Dark Star Rising

by Bennett R. Coles

  Piper’s rapier snapped out, past Amelia’s clumsy parry, burying its tip in her chest.

  “Piper, no!” Zara cried. Liam felt her entire body stiffen next to his.

  The former lady-in-waiting recoiled into a perfect fencing pose, watching as Amelia clutched at her chest and fell to one knee.

  “She would never have been trustworthy,” Piper declared. “I live to protect you, Zara.”

  Liam tried to rush forward, but Zara clung to him. And Piper stepped in his way, rapier at the ready.

  “Loyalty to Dark Star must be absolute,” Piper said to him, “and so long as this woman lives you’ll be conflicted. I will resolve that.”

  She turned to face Amelia, raising her sword in salute, pommel to her nose and blade high in the air. Then she slashed down.

  Her blade struck metal as Amelia staggered sideways and blocked, launching to her feet and grabbing Piper’s sword hand. The rapier clanged against the deck as it was forced down. Amelia brought up her own cutlass, but Piper wrapped a strong arm around her and drew her inside swinging range. For a moment the two women grappled, stumbling together as the deck heaved again.

  “She’s not changing course!” the ship’s master shouted.

  Liam nearly tripped as Zara pushed him back, away from the fight and the stray blades. As he steadied his footing he looked up through the canopy and saw that the other sailing ship was very close, covered in dust and bulky under external cargo bays. She was turning sharply now, but still closing fast. And her nearest mast was already retracted. As one, along her highest through-deck, cannon ports opened.

  “Get down!” He grabbed Zara and hauled her into a crouch.

  A flash of light outside was followed by a thunderous crash against the hull, then the groaning of outer hull plates as Daring’s grapples took hold.

  Piper’s rapier swept up off the deck, but Amelia’s foot danced clear. Their balance shifted, forcing Piper back. The cutlass was still loose, but Amelia didn’t have the room to swing it. Piper grabbed Amelia’s upper arm and raked her boot down Amelia’s shin. Amelia hissed in pain but stepped forward, keeping Piper off balance. Blood was soaking through Amelia’s clothes and her face was pale, but she pushed forward again, wrenching her sword arm free.

  Her hand was buried under the heavy metal guard of the cutlass, but her fist collided with Piper’s face so hard that the metal dented. The swordswoman gasped in pain, staggering back but unable to escape as Amelia held her arm in an iron grip. The metal guard smashed against Piper’s jaw again. Then a third time.

  Liam fell forward to his hands and knees as the entire ship jerked to starboard under a deafening crash. He looked up and saw Daring’s top mast snapping against Freedom’s as the two ships collided.

  Piper was still falling as Amelia’s cutlass swung into her lean form, the heavy blade slicing through flesh and bone.

  “No!” Zara screamed. She flailed forward helplessly on her hands and knees, then tumbled as the deck shook again.

  The rapier fell from Piper’s dead fingers, clattering on the deck next to Liam’s hands. He grabbed it and looked up at his beloved.

  Sweat soaked Amelia’s hair and her eyes were dulling with pain against white skin, but she nodded to him and turned toward the pirate crew.

  “Repel boarders!” the master ordered, and another rumble of drums sounded through the ship.

  The pirates on the bridge clearly thought Amelia was the threat, and two of them charged toward her. She heaved up the rapier in desperate defense, stumbling backward. Zara was on the deck, sobbing as she held Piper in her arms. Liam leaped over her and stabbed the nearest pirate. The rapier blade was out and buried into the second pirate in a single motion.

  These pirates had fired on Amelia in a defenseless boat, he reminded himself. Liam wrenched the rapier free again and hacked down the ship’s master as she drew her own weapon. And their lieutenant had stabbed Amelia after she’d surrendered. He leaped forward, the blade swift and deadly as he struck down his foes. The rapier sang as it slashed through the close confines of the pirate bridge, blood spraying under its deadly advance. Finally he stopped, gasping for breath and looking back over the trail of bodies.

