by C H Gideon
“‘Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.’ So sayeth the wizened maestro of merriment, Terry Pratchett,” Tactical quoted.
The crew burst out laughing as the outpost burned.
It wasn’t until XO’s hardened voice cut through their amusement that they stopped.
“You remember how I asked if you’d found anything about Phraim-’Eh’s whereabouts a minute ago?” the XO asked.
Reynolds quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“Well, I think I just found him,” XO told him.
“Where?”
“Right outside,” XO said.
The viewscreen shifted to show a massive armada of alien ships Gating in around the planet, a massive command ship too similar to the design of the Pillar to be coincidence in the lead.
“Oh, fuck me,” Reynolds muttered.
Chapter Fifteen
Thirteen massive ships appeared in the space over Hajh, and there was absolutely no doubt in Reynolds’ mind that they belonged to Phraim-’Eh.
“Guess we got his attention,” the AI said, staring out at the fleet as it maneuvered to challenge the SD Reynolds.
“I’d say so,” Jiya commented.
“No time like the present to punch a god in the nose,” Tactical said.
Before anyone could stop him, he opened fire on the command ship with everything he had except the ESD.
The ship’s shields flared in response, deflecting the vast majority of the SD Reynolds’ power. The other ships started forward to defend their leader.
“I’ve fed the tracking rounds into the railguns again,” Takal reported over the comm, “seeing as how I don’t see us standing our ground here for long.” He paused. “Not to be presumptuous, of course.”
The SD Reynolds’ shields were rattled by a wave of incoming fire, shaking the bridge and dimming the lights.
“No, I don’t think you’re being presumptuous at all, Takal,” the AI answered. “You and Xyxl wouldn’t have something to show me regarding your long-distance romance, would you?”
“Not yet, I’m afraid,” the inventor came back. “Our collaboration is quite enlightening, but the code is proving to be quite daunting, and my Gulg companion and I are struggling with a key piece of it.”
“That sucks,” Reynolds grunted. “Guess we’ll make do with what we have.” The android turned to Tactical. “Keep hitting the motherfucker and warm up the ESD. We’re going to need some shit-eating death right about now.”
The ship rattled again as another wave of fire pounded its shields despite Ria’s efforts to evade.
There was little she could do with so many ships closing on them the way they were.
Then the onslaught faded without warning, an unexpected lull settling over the battlefield.
“We’re being hailed,” Comm announced, explaining the sudden break in combat. “The name of his ship is the Godhand, interestingly enough.”
“Really? How egotistical,” Reynolds said, raising an eyebrow. “I wonder if this prick is looking to monologue?”
“Maybe he’ll spill all his plans, and we can kill him while he talks,” XO offered.
“Put it onscreen but don’t stop moving, Ria. We’re not getting shot up while he chats our ears off,” Reynolds said.
The crew was silent as Phraim-’Eh appeared on the viewscreen, a gloating smile affixed to his lips. The crew looked upon his visage for the very first time.
He looked a lot like someone from Lariest.
His skin was a deep, bruised red, and he wore his jet-black hair long. It flowed over his shoulders like water. Pits of absolute blackness peered at the crew from over the jagged ridges of his cheekbones.
It wasn’t until he opened his mouth and revealed the rows of small, sharpened teeth that he shed the appearance of Jiya’s people.
He was clearly something else.
“We meet at long last, Reynolds,” Phraim-’Eh said, the power of his voice seeming to lower the temperature on the bridge by a few degrees.
“The pleasure’s all yours, I’m sure,” Reynolds replied.
Despite everything, he hadn’t expected to come face to face with the wannabe god just yet.
He didn’t look all that impressive, Reynolds had to admit, but there was a definite aura to the being that spoke of power.
Of course, that might have something to do with the thirteen ships arrayed around the superdreadnought.
Or it could be gas.
Well, if Reynolds weren’t an android.
