by S. H. Jucha
Sharon maneuvered the fighter into position. By placing the ship toward the urban center, it kept it away from the insectoids’ lines of attack.
Sam jumped up, slung his launcher, and bodily hoisted Kasie. He leapt onto the forward section of the transport and across the one-meter space to the hatch steps. His momentum sent the pair of them tumbling into the ship’s interior.
Each of them quickly climbed the transport. Sam was on the hatch steps to catch Tacnock and Lucia.
The reduction in the teams’ firepower enabled the insectoids to press closer.
Swiftly the warriors, even burdened with rifles and cumbersome power packs, made the transport’s hood and the ship’s interior in two powerful bounds.
Jess received two warnings in his implant. The shadows’ power crystals were nearly drained.
Julius jumped off the transport’s top to its hood and then leapt to the hatch steps. There was a moment, as it struggled to maintain purchase, and it was in danger of falling to the ground. Then Sam leaned out the hatchway, grabbed a hunk of body armor, and hauled it inside.
Brutus leapt from the top of one vehicle to the other and repeated Julius’s maneuver, only to require Sam’s help to gain the ship.
The team’s defenses had collapsed. Only Jess and five Dischnya warriors remained on the roadway.
Insectoids poured over and around vehicles.
In a tight back-to-back ring, the six veterans fought to keep the snapping pincers at bay.
The fighting was so close that the darts’ detonation in the insectoids’ bodies sprayed blood, tissue, and skin onto the defenders, quickly drenching them.
Tacnock kneeled in the hatchway in front of Sam. Homsaff leaned around them, and the three fought to keep the transport clear that the six needed to reach the ship.
Simlan barked loudly, and Homsaff pulled the other two shooters away from the hatch. Dropping into the opening, the squad leader aimed and fired a single shot. His rifle was set on low power and wide dispersal. He’d angled it slightly down.
Insectoids coming over the vehicles’ tops near the veterans on the ground were decapitated, and those slithering from farther down the roadway were immolated when several transports’ hydrogen tanks erupted.
The Dischnya on the ground flew through the air, gaining the transport and the ship in two bounding steps.
As fast as Jess could, he climbed on the transport’s hood. His boots were thickly coated in insectoid blood, and he slipped, falling heavily onto the roadway. The impact knocked the air out of him.
Again, fire poured from Loopah weapons stationed in the traveler’s hatch, creating a brief opening for Jess.
Jess slung his launcher and climbed onto the vehicle’s hood on his hands and knees. He stood and felt his boots slide. He knew that he couldn’t get the purchase he needed to make the jump to the hatch steps.
Then, as if Jess had willed it, the hatch swept toward him. He had only to lift a leg to gain the first step. Then hands hauled him aboard the ship.
Sharon closed the hatch and lifted for the Judgment.
Lucia regarded her hands, which were covered in insectoid fluids from grabbing Jess. “You. The refresher. Go,” she ordered sternly.
Later in the evening, the usual group sat around Lucia’s table, and Jess waited until the meal was finished. Then he eyed Simlan, whom he’d invited. “Thank you for that clever shot,” he said.
“We had practice with plasma weapons on a planet called Toral,” Simlan replied.
“Fighting aliens?” Jess asked.
“Bots,” Simlan replied. “They came in all sizes.”
Jess shook his head at the idea that mechanical bots could be turned against biologicals. But the Messinants had aptly demonstrated that all things were possible, the good and the bad.
“And thank you all,” Jess continued, slowly regarding those around the table, “for choosing not to leave me behind, when my butt hit the roadway.”
“Well, there was a moment when we were voting,” Sam started to say.
Kasie uttered an exclamation and swatted Sam’s arm. He grinned at the reaction he’d generated from her.
“If I’d known that you were that uncoordinated, Captain, I’d have had Sam throw you through the hatch,” Lucia said with a straight face.
Jess’s jaw dropped, and the table erupted in laughter and barks.
When the noise quieted, Tacnock said, “In all fairness to our inimitable assault commander, I’ve never seen an individual so completely covered in body fluids. It’s a wonder he didn’t float away down the roadway.”
When the meal was finished and the guests left, Jess took his second refresher of the evening, not counting the one aboard the traveler. It was unlike the aftermaths of their other encounters. This time, he couldn’t get the feeling of the insectoids off his body.
“Let me help with you that,” Lucia said, slipping into the refresher. She slowly and methodically wiped at Jess’s body with a cloth until she saw him relax. Then she wrapped him in her arms, and he clung to her.