  Amelia stared at him numbly from where she stood, the cutlass dropping from her fingers. He ran to her, catching her as she collapsed. Zara was just now rising to her feet where Piper lay dead. Her eyes were grim as she surveyed the carnage on her bridge. The sound of heavy fighting was clear on the deck below.

  Zara watched Amelia sink to her knees, and she clenched her hands.

  “I’m so sorry. I never wanted that to happen.” She gestured at Piper’s mangled form. “She always just wanted to protect me.”

  Liam eased Amelia into a sitting position against one of the consoles. She desperately needed medical attention, but he couldn’t lower his guard against Zara. Keeping the rapier up, he reached for the general speaker system. He pushed every button on the panel and grabbed the microphone.

  “This is Subcommander Blackwood,” he said, hearing his voice echo through the speakers, “medical emergency on the bridge.” He repeated the message two more times, hoping that someone from his boarding party heard it over the chaos below.

  Something hard struck the hatch beyond Zara. She jerked away, and Liam edged closer. He could hear voices below, shouts and growls. They were not, he could tell by the cadence and style, Daring’s crew.

  “You reminded them of your position.” Zara sighed. “And they know I’m up here. They probably think I’m the wounded party. Which means they’ll stop at nothing to get in.”

  The hatch heaved on one side as a huge impact knocked it free of the combing, and the dogs on the port side snapped free. Another impact shattered the dogs on the forward side. The hatch bent open a crack, and Liam saw a pirate face peer through. He stabbed the rapier through the opening, feeling the brush of flesh against the blade. He readied himself, knowing the next impact would blast the hatch open.

  A new roar of voices sounded, as a cacophony of sword clashes echoed up from below. Liam held position, waiting for another strike against the hatch. He glanced at Zara in his peripheral.

  She was watching Amelia closely. She made to move but Liam flicked the sword in warning.

  “You need to help her,” Zara said.

  “I know, and help is on the way.”

  “You underestimate my people. It may be a while.”

  “And that makes you happy, I suppose?”

  She looked up at him in shock. “Not at all.”

  Amelia moaned, her eyes fluttering as she fought to stay conscious.

  “She’s going to die,” Zara said. “Let me help her.”

  “How can you help?”

  She pointed at a medical kit on the bulkhead near her. “I can stanch the bleeding, at least.”

  “You think I’d let you near her?”

  “What choice do you have?” Zara’s expression was cool but tinted with concern.

  Liam hesitated, knowing that he couldn’t let down his guard.

  “Do you really think I’m that much of a monster?” Zara asked.

  He honestly didn’t know what to think, and with battle adrenaline surging through him he barely trusted himself to speak.

  “If I wanted her to die,” Zara said finally, “I could just sit here and do nothing.”

  He glanced at the bent hatch, then back over at Amelia. She was still conscious, and he thought he saw her head bob in the slightest of nods.

  “Help her,” he said.

  Zara scrambled up to grab the medical kit and crouched in front of Amelia. Liam moved with her, keeping within easy striking range as she pulled Amelia’s jacket off and cut through her blood-soaked shirt. Zara’s fingers moved with assured swiftness as she pressed a bandage against the short wound and wrapped it tightly in place.

  “She needs blood,” she said at one point, holding up a bag of plasma. “I can feed this into her if you’ll permit me to inject her.”
>
  He nodded, his gaze flicking between the hatch and Zara’s hands as she inserted the needle and started the feed. Then she rose to her feet, holding the plasma bag high enough to let gravity take effect.

  Liam risked exposing himself long enough to reach down and check Amelia’s pulse. It was weak, but steady. Her breathing was shallow but consistent, and her eyes still fluttered as she fought to stay awake.

  “Hang in there, my love,” he whispered to her, then rose to cover Zara again.

  She wiped her bloody hands against her dark trousers and stared at him with a sad smile.

  “I never imagined our reunion going quite like this, darling.”

  The sounds of battle below had faded, and with Amelia stable he allowed himself to relax slightly.

  “At least you imagined it would happen,” he replied. “I still feel like I’m talking to a ghost.”