“You have caused me much grief,” Phraim-’Eh continued. “It will be my honor to grind your synthetic bones to dust and send your burning ship crashing to the planet below, your crew screaming in its bowels.”
“Descriptive,” Reynolds said, nodding. “You have a gift for fiction, it appears. Kind of like this fantasy of you taking us out before we get you. Now, that is one hell of a story. I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but the one thing I can tell you is that you’re the one who’s getting his ass kicked.”
“You mask your fear with humor. How human of you, android.”
Reynolds chuckled. “I’m an artificial intelligence, buddy. I don’t know fear, but nice try psychoanalyzing me.”
Phraim-’Eh snarled, the first sign of Reynolds getting under his skin.
The AI grinned.
“I was disappointed when Jora’nal failed to destroy you, but now I find myself believing it to be providence that his death has allowed me to do the deed personally,” Phraim-’Eh said.
Reynolds’ grin turning into full-blown laughter. “Joke’s on you, asshole. Your little buddy Jora’nal is still alive. We’ve got him locked up tight in one of our cells aboard the ship here. He’s been singing us a beautiful song about you and all your installations.”
Seeing Phraim-’Eh’s face darken with rage and surprise thrilled Reynolds, and he thought about recording the image for prosperity.
Bethany Anne would get a good laugh out of watching this so-called god shit himself.
The screen went black then, the connection severed.
The weapons fire resumed with a fury.
“I’m thinking you pissed him off by letting him know his puppet was still alive,” XO warned.
“Guess he’s trying to solve a couple of his problems at once,” Reynolds said.
“I’d rather he didn’t,” Jiya said with a laugh.
“Any luck with the tracer rounds?” Reynolds asked.
“None,” Tactical responded. “The ship’s shields are too damn powerful. It’s not helping that his destroyers are closing him off, putting themselves between him and us.”
“All we need is a crack in his shield,” Reynolds stated, examining the data scrolling across the screen in front of him.
“Not sure we’ll get the chance, Captain,” Maddox warned. “We’re getting pounded.”
The ship shuddered as if to emphasize the general’s point, and the lights flickered.
Reynolds snarled as he examined his options. Without backup or an ace up his sleeve to turn the odds in his favor, he couldn’t see standing his ground against Phraim-’Eh’s fleet as being a smart choice, no matter how much he wanted to blow that bastard apart.
He wasn’t ready to turn tail and run just yet, however.
“Bring us about and prepare the Gate drive, Ensign!” he ordered. “Tactical, have the tracer rounds ready to go.”
“What are you thinking, Reynolds?” Jiya asked.
“We need to mix things up. Be creative,” the AI replied. “We can’t take these guys head-on, but we also can’t afford to lose track of them now that we have Phraim-’Eh in our sights, either.”
Reynolds took a second to process a million ideas, discounting all but one.
It wasn’t without its risks.
“Follow the coordinates I’m feeding you, Ensign, and be ready to Gate again on my command,” he told Ria.
“Yes, sir,” sh
e replied, always willing to follow an order.
More fire rained down on the SD Reynolds, and if it hadn’t been for the ensign’s slick maneuvering, Reynolds knew they’d be taking far more damage than they were. As it was, there were damage reports streaming in from all over the ship.
There were no casualty reports, though, for which he was grateful.
He didn’t want to lose anyone this time around, especially without Xyxl being there to bring them back before they truly died.
“Gate!” Reynolds ordered.
Ria didn’t hesitate.
Seconds later, they appeared nearly nose to nose with Phraim-’Eh’s command ship, the Godhand.
“Holy fuck!” Asya shouted as the ship filled the viewscreen, looming directly ahead of them. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“I’m hoping Phraim-’Eh didn’t either,” Reynolds commented, motioning to Tactical. “Hit them with the ESD.”
Tactical triggered the weapon. Its power hummed through the ship, then it spilled away from the SD Reynolds and ripped across the short distance between the two ships.
The Godhand reacted with fervor, going into a steep dive.