“The survey’s over,” Jess murmured in Lucia’s ear. “The Qualls are gone.”
“I know, Jess,” Lucia whispered. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have come in time to save them.”
For a moment, Jess wanted to retort he knew that was true. Then he realized Lucia was right. He’d nearly got his team killed because he was determined to search the entire planet in hopes of finding some of the citizens alive. He hadn’t wanted to admit that every protected building and every ship would reveal the same thing — only more dead bodies. A gentle race had succumbed to the ravenous mistake of the Messinants.
Jess and Lucia dried off, crawled into bed, and cuddled.
Lucia lay awake until she heard and felt Jess’s deep breathing. She briefly relived the fear that had shot through her today. She’d experienced it only one time before, when she was hauled from her family’s home by security.
This time, the fear hadn’t scared her like it did before, when she lost her family due to her father’s decision. This time, she hadn’t lost the one she loved.
32: Desperation
Deirdre’s Trident, the Deliverance, was the first to arrive at the Egette system.
During the trip, Celsius had investigated the ear wigs to discover what languages they contained. He surmised that the presence of most of them might have been acquired during visits to the Tsargit. A sand serpent hadn’t been previously encountered by the Omnians and the others until they made landing on Usaana, but members of the Egette race had exchanged languages with them on Hyronzy Station.
After the Deliverance exited the final transit above the home world, Celsius initiated contacts in the admiral’s name until he reached the Egette premier, Egom se Essess.
“Premier,” Deirdre said, when Celsius transferred his connection to the Trident’s bridge, “I expect a confrontation to take place in your system in the near future.”
“What kind of confrontation, Admiral?” Egom se Essess requested, in alarm.
“We believe the federacy fleet of battleships is headed here,” Deirdre replied.
The premier�
��s chief of staff whispered in Essess’s ear.
“These are the rogue ships that have attempted landing on Crocia and Usaana and were successfully repelled each time without your aid?” Egom inquired.
“They are, and they were,” Deirdre replied. She didn’t like where this was going.
“Now, you intend to antagonize these powerful starships with your single warship,” Egom accused. “And for your insult, this great fleet might destroy our world, if not our system.” His voice had risen while he spoke, and he ended nearly shouting.
“According to two Crocian engineers I’ve met, the federacy’s shuttle landings on Crocia met with ruin due to their confrontation with Dorgatha. The crews, who made planetfall on Usaana, encountered the sand serpents. Do you have such assets with which to repel the invaders?” Deirdre asked.
The chief of staff whispered again to the premier. He was a senior councilor, who despised his role of having to constantly educate the young premier.
“We aren’t an aggressive race, Admiral, but we have capabilities,” Egom said, shaking off his chief of staff’s input.
Ignoring what sounded like weakness from Egom, Deidre said, “When your ships record the federacy fleet’s arrival, have them make for a station or take refuge behind a moon. They’ll be safe there.”
“Admiral, you haven’t responded to my objection to your intent to antagonize the invaders,” Egom accused, and the chief of staff gritted his rows of flat teeth.
“The battleships won’t be confronted by my single ship, Premier se Essess,” Deirdre said. “With good fortune, there won’t even be a fight.”
“Why should my race depend on your good fortune, Admiral?” Egom sputtered. “I order you gone from this system.”
Egom’s answer to his ineffectual sputtering was to hear the warship’s connection close. Fuming, he turned to speak to his chief of staff, but the elderly adviser had taken a seat and was holding his wide brow in his hands.
“Nice to be so tenderly welcomed, Admiral,” Celsius quipped to Deirdre, when the call ended.
“Fortune had better be with us, Celsius,” Deirdre replied. “Otherwise, Alex’s efforts in alliance space might end here in catastrophe.”
In the following cycles, the Egettes watched duplicates of the admiral’s ship arrive in system. The number continued to increase, and the chief of staff and other advisors were given hope. If there was to be a battle, the visitors might be able to protect the home world.
There was one unhappy citizen. Egom ranted and raved that he hadn’t been obeyed.
The Egettes knew the shapes and formation of the invading battleships, and sleepless cycles were lost monitoring the system’s telemetry stations. The energy signatures of the arriving Omnians had been recorded. The Egettes were aware of what to look for beyond the far belt. When cycles passed without the arrival of more Omnians, the Egettes anticipated that the next signatures to be received would be those of the aggressors.
