by Ryk Brown
Captain Rainey looked confused. “If you mean, the man claiming to be Nathan Scott, I had him and his cohort arrested.”
“Where are they?” Siggy demanded.
“They escaped during your siege of my ship,” Captain Rainey replied defiantly.
“Watch your tone, Captain,” Siggy warned. “Now that I have full control of your ship, your value is limited.”
“Siggy!” the helmsman yelled in despair. “We just lost the port jump drive as well!”
“Well, get it back!” Siggy demanded.
“I can’t!” the helmsman replied. “It’s completely shorted out, and all the control cards from the backup jump field generators are missing! I can’t even power them up!”
“God damn it!” Siggy cursed. He paced back and forth a moment. “It’s got to be Tuplo! That little son-of-a-bitch! I should’ve killed him back on Haven!” Siggy raised his comm-unit to his mouth and keyed the mic, yelling into the device. “Find Connor Tuplo and bring him to me! ALIVE!”
Nathan stepped back from the smoking jump field generators as they shut down. Occasional sparks erupted from inside the control card bays on both primary jump drives. He dropped the last two control cards into the toolbox, picked it up, and headed toward the exit. His next order of business was to hide it. His second order was to find Jessica.
* * *
“Jump complete,” Loki announced, as the Seiiki’s cockpit windows cycled back to clear. “I’ve got a Reaper at one four seven, twenty-one down relative at two thousand kilometers.”
“Seiiki, Seiiki. This is Reaper Two,” the voice called over comms.
“Go for Seiiki,” Vladimir replied, standing behind Josh and Loki.
“Reaper One is running stealth, tracking the Mystic. Prepare to receive coordinates.”
“I’ve got multiple jump flashes,” Loki reported. “Four more Reapers, and a cargo shuttle.”
“Seiiki to strike team. Prepare to receive final jump coordinates,” Vladimir announced. “Reaper One, Seiiki. Transmit to all units, when ready.”
“Roger that,” Reaper One replied.
“Seiiki will jump in first, as planned,” Vladimir said.
“Why is it the guys with only two guns go in first?” Josh wondered.
“Hey, you’re the one who always craves excitement,” Loki quipped. “Getting soft in your old age?”
“Look who’s talking about old age, family man.”
“We’re receiving coordinates,” Vladimir noted.
“Calculating jump plot,” Loki replied.
“Guns ready?” Vladimir asked over his comm-set.
“Starboard gun, ready,” Marcus reported.
“Port gun, ready,” Dalen added.
“Boarding party, ready?”
“Boarding party, ready,” Sergeant Torken replied.
“Jump plotted and ready,” Loki announced.
“Turning to jump course,” Josh added.
Vladimir took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. So this is what it’s like to take a ship into battle? He thought in amazement.
* * *
“Siggy! I’ve got a contact… It just jumped in. Off our port side, about two hundred kilometers and closing fast,” Donnel announced from the Mystic’s helm station.
“Can you confirm that?” Siggy asked, turning toward Hamon.
Hamon looked confused. “How, exactly?”
“The sensor station,” Siggy urged him, pointing.
“One hundred kilometers, decelerating,” Donnel reported.
Hamon stared at the sensor display on the side of the bridge, as he tried to figure out the controls. “This is all in Takaran,” Hamon said.
“You don’t read Takaran?” Siggy asked in surprise.
“It’s been a while,” Hamon replied. “Give me a minute.”
“Fifty kilometers.”
“Is the Antilla docked?” Siggy asked over his comm-unit.
“She just made hard dock,” one of his men answered. “We’re cycling the airlock now.”
“Hurry it up,” Siggy instructed. “We’ve got company.”
* * *
“Ten kilometers!” Loki reported.
“That ship is still hard docked,” Vladimir said. “Can you guys hit it without hitting the Mystic?”
“Just tell Itchy and Twitchy to hold’er steady, and I’ll let ya know,” Marcus replied.
“Five kilometers,” Loki reported.
“You might wanna have Dalen take the shot,” Josh teased. “The old man’s eyes ain’t what they used to be.”
“Slow us down, so he has time to shoot,” Vladimir suggested.
“Increasing deceleration thrust.”
“They’re bringing their rail guns onto us,” Loki warned.
“Forward shields are at full power,” Vladimir assured them.
“Those shields are for dust and small rocks,” Josh reminded him. “If those rounds are charged…”
“Do you have another idea, Joshua?” Vladimir asked impatiently.
“I dunno… Maybe let the guys with real guns and shields do the attacking? Silly, I know, but…”
“Deception is the idea, here, Josh,” Loki reminded him.
“I know,” Josh insisted. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Two kilometers,” Loki announced.
“I should have stayed on the Aurora,” Vladimir muttered to himself.
“They’re firing rail guns,” Loki warned. A second later, dozens of tiny flashes of light appeared in front of them, as rail gun slugs slammed into their forward shields. Another second after that, those same slugs, with ninety percent of their kinetic energy removed, bounced harmlessly off the Seiiki’s hull.
“Holy shit!” Josh exclaimed. He turned to look over his shoulder at Vladimir. “Those fuckers were charged! How the hell did you do that?”