The ESD strafed its shields, ripping them away from the top of the craft as if they were peeling the lid off a tin can. A wave of energy rippled through the remaining shields, distorting Reynolds’ view of the Godhand.
It looked as if it were underwater as it dove, scattering the fleet around it as they desperately avoided colliding with their master’s ship.
The ESD streaked past the dodging command ship, but the two ships at its back didn’t fare as well.
The first took the brunt of the beam head-on, and there was little more than dust and debris left of the destroyer by the time it sliced through the craft.
The other destroyer, offset just a little so as to avoid the bulk of the beam, still felt enough make them regret their positioning.
The ESD beam scraped the entire starboard side of the ship away from stem to stern. The destroyer listed as the whole right side of the craft was evacuated into space, crew included.
Atmosphere streamed from the destroyer’s gaping wound.
There would be no saving that ship.
Ria veered off as soon as the ESD died, following the coordinates Reynolds had fed her console.
Tactical didn’t wait for Reynolds to follow up, unloading everything he had into the gaping space the ESD had scorched in the Godhand’s shields.
Tracer rounds mixed with railgun fire scored the hull of the massive ship and Tactical whooped as he added a few missiles to the mix, making sure to delay their impact so they didn’t take out the tracer rounds that had successfully struck home.
Small explosions pattered the hull of the Godhand, but Reynolds noted little damage beyond scorched and pocked armor.
“Gate!” Reynolds called.
Ria jumped on the command, and the SD Reynolds moved out of the cluster of Phraim-’Eh’s fleet and appeared behind it, swinging around to target the engine of the nearest destroyer.
The ESD having bled the SD Reynolds dry, Tactical made do with what he had available.
He released a barrage of weapons fire: railguns, missiles, and cannons without discrimination.
The shields of the trailing destroyer lit up and flared out. The ship’s engines were next, going out in a flash of explosions that flared and died within seconds. Smoke billowed from the craft and the destroyer shifted, rolling sideways as its pilot struggled to bring the ship under control.
He failed.
The destroyer began to topple, tumbling end over end until it crashed into another of the destroyers.
It sliced through that ship’s shields without effort and slammed into the aft section, both destroyers snapping on impact.
Reynolds smiled as the destroyers broke apart and dropped out of the loose formation of Phraim-’Eh’s fleet.
Unfortunately, that was the last substantive blow the SD Reynolds would land.
The fleet turned about and hammered the superdreadnought, each blow pounding the gravitic shields. It only took a moment before the damage leaked through and ripped at the armored hull.
“We have an atmosphere leak in the rear compartments,” Jiya reported. “Crew is sealing off the section and the bots are working to fix it, but the damage is substantive.”
“Shields are fluctuating around fifty percent,” Asya reported. “We can’t take another beating like that last round.”
“Wounded are reported in the crews’ quarters, no deaths,” XO called.
“Give it to them one last time, Tactical, then get us the fuck out of here, Ensign,” Reynolds ordered, sending escape coordinates to Ria for her to follow. “How’s the trace looking, Takal?” he asked over the comm.
“We’ve got numerous solid connections,” the inventor answered after a moment’s pause.
“That’s going to have to do,” the AI answered as Tactical unleashed his full arsenal on the enemy.
It had little effect, the entirety of the fleet advancing and sending back much more fire than the SD Reynolds could muster.
“Get us gone!” Reynolds stated.
Ria Gated them out, the SD Reynolds shooting across the galaxy before they could take any more damage.
Chapter Sixteen
The SD Reynolds appeared in space over Krokus 4.
“Interesting choice of destinations,” Jiya told Reynolds once they caught their breath.
“It’s like the greatest hits collection of our journeys,” Tactical joked. “What’s next, Dal’las Tri?” he asked.
“Ooh, some gambling would be nice,” Maddox said wistfully.
The crew turned on him, and he raised his hands in surrender and slumped into his seat.