Telemetry specialists, who worked on mining operations spread among the belt’s diverse asteroid types, tensed when the next set of energy signatures were received. However, instead of the feared wedge of battleships appearing, a huge oblong starship formed from the black of space. It was accompanied by tri-hulled warships equal in number to those already present in system.
When word of more Omnians arriving reached the Egette home world, the populace cheered. The advisors, including the chief of staff, nearly fainted in relief, and Egom was finally quiet.
* * * * *
The conference link was overwhelmed by Celsius, Cordelia, and Julien, who contributed their sounds of amusement, which made the humans grin.
Alex waited for the moment to pass. Then with sobering thoughts, he sent,
Darius replied.
* * * * *
No, there wasn’t.
The Freedom, Darius’s command, and the accompanying freighters were navigating through the belt, when Cordelia received Killian’s alert.
Cordelia waited until she received a final report before she communicated the news.
Despite a reluctance to wake the fleet’s leaders, Cordelia chose to disturb Alex and Tatia. Julien had already heard the news, as did every other SADE in the fleet.
On the other hand, Alex thanked Cordelia, slipped out of bed, and stood in the refresher to wake up. Then he gained the bridge, sat in a command chair, and modeled the reception he intended for the battleships.
At morning meal, Alex presented three formation variations to Tatia and her admirals.
“Alex, you were supposed to go back to sleep like the rest of us,” Tatia admonished, as she eyed Renée.
“I accept no blame,” Renée objected. “I wasn’t even woken.”
“I like number three,” Reiko said, viewing the formation via her link with the ship’s controller.
“I do too,” Franz added. “It gives us more aggressive options.”
Darius and Deirdre chimed in remotely with their opinions. They approved of deployment three also.
“And you don’t,” Tatia said, staring at Alex over her cup’s top. “You’ve offered us three battle formations to test which ones might appear more aggressive to the federacy fleet leaders.”
Alex’s grin appeared, as did Julien’s green-visor poker cap.
Groans were heard from Tatia’s admirals.
“Alex did state that he didn’t want to appear confrontational,” Renée reminded everyone.
“Then you like the first deployment scenario. The one that makes us appear vulnerable,” Reiko said to Alex.
“Yes, I do,” Alex replied.
“Spread out in such a loose formation, we won’t be able to mount an effective attack strategy that the enemy fleet commander can’t read,” Tatia pointed out.
“True,” Alex agreed. “I’ve sent the Rêveur and the freighters toward the Egette home world. We’ll scatter our ships as I’ve indicated.”
“Let me know when you want my opinion,” Tatia said sourly.
“Admiral, I’ll always want your opinion and leadership when it’s tim
e to fight,” Alex said evenly. “I’ve a feeling about the circumstances of this meeting.”
The announcement that Alex had a feeling ended the admirals’ concerns. Alex wasn’t obstinately ignoring their tried and true methods of offense. He’d had another premonition. They did wonder how clear this one had been.
* * * * *
“Multiple contacts, Captain,” the Packeo telemetry officer excitedly reported.
“Details,” Gregich ordered.
“A large fleet passed through the outer belt,” the officer added. “It’s making its way inward.”
“Freighters from the belt?” Gregich offered hopefully.
“Resolution is still forming, Captain,” the officer explained.
Gregich was careful not to pace or suck his teeth in the presence of the bridge crew. His position as the fleet’s de facto leader was tenuous. The fleet commander had been lost, and the leader had been confined to his cabin.
None of the other captains had registered complaints with Gregich, but they hadn’t offered him messages of support either. They were playing the waiting game.
The primary bridge monitor replaced the soft, fuzzy images of the inward bound fleet with the latest scans.
Despite the bridge crew’s training, there was a tremendous amount of loud teeth sucking, and they turned to regard their senior captain. The expression they saw was unexpected. He appeared resigned.
“Captain, you have a call,” the comms officer reported.
“Which captain?” Gregich requested.
“All of them. It’s a conference call,” the officer replied.
Gregich sighed and headed for his cabin. Once inside, he tapped the comm console on his worktable to take the call.
“You’ve seen your ship’s telemetry of the inbound fleet, Gregich?” a captain asked.
“I have,” Gregich replied.
“And?” the caller pursued.
“Why are you being coy?” Gregich replied coldly. “Every one of us knows who inhabits the great orb ship and the tri-hulled warships. They belong to the Omnians.”
