redfire warned him.
“I’m just trying to hurt it, sir,” came the response. Before the words were out, a bright pink seam opened up on the alien ship’s fuselage, venting plasma. An accipiter strayed too close to the plasma stream and exploded.
“All right, let’s stay away from that plasma stream,” Redfire said. “Hammer 1 to Hammer Force, break off, we’ll take the pursuit.”
Redfire then checked the status of Aves Amy, Chloe, and Desmond. “Firestar lead, status of Landing Zone.”
“Hammer 1, we have passed ove
r the Landing Zone at 3,000 meters. All is quiet. All is clear.”
“Proceed to Lex Keeler, Firestars. Maximum velocity, it could get hot,” he informed them. “ Pegasus flight control, vector Firestars away from the BattleZone. Advise Wildcats, the road is clear.”
“Pegasus Flight Command to Wildcats. The road is clear. You are a go.” And at that signal, 13,600 kilometers away on the opposite hemisphere of the planet, Quentin and Rhoda emerged from behind their holoflage shields. Quentin’s pilot checked in.
“Hammer 1 has succeeded in drawing the marauders away from us. Firestar has determined the landing zone is clear. Wildcat 1 is en route to primary landing area. ETA four minutes.”
“I love it when we outsmart the enemy,” said Flight Cadet Brody McNamara, who was sitting in Quentin’s second seat.
“Aye,” said Quentin’s pilot, Flight Lieutenant Trace Peppermint. “It’s not something we’ve been really good at on this ship.” Peppermint addressed his pax. “This is your pilot speaking, Hammer 1 and Hammer 2 are keeping the enemy off our backs, we should be on the ground in eighteen minutes. There will be some turbulence as we cut through the cloud cover.”
Basil
Basil chased the alien ship across the ravaged surface of the planet. Black rock and gray ash, it looked like the remains of campfire, except that it extended thousands of miles in every direction.
Redfire seemed pleased. “They’re heading right into the sector I thought the base would be.”
“And then Pegasus nukes it from orbit,” Halo added.
“It’s the only way to be sure,” Redfire finished.
Suddenly, their quarry pivoted, swiveled on its own axis and came shrieking at them, weapons blazing.
“Kumba yah!” Halo spat. Her reflexes were like lightning, and Basil dodged the onslaught.
The alien ship charged past and beneath them. Halo turned hard on the control sick and brought Basil wheeling in behind him. “No one gets away that easy.” The alien ship turned again, trying to bring weapons to bear, but Halo saw it coming and had Basil swing around and maintain pursuit with such precision that if anyone had been observing from the burnt out ground, he might have thought he was witnessing a well-rehearsed aerobatic display.