  She nodded. There were new shouts from below, and Liam recognized Flatrock’s rough baritone, followed by Sky’s calm, sharp words. By her expression, Zara also realized who was coming.

  “So,” she sighed, “what happens now?”

  “Your network is compromised with the information we’ll no doubt capture today, and the Fleet will mobilize to break up your gathered forces and your crime rings. Your attack on Honoria will never happen. It’s all over.”

  “But what happens to me?” Her gaze was intent and focused only on him.

  “There will have to be justice,” he said with a heavy heart. “You know that, Zara.”

  She exhaled sharply, fighting down emotion.

  “Justice? You know what they’ll do to me.”

  He did indeed. And his anger at the nobility came flooding back. Had they not made this woman suffer enough?

  “That’s why I tried to talk to you, why I hoped I might convince you to stop your attacks and just disappear.”

  “But you know why I can’t!”

  “No,” he said with perfect honesty, “I don’t. Take your freedom, yes. Even avenge yourself, yes. But topple the Empire?”

  The question hung against the chaotic sounds of battle beneath them.

  “You thought you could just waltz in and change my life path of fifteen years?” she asked, amazed. “You might not understand yet, but I’ve built something here. I’ve seen what the future for all humanity can be. And I can make it happen. You thought I’d just give it all up?”

  “I didn’t know what to think.” He managed a smile. “But I can see your passion, and your drive. And I see now that you’ll never stop.”

  Her expression darkened, but whether in anger or sadness he couldn’t tell.

  “This has to end,” he said.

  “Darling, please.” She reached out for him, then withdrew her hand as he raised the sword. “Liam . . . please. Don’t take me back. Please don’t condemn me to that fate.”

  “I’m sorry, Zara,” he said, feeling his heart tear.

  She wiped away tears, keeping her eyes on him.

  “I know you couldn’t help me fifteen years ago, and I’ve never blamed you for what happened. You had no power then.” She dared to reach toward him. “But you do now.”

  He couldn’t form the words to answer her. At least, not the words she wanted to hear. She was a victim, and her terrifying rage at the system was justified, but she had more than paid back any wrongs done to her in fifteen years of violence and crime.

  And more than that, Liam knew, he was a sworn servant of the crown. Noble title be damned, he was an officer in His Majesty’s Navy, and his oath of loyalty had to outweigh any personal feelings he might have.

  “I’m sorry, Zara,” he said finally. “Truly sorry.”

  Her hand fell away. “Then kill me.”

  “Zara . . .”

  “Death would be merciful compared to what you know awaits me back on Homeworld.”

  “I could never do that.”

  “You have that power, my darling. Right here and now.”

  He stared at her, his first love. The face that had filled a thousand dreams.

  “I lost you once already,” he said. “I could never . . .”

  She flicked back her cloak, her hand resting for a long moment on the broach at her neck. Then she opened the top of her shirt, exposing the skin over her heart.

  “Do it, Liam, before your people get here.”

  “Maybe the court will be merciful . . . ,” he started to say, but their eyes met and the words died in their own absurdity.

  “Please, Liam.”

  He raised the sword, turning it in his hand. She clasped her hands behind her back, taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes. He lifted the delicate blade.

  And then lowered it again.

  “Zara, I just can’t.”

  Quick thumps indicated someone ascending the ladder to the bridge.

  “XO, sir?” Sky was at the hatch, banging on it. “Are you there?”

  “Here,” Liam called. “With one casualty and one prisoner.”

  Chapter 16

  Amelia struggled through the fog, wanting to shy away from the pain below her shoulder but knowing that it was her strongest link to consciousness. She could see Liam’s boots on her left, and what she thought were Dark Star’s on her right. They were talking, and she swam up toward those words. What Amelia really noticed was the fear in Dark Star’s voice, and the sadness in Liam’s. She listened to their tender exchange, feeling almost like an intruder in such an intimate moment.

  A metallic bang shook her and she blinked open her eyes. The hatch of the pirate ship bridge was flung open and figures emerged onto the deck. But they were familiar figures, she realized, and moments later she saw Able Rating Song kneeling in front of her.