“It’s all about cycling the polarity,” Vladimir explained proudly. “Really quickly.” He tapped his comm-set. “Fire away, guys.”
“Firing!” Marcus replied.
“Transmitting burst message,” Vladimir announced, as bolts of plasma energy streaked past the cockpit on either side, from the gun turrets mounted aft of them. He glanced out the forward window, as the plasma bolts collided harmlessly against the enemy ship’s shields.
“Direct hits!” Marcus bragged.
“Not that it did any good,” Josh added.
“Target is breaking dock with the Mystic,” Loki reported, as the Seiiki streaked over the top of the enemy ship and the Mystic Empress.
“Dumping energy from the starboard jump field generator,” Vladimir reported. “Hopefully, that will fool them.”
“Or doom us,” Josh added.
“Just don’t accelerate,” Vladimir reminded him. “And it would help if you flew a little, sloppy.”
“I don’t know how,” Josh quipped. “Maybe you should have Loki do it.”
“Funny,” Loki replied.
* * *
“Sensors confirm, it’s the Seiiki,” Hamon announced from the Mystic’s sensor station.
“No shit,” Siggy said, as he watched the Seiiki streak above them from starboard to port, through the bridge windows. “How the bloody hell did they find us? I’m bettin’ that little bastard heard about our plans, and decided he’d try to get hold of this ship before we did. Well that’s not gonna happen!”
“The Antilla has completed her offloading,” one of his men reported over Siggy’s comm-unit. “She’s ready to disconnect.”
“Do it!” Siggy ordered. “And tell her to take out the Seiiki! I want that damned ship destroyed!”
Nathan grabbed an overhead handhold and held on tight
ly, causing his legs to swing under him in the weightless environment of the Mystic’s port engineering crawl spaces. Once he had stopped his forward momentum, he pulled himself upward between two large ducts, and wedged the toolbox containing the control cards above one of the ducts, out of sight. Once he was convinced it was secure, he pushed himself back down into the passage space and continued inboard toward the distant hatch that would return him to the Mystic’s main decks.
Jessica led the group of five Ghatazhak down the corridor, coming to a stop at the intersection. She took a quick peek around the corner, pulling back almost immediately. “Fuck,” she whispered.
Master Sergeant Anwar looked quizzically at her.
“That other ship you were talking about? I think they are already here. I just saw at least twenty men heading aft.”
“Fuck.” The master sergeant touched his comm-control on the side of his helmet. “Morano, Anwar. You and Rossi become invisible and stay that way until you hear from me. You’ve got twenty more bad guys coming up from behind you.”
“Copy that.”
“Maybe we can still make it past them?” the master sergeant suggested. “They may outnumber us, but…”
“We’ll win the battle, but lose the fight,” Jessica argued. “The moment we open up, they’ll come from all over the ship. Our only hope is to go back down and use the dog run. Half of us go aft, the other half stay forward. Make them split forces, then we both fall back into the dog run and head to the middle and pop up and help Morano and Rossi free the prisoners. With all of them running around, it might give us just enough chaos to get the upper hand on these goons.”
“You’re going to lose a lot of noncombatants that way, Lieutenant.”
“It’s a fucking war, Deno,” Jessica reminded him.
“Yeah, I know. I’m just making sure you’re okay with that. You Terrans are all warm and cuddly that way, you know.”
“Fuck you,” she replied, noticing the master sergeant’s grin.
“I’m getting a burst transmission,” Sergeant Vela announced.
Jessica and the master sergeant turned to look at the sergeant. “From who?” Jessica asked.
“The Seiiki.”
“Wait, I’m getting it too,” the master sergeant said.
“They’re here?”
“Apparently,” Sergeant Vela said. “And they have a plan.”
* * *
“Sloppy, Josh, sloppy!” Vladimir reminded him.
“I’m trying!”
“They’re thrusting away and turning to follow us,” Loki reported.
“Keep firing,” Vladimir urged, “we have to lure them away from the Mystic!”
“They’re turning toward us,” Loki warned. “If they get their missile tubes on us, our only defense will be to jump.”
“Not until they are clear of the Mystic!” Vladimir insisted. “Josh, dive us down, so they have to pass over the top of the Mystic and turn down to get us in their sights. And Loki, be ready to jump.”
“You bet,” Loki replied, as Josh pitched the ship downward.
* * *
Jessica peeked from below the deck, just enough to be able to see the guards at the far end of the corridor. She lowered herself back down the ladder, just enough to remain out of sight, as Master Sergeant Anwar handed her a small grenade. She took the grenade and held it in her hand, her finger hovering over the activation button, while she watched the master sergeant for her cue.
“Ready, Vela?”
“Ready.”
“Three……two……one……execute.”
Jessica depressed the button on top of the small, round grenade, then tossed it into the deck above, so that it rolled quickly toward the guards at the end of the corridor. A second after she tossed it, she heard the guards yelling. Their cries of alert were cut short by a sudden, shrill noise and a flash of blinding white light.
