by C H Gideon
“ORDER,” Reynolds roared at a volume which caused those with ears to cover them. “We’re on a surveillance mission first and foremost, reaching out to these aliens to figure out who they are and what they want in the system. We’re not looking for a fight, but if they want one, we’ll give them more than they can handle.”
“And what are we getting by putting our asses on the line for these people?” Tactical asked.
“The emperor’s cooperation in finding out what his sister knows about the Phraim-‘Eh cult,” Reynolds answered.
“I thought that was what Geroux and Asya were doing,” Maddox said.
“They are, but it doesn’t hurt to come at the problem more than one way,” the AI told him. “I believe Krol Gow is ignorant of what’s happening on Muultar, but I’ve no doubt he can apply enough pressure to help us find out what Phraim-‘Eh’s cultists are doing behind the scenes with his people. There were too many of them helping that Jora’nal scab to be a coincidence.”
Reynolds motioned to Ensign Alcott. “Set a course for Mu. Stations, people. Sound General Quarters. Battlestations.”
“Mu to you too, buddy,” Tactical mumbled as the ship became a flurry of activity.
“All systems are green. All hands confirmed at battlestations,” XO announced.
“Course set,” Ria remarked. “Gate activated.”
Jiya clasped the arms of the captain’s chair and drew in a deep breath. There was good reason to question the emperor’s intel, since it had come secondhand through a source that had barely escaped with their life.
There was no telling how accurate the information was, but the man’s conviction was enough to make Jiya worry about what they were Gating into.
He had seemed so sure these aliens were unbeatable.
“Shields at one hundred percent. On our way,” Ria reported as the ship moved into the event horizon.
Jiya trusted Reynolds and the superdreadnought was a monster of a ship, able to handle almost anything. She’d just learned the hard way that their mission was a dangerous one.
She wanted to help the Muultu, she just wanted to do it safely.
“Through the gate,” Ria announced.
Jiya settled into her seat, calming her nerves. Being antsy wouldn’t help. She knew her duty, knew what the SD Reynolds was capable of, trusted the crew, and understood what its captain could do.
Nothing could stand in their way.
“Mu dead ahead,” Ria called out.
“Got milk?” Tactical asked.
“Can we shut him off?” Jiya asked.
“You wish,” Tactical replied.
“I so do,” she muttered as XO brought the planet up on the screen.
Jiya gasped when she saw it.
“It’s beautiful.”
The orb was a soft blue, with sections of white at the poles. It had an interesting swirl of clouds that moved leisurely across its surface, drawing her eye as if they were a work of art.
Above it loomed a large moon that appeared to reflect the light from the planet rather than from its distant suns. It gleamed a brilliant teal color and looked as if it were a giant eye, staring down at the planet below.
“How is it that this place can look like this, and Muultu looks ready to explode, and that’s where all the people are?” Maddox asked.
“Because this planet is outside of the habitable zone,” XO explained. “All that blue you’re seeing isn’t water, but rather a toxic mix of hydrogen and helium that makes up the atmosphere.”
“I guess that means the aliens don’t breathe air,” Jiya suggested.
Reynolds shrugged. “Could be they aren’t on the surface. Conduct a long-range scan, Ensign. Find out what and who all is here with us.”
“On it, sir,” Ria replied, fingers tapping her console.
The crew spent a few quiet moments admiring the view of the planet, only to be interrupted by Ria announcing they had incoming.
“We’ve got a ship rising from the planet’s atmosphere, sir,” Ria warned.
“What have we got, Tactical?” Reynolds asked. “Kurtherian?”
“Definitely not Kurtherian, but I don’t know what the hell that thing is,” Tactical said. “The readings I’m getting back are telling me it’s packing serious power, though. We need to be careful.”
Reynolds brought the ship up on the screen. The bridge crew examined it closely as the camera zoomed in.
“That doesn’t look like something humanoids would fit in comfortably,” the first officer commented. “It looks…odd.”