“I’m kidding. Sheesh. You people can’t take a joke.”
“The visitations serve two purposes,” Reynolds explained as the view of the watery planet filled the screen. “The first is that we have already cleared these locations of overt cult activity. That means our presence will not be immediately reported to Phraim-’Eh, and now that he can’t trace us, it gives us a nice place to recuperate. Getting to examine the impact we had upon the system is a secondary but relevant reason for returning. It’s always my hope that we have bettered the system by visiting it rather than having harmed it.”
“Bringing us into orbit around the planet,” Ria announced.
“Belay that,” Reynolds told her. “Do we have hull integrity?”
“Lots of damage in the aft section, but we don’t have any holes,” Jiya reported.
Reynolds nodded. “Then takes us down to the planet, Ensign. I want to put down in the water and drop to the ocean’s floor outside of Ocelora.”
“That’ll make their day, I bet—a superdreadnought parked in their garden,” Maddox commented, chuckling.
“Comm, reach out to the Krokan rep, Flor, and let her know we’re popping in,” Reynolds told his personality.
“No need,” Comm responded. “Colonel Raf is reaching out to us. I’m putting him on screen.”
“Hello again, Reynolds,” Colonel Gar Raf called across the channel from the bridge of his ship, the Alfar. “Good to see you. Didn’t expect you back so soon.”
“Greetings, Colonel,” Reynolds shot back. “Didn’t expect to be here so soon. We need a place to set down and make repairs. Mind if we hang out a while?”
“I’ll contact Flor and have her make arrangements,” Raf told him.
“I’d appreciate it,” Reynolds replied, then changed tack. “I notice you don’t have a defensive barrier up yet. Everything okay with the plans?”
“Oh, absolutely,” the colonel answered. “We’re just still in the process of fine-tuning the systems. We’ll be starting in on construction soon enough. Without the Orau bombing the hell out of us, we’ve been able to take our time and ensure the system is perfect before putting it in place.”
“Roger that,” Reynolds shot back. “It’s not exactly a simple bu
ild.”
“No, it’s not. Anyway, Flor’s signaled she can meet you on the surface and ferry you down to Ocelora from there.”
“We, uh, kind of have a different idea, Colonel,” Reynolds countered. “Have her meet us on the ocean floor. We’ll be the big-ass ship sitting there.”
Colonel Raf chuckled, nodding. “I’ll forward the message. Take care, Reynolds. I’m sure we’ll speak before you leave. Out.”
The colonel closed the channel, and Reynolds turned to Ria. “Set us down in the water.” He paused for a second, then added, “Carefully.”
Ria acknowledged the order with a laugh and began the descent. She broke through the atmosphere of Krokus 4 and dropped until the superdreadnought loomed over the ocean before easing off the throttle.
The SD Reynolds slowed and hovered over the ocean’s surface for several moments as Ria checked and double-checked the damage reports before she eased into the water.
There was a moment of mild turbulence as the ship adjusted from air to water, and then they were in the depths, drifting down toward the ocean floor.
“Never going to get tired of that view,” Jiya remarked, watching the ocean swirl around them as they descended. “Looks even better from inside the ship.” She laughed, remembering the first time she and the crew had come to Krokus 4.
It hadn’t really been all that long ago.
But like all the other places they’d visited, obvious changes had already taken shape.
Asya zoomed in on Ocelora, the great underwater city of the Krokans. The most noticeable difference was that it didn’t look like a bombed-out husk, as it had the last time.
Where there had been char and scorched buildings marring the beauty of the city, new buildings rose up, shiny and clean, at odds with the war-torn appearance it had had so recently.
The superdreadnought settled on the ocean floor as the crew stared out at the city, glad to see it had prospered during their time away.
That was when they noticed that a second, smaller city had been tacked onto the first. It sat near where the crew had slipped out from under the watch of President Jaer Pon’s guards and visited Lek’s people in the underwater mountain.