  “PO, can you hear me?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she forced from her lips.

  “You’re gonna be okay,” he said, already inspecting the bandage wrapped around her bare shoulder. He reached into his bag, and then she felt a prick in her arm. Something warm coursed through her, and suddenly the room started to clear. He nodded and gripped her good arm. With his help, she rose to her feet.

  Liam still carried the rapier. Sky, Flatrock, and Hedge had weapons drawn, all eyes on Dark Star, who was now manacled.

  Liam stepped into view, concern etched across his face. “Amelia, can you walk?”

  She took a tentative step forward, then another. Whatever Song had shot her up with, it was working. “Yes.”

  “We have to move. The pirates are still loose and we have to get you and Zara back to Daring.”

  “Okay.”

  Sky pulled out a pistol and handed it to Amelia. “Can you handle this?”

  She took the weapon, feeling the warm grip and balancing it in her good hand. She nodded.

  With Sky in the lead, the team evacuated the pirate bridge. Amelia hustled along behind Song, listening to the steady jingle of armor and weapons along the wide passageway. There were distant shouts behind her and the crack of a bullet hitting the bulkhead, but she just kept moving. They turned to the left and stepped onto the familiar airlock tube. Seconds later she was aboard Daring.

  But it was hardly a friendly homecoming. Sky motioned Amelia to clear into the passageway, next to where Flatrock and Hedge contained Dark Star at sword point. Faith and Hunter guarded the airlock, with Sam and Bella looming behind them, cutlasses strapped awkwardly to their tails, pistols in each hand.

  “Swift and his team are still in the pirate ship,” Sky briefed Liam. “There’s heavy resistance. Do we press on or withdraw with the prisoner?”

  Liam donned the breastplate offered to him and strapped on a standard belt with saber and pistols. He looked at Dark Star for a moment, then peered back through the airlock tube.

  “I suspect they’ll fight to the death to recover our prisoner. We need to get our people back and withdraw while we’re ahead.”

  Amelia watched as Sky spoke in her radio, pausing as Swift responded.

  “Swift’s team is cut of
f,” Sky reported. “One deck down, midships.”

  “Then let’s cut a path open for them,” Liam replied. He surveyed the assembled sailors. “Song, Flatrock, Faith: you’re with the chief and me. Hunter, Bella, Sam: you guard this brow with your life. Hedge, you and Amelia get the prisoner down to the brig and locked up. Then get back up here to hold the brow.”

  Acknowledgments all around. Liam and his team charged through the airlock tunnel again. Amelia nodded to Hedge, who shoved Dark Star toward the ladder.

  “Let’s go, princess,” she growled.

  Amelia went down the ladder first, then kept her pistol trained on Dark Star as she struggled down in her manacles. Hedge followed, motioning them forward. They moved along the passageway, passing the boat airlocks, when suddenly there was a shout from above and pistol shots, followed by the clash of swords. Hedge swung back toward the ladder.

  “The pirates are attacking!”

  “Get up there and help,” Amelia snapped. “I can watch the prisoner.”

  Hedge hesitated, staring at Amelia’s wound.

  “I’ve got this,” Amelia said, holding the pistol. “But if we lose the brow we lose everything. Get up there!”

  Hedge ran for the ladder, vaulting up the steep steps and screaming as she joined the fray.

  Amelia relaxed her arm, but kept the pistol aimed squarely at the woman standing before her. Dark Star watched her calmly, then glanced back toward the ladder and the furious sounds of battle.

  “Your people are devoted,” Amelia said.

  “As are yours.”

  They stared at each other for a long moment.

  “There are lots of good people in the Empire,” Amelia said finally. “You don’t need to tear it all down.”

  “Sometimes a system is so rotten that there’s no choice.”

  “But if you tear it down, there’s nothing left to rebuild with. Better to cut out the rotten bits and build on the good.” Amelia gestured around at the ship. “Like this crew. Brutish and uneducated, yes, but smart and loyal and capable of great things.”

  “I’ve spent fifteen years with the brutish and uneducated, Amelia. I know well their potential.”