“Its shields are up, and weapons primed,” Tactical called.
“Hail it, Comm,” Reynolds ordered. “Keep us at a safe distance, Ensign, but in a position to return fire if need be.”
“All I’m getting back is gibberish,” Comm complained. “It doesn’t seem like any language I’ve ever heard. If they’re answering our hails, I don’t have a clue what they’re saying.”
“Damn it!” Reynolds snarled. “Find another way to let them know we’re not here for a fight.”
There was a flash of energy from the alien ship and an impact on the SD Reynolds’ shields an instant later.
The ship trembled, and Jiya clasped her seat to keep from being thrown off.
“Son of a badger’s ass,” Reynolds shouted. “Sitrep?”
“Big bad guy just spanked us for entering his space,” Tactical reported.
“Anyone else?” Reynolds ordered.
“That was one hell of a hit,” XO replied. “There’s no classification on it, but I’m guessing it’s as much a superdreadnought as we are.”
“No one’s as super as you guys are,” Jiya said. “Hit them back, Tactical.”
“My pleasure.”
Tactical returned fire, letting loose with the railguns, and peppered the enemy ship with high-velocity rounds that flashed as they struck their shields and slammed into the hull.
“Got him!” Tactical shouted. “Take that, asshole.”
“Looks like they took it fine,” XO reported, examining the damage reports coming in. “They’ve got some holes in their hull now, but it’s not slowing them down. They’re returning fire.”
“Evasive maneuvers,” Reynolds ordered.
Ria complied instantly, but several bursts of energy crashed into the gravitic shields and set the ship shuddering.
Some of the blasts had gotten through to impact the ship itself. Red warning lights bathed the bridge, sirens wailing.
“Damage report,” Reynolds requested.
“They punched a hole in our aft compartments, but auto-systems are handling it. The section is sealed, and we’re not venting atmosphere. Bots are responding to reinforce the repairs,” XO stated.
“No injuries…yet,” Jiya reported.
“Hitting him with everything,” Tactical announced.
The SD Reynolds continued to evade return fire as Tactical unleashed hell on the enemy ship. Sparks erupted as the barrage tore through the alien shields and exploded against the hull.
The ship started to list and debris littered the space around the wound, but there was no indication of venting.
“I think we got our answer as to whether these bastards breathe air,” Maddox called. “We jabbed a couple of holes in their armor, but I’m not seeing any atmospheric interruption.”
“Keep hitting them with everything you’ve got, Tactical,” Reynolds commanded.
The Reynolds swung about since the enemy ship seemed determined to come straight at them without bothering to adjust its flight path in response to the weapons fire it was receiving.
“And here I thought you were the suicidal one,” Tactical told the AI. “These guys are coming straight at us like they’re playing a game of chicken.”
“Their shield levels have just doubled,” XO spat.
“Speed’s increasing,” Ria warned, her voice cracking on the last. “They’re coming right at us.”
The enemy ship streaked past the starboard side
faster than Jiya imagined a ship could move, weapons strafing the SD Reynolds.
The ship bucked, and it took all of Jiya’s strength to remain seated. She felt the superdreadnought start to roll and heard Reynolds growl as Ria fought to right the ship. The ensign managed it a moment later.
“Shields are down to forty percent,” Jiya reported, amazed they hadn’t taken more damage from that latest attack run.
“They’re ripping us a new one,” Tactical cursed.
“I kind of like the old one the way it is,” Reynolds replied. “Ready the ESD and bring us about to face them.”
“Who the hell are these fuckers?” XO asked.
“No time for questions, XO,” Reynolds told him. “Just get ready to swat them out of space.”
“They’re coming back around,” Ria announced.
“Already?” Reynolds asked, unable to believe how quickly the enemy ship maneuvered.
“ESD coming online, but it’s not going to be fast enough, Captain,” Tactical warned. “You sure you want to fire this thing, seeing what it does to our systems? This ship is too damn fast to risk leaving us flailing out here.”
