The line is coming from the other ship. The engines were linked together for the comet drive jump.
“Linked together? Is the other ship trying to get control of this ship?”
It is trying. It is sending pulses of sound that do not sound random.
“Play them for me,” Rachel ordered, “please…”
Over the ship’s intercom, the sounds began to play.
“That’s morse code,” Rachel said. “Let them in. That’s City or maybe OxeroidR?”
The line opened, and it almost seemed as if armed soldiers flooded through the breach.
“The cavalry is coming,” Rachel said, her voice picking up energy.
“It is an illusion,” he gritted out, as his mind struggled to reshape reality.
“It’s going to fire…”
He pushed back the monsters, grateful for the help, but the alien weapon had reached a full charge despite all they could do.
“If they drop their shields, the cannon can not injure them, it’s the cannonade before and after. It’s too close together. Can we stop the regular canons?”
“I’m trying,” Rachel panted. “It’s a devil’s snare…”
He studied the disposition of the ships. “They know. See, how close they are to the moon’s atmosphere?”
“Will it work?”
“It is a chance.” He sent a prayer to his gods that whatever they planned would succeed and refocused on the self-destruct. If it would have saved those ships, he might have let it run, but it would not. It was as if the spider had foreseen this and tried to ensure all their deaths…
The Beugrimt Seeker 55THT has fired. The Trozzerd Emitter 3DXZ will fire in one minute.
“We’re in,” City said. “Get on that other console. We need two sets of hands. Can your friend help Kraye?” she asked over her shoulder without turning her head toward the parrot.
“She can.”
“Listen to her,” City said. “Okay, we’ve got friendlies on the other side of this mess.” Bangle was helping them, could she—help began to flow back along the link. “They are going for weapons control. Their creepy weapon will be fully charged in forty-five seconds.”
“The Beugrimt Seeker 55THT has already fired its first round,” Kraye said. “We must hurry…”
Bangle provided a countdown to the Trozzerd Emitter 3DXZ charge for Valyr, placing it in the corner of this reality. He was not sure it helped as it increased his inner tension. On the other hand, it was an incentive to keep fighting. There were so many lives on the line. He was starting to make headway against the illusions, replacing them with a clean canvas to work on, but he was not progressing quickly enough.
All of a sudden, Rachel was next to him, helping to speed up the spread of order, helping him to erase the web. “Devil’s snare,” she panted.
“The projectile cannon—”
“City and Kraye are on it.” She did something, and light flooded the dark places of the programming. “Don’t fight it. Focus just on the center.”
For a moment, his mind resisted the notion, as the monsters seemed to grow larger.
“Relax,” she said again.
The calm of her voice washed over him, and as he relaxed, the monsters began to fade.
“There it is,” Rachel said, suddenly.
He felt the ship jerk.
“Crap. Both weapons are firing.”
Romeo flight rose steadily, lightly skimming the moon’s atmosphere. The hope was that the Najer would convince the spider that they were unaware of the trap waiting for them.
Carey had split his squadron into Delta Tango Flights One and Two. DTF One flight was positioned in a half circle just behind Romeo. Both birds anchoring each end of the bowl were the closest to Romeo, and all the ships in this flight were also skimming the atmosphere.
Behind Romeo and DTF One was DTF Two. It was rising along the curve of the moon and just inside the unusually wide atmospheric band surrounding this particular moon.
The depth of the atmospheric band would, they hoped, give them more maneuvering room. The density could also give them an advantage if—
Yeah, there was a catch. The atmosphere had some of the same elements present in their shields. But those elements were not in the same percentages, making this a wild card. But their best chance, other than retreating and leaving their people unsupported and behind.
As they counted down the moment that Romeo flight would be visible and exposed to fire from Arachnid Z, Carey tried not to think of Olivia waiting for him back on Kikk. His cockpit recorder was on. If anything was found…
“I love you, Olivia,” he said. Then kicked on his mental after burners.
Would the spider demand surrender or fire as soon as his ship had a targeting solution?
“Ten seconds to Romeo exposure,” he said. “