Jessica ran the rest of the way up the ladder, stepping onto the deck and firing in the direction of the stunned guards, as she moved to the side wall to make room for the master sergeant.
Master Sergeant Anwar leapt up to the deck, with the help of his assistive body suit, and opened fire immediately, sweeping from side to side. A few bolts of energy came from the direction of the guards, but all were wide of their targets. The initial attack was over in five seconds, and five seconds after that, Jessica and Master Sergeant Anwar found themselves standing over the bodies of the dead men who had been guarding the forward entrance to the port shuttle bay.
“Clear forward,” Master Sergeant Anwar reported.
“Clear Aft,” Sergeant Vela replied. “Taking up defensive positions.”
Master Sergeant Anwar tapped the comm-panel on the side of his helmet. “Seiiki, Anwar. Port door is open.”
* * *
“They’ve got a clear shot!” Loki warned.
“Can I stop flying sloppy now?” Josh exclaimed.
“Two missiles inbound!” Loki warned. “Ten seconds!”
“Evasive!” Vladimir ordered.
“Finally!” Josh said, as he twisted his flight control stick and put the Seiiki into a spiraling, climbing turn to the left.
“Five seconds!”
“Seven jump flashes!” Vladimir reported. “Jump!”
“Jumping!” Loki replied, pressing the jump button.
The Seiiki’s windows turned opaque, clearing a moment later.
“Jump complete,” Loki reported. “Twenty light seconds!”
“Turning hard!” Josh added.
“Reapers are engaging,” Vladimir reported. “The missiles and the target!”
“Hell yeah!” Josh yelled, as he continued to maneuver to prevent the missiles from getting a new lock on them.
“Missiles are down!” Vladimir reported. “Turn us back toward the Mystic and prepare to jump again.”
“Turning around!” Josh replied.
“Loading the next jump,” Loki added.
“Seiiki, Reaper One. Target destroyed. You’re in the clear.”
“Seiiki, copies.” Vladimir reported. “Take us in above her bridge.”
“Jumping in five seconds,” Loki reported.
* * *
Nathan unlocked the access hatch that led from the Mystic’s port side engineering crawl spaces back into her main engineering decks. A sudden feeling of doom swept through him, but before he could react, the hatch swung open wide, and two men with large-bore energy rifles pointed directly at him appeared.
Nathan looked at the two men. “Well, at least you’re not Dusahn.”
* * *
An Alliance cargo shuttle jumped in five hundred meters away from the Mystic’s port side, slightly below her. It moved in swiftly, rotating around to aim its aft end toward the luxury liner’s port shuttle bay.
The shuttle continued to move closer while its cargo ramp lowered. As it closed within fifty meters, the shuttle bay doors began to open, and the shuttle fired its docking thrusters to further slow down its rate of closure on the much larger ship.
The shuttle’s cargo ramp, now level with its interior decks and the doors to the Mystic’s shuttle bay, fully opened. Thirty Ghatazhak soldiers in fully pressurized battle gear ran out onto the cargo shuttle’s ramp in two lines, jumping off the end of the ramp out into space, putting themselves on a course toward the cruise ship less than one hundred meters away.
Once the last man had stepped off the cargo shuttle’s aft ramp, the shuttle fired its docking thrusters again, ending their drift toward the Mystic, ensuring that they maintained a safe distance from the group of drifting Ghatazhak soldiers.
“Siggy!” Donnel called from the helm. “The Antilla has been destroyed!”
“What?”
“And I’m picking up six ships, I’ve never seen anything like them!”
“Make that seven,” Hamon added from the sensor station.
“Who are they?” Siggy demanded.
“I have no idea,” Hamon replied.
“One of them is bigger, and maneuvering more slowly,” Donnel reported. “Probably some kind of shuttle. I’d guess a cargo shuttle by her size.”
“The other six are moving fast. Two of them are coming right for us!” Hamon added.
“Hell, they’re all coming toward us!” Donnel corrected.
“Who the fuck is this?” Siggy demanded to know.
“They’re probably company security, coming to kill you all,” Captain Rainey gloated.
“How the bloody fucking hell did they find out so fast?”
“I launched a distress buoy when you first attacked,” Captain Rainey admitted.
“You son of a bitch!” Siggy punched the captain in the face, knocking him to the deck, then started kicking him repeatedly in the face and torso.
Captain Rainey didn’t care. If he died now, at least he would die knowing that the man who killed him would soon fall.
Two Reapers jumped in less than five hundred meters from the Mystic Empress, above and to either side. They swooped in quickly, expertly placing breach boxes on both sides of the command deck, before disconnecting and thrusting away.
The breach box shuddered violently, as it made contact with the Mystic’s hull, shaking the six Ghatazhak soldiers inside.
The Ghatazhak squad leader seated next to the control panel waited for the display to indicate that the breach box was securely attached to the hull, before activating the automated device that placed a shaped explosive charge against it. “Fire in the hole,” he announced over his helmet comms.
The breach box shook again, as the shaped charge blasted a tunnel through the Mystic’s multi-layered hull beneath them. The squad leader pressed another button, and the telescoping boarding tunnel extended through the breach and into the deck inside.