Hearing Tactical warn against using the ESD—the Eat Shit and Die beam—made her blood run cold.
Normally, he was the first one to suggest the weapon, which fired the equivalent of a solar flare, taking out damn near everything that stood in its way.
Well, now that they’d figured out the glitch that had sapped its power when they’d used it against Jora’nal and the Pillar, it did.
“You have any better ideas?” Reynolds demanded.
Tactical lit up the approaching ship with everything he had in his arsenal except for the ESD, which was still powering up.
The enemy ship streaked past as the two superdreadnoughts exchanged fire.
The lights on the bridge dimmed as explosions impacted the length of the SD Reynolds. Warning beacons flashed on Jiya’s console and across all stations, and a low rumble sounded throughout the ship and lingered. Black smoke clouded the bridge, growing thicker despite the life support systems’ efforts to clear it out.
“Shields are almost gone,” Jiya reported once she was able to wave the smoke away from her console and see it clearly. “Damage reports incoming. Fires on several decks and multiple hull breaches. There are…oh, fuck!”
“Report, First Officer,” Reynolds demanded.
Jiya choked in a deep breath and spat the words out. “We’ve got casualties. Five dead, twenty-three wounded. Wait, six dead.”
Reynolds snarled. “We do anything to those motherfuckers?”
“We’ve hurt them but it’s not slowing them down,” Tactical answered.
“We can’t penetrate their hull with scanners, so we don’t know if they’ve sustained any casualties on their end,” XO reported.
“Or if they even care whether they have,” Reynolds spat out. “The ESD up?”
“Ten seconds,” Tactical told him.
“They’re coming around again,” Ria said.
“Their shields have doubled again,” XO stated, awe in his voice. “How are they doing that?”
“Can we get past them?” Reynolds asked.
Jiya could hear the uncertainty in XO’s voice.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I’ve never seen a ship like this one before.”
“They’re coming at us, sir,” Ria called. She managed to keep her voice steady, but there was no hiding the ghostly pallor of her skin.
She was terrified.
“Let them get close—” Reynolds started.
“As if we have a choice,” Tactical interrupted, growling the words.
“—and roll the shields to coincide with their attack locations.”
Jiya clung to her seat as the enemy ship shot past once again, firing its payload at nearly point-blank range.
XO did as ordered and pulled all the energy into the shields, triggering them in a ripple effect that shunted as much energy as possible into each impact point as the enemy ship hurtled past.
Jiya held her breath as the Reynolds shook under the assault.
“It worked,” XO shouted.
“Mostly,” Jiya countered, watching more damage reports roll across her screen.
Ten more of their crew had died in the attack, and the numbers were rising.
“ESD at minimal power!” Tactical alerted.
“About fucking time,” Reynolds snarled. “These wanksplats have stuck to the exact same course on every maneuver, so target these coordinates and let them eat shit.”
Reynolds transmitted the coordinates to Tactical, who used them to target the enemy ship.
Sure enough, the aliens did exactly as they had done previously, swinging around in the same manner as before, opening themselves up to a counterstrike.
Tactical let loose with the ESD, and the power on the bridge dimmed to almost nothing. The viewscreen flared with blinding illumination as the burst of energy streaked across space and bulls-eyed the turning enemy craft.
There was a surge as the shields gave way and the ESD tore into the ship.
The enemy superdreadnought was thrown sideways as a large chunk of its stern was ripped away, sent tumbling into space in an ever-expanding debris cloud.
The viewscreen flickered and went black, coming back on a few seconds later as the Reynolds’ system rebooted. The consoles were slow to return, but Jiya finally managed to get hers back online.
“They’re incapacitated,” XO reported , a victorious growl in his voice.
“Once the guns are back up, grind that ship to dust,” Reynolds ordered. “Move us into position, Ensign. Comm, make sure they get a graphically-detailed message telling them what we’re going to do to their asses now.”
Jiya was still checking the damage reports, trying to get an accurate account of all the people who’d lost their lives in the fight, when she picked up a signal on the scanners. A second appeared right after.
Her heart froze in her chest.
“We need to get the fuck out of here now!” she shrieked, not giving a damn how she sounded.
“We’re not leaving until we—” Reynolds started, but Helm asserted control and the SD Reynolds’ engines engaged. The ship shot off, veering away from the wrecked hulk of the enemy ship.
Reynolds spun with a growl, not sure who to focus his fury on, but Maddox’s words stopped him in his tracks.
“Two more of the enemy ships have broken out of the Mu atmosphere and are tracking us,” the general warned. Reynolds wondered about the wisdom of blocking his higher functions from those of the ship, which was also Reynolds. He would have instantly known and had the Gate drive spooling up.
Reynolds spun back around and looked at the screen showing the two ships, identical to the first, streaking toward the Reynolds.
The burning vengeance on his face had cooled, and the AI took personal control and set a course that carried the ship away from Mu. He opened a Gate as soon as the ship had the energy to do so.
Without a word, he piloted the ship through the Gate as the enemy craft closed, then cut the Gate drive immediately once they were through, sealing the portal behind them.
“Drop mines,” he ordered as he opened yet another Gate and shot into it, transporting the superdreadnought across the system, leaving a swath of deadly presents behind.
Two more Gates and dozens of mines later, Reynolds brought the ship to a halt so they could accurately assess the damage they’d suffered in the battle.
All in all, they’d lost twenty-five of the crew, and there were over a hundred people injured. Jiya slumped in her seat, sickened by the casualty count, but she didn’t let her sorrow stop her from doing her job.
“Get the Pod-docs up and running and get our injured in them immediately, most critical first,” she ordered over the comm.
“Already underway,” Medical Reynolds replied.
Dozens of section reports followed in a wash of noise, and she sent the bots to help ferr
y the wounded to the med-bay, supporting the crew as much as possible.
There wasn’t much more she could do, but she couldn’t help herself. She jumped out of her seat.
“Maddox, you have the chair,” she called. “Help Reynolds with whatever he needs. I need to get to sickbay.”
She didn’t wait to see if Reynolds had anything to say, she simply ran off the bridge toward Medical.
Chapter Nine
Asya followed the cultist from the estate in upper Ulf, staying cloaked as he covered his head like Aht Gow had done and made his way across town.
He had five others with him, dressed similarly, and none of the casual bystanders gave them more than a cursory glance as they passed in silence. Asya hadn’t seen their faces to determine if they were Muultu or of a different alien race.
The streets had returned to their previous lack of traffic, everyone having largely returned home, and the walkways were sparse compared to how they had been when Asya and Geroux had followed the emperor’s sister to the estate.
Now it was much easier to trail the cultist and keep from stumbling into anyone else.
She thought for a while that he would walk forever when, at last, he and his entourage turned off the main thoroughfare and struck off toward the atmospheric barrier on the opposite side of the city where she and the crew had flown in.
What the hell is he doing? she asked, doggedly trailing him.
It wasn’t long until she had her answer.
The cultist and his followers strode through the barrier at a place where no one in the nearby city could spot them, and they walked out into the toxic haze that made up the rest of the unprotected planet.
Asya adjusted her suit’s life support to be certain it would adequately deal with the maelstrom outside and followed.
A stiff, warm wind buffeted her as she stepped out, and she spied the cultist and his people a short distance ahead.
They had swapped their head scarfs for helmets. They wound their way across the hilly, cracked landscape and disappeared behind a thick outcropping.
Asya cursed and sped up, and just as she arrived at the edge of the hill, she heard an engine rumble to life. Furtively, she glanced around the corner to see the cultists piling into an archaic vehicle that made the one Reynolds and the others had ridden in to the palace look like new tech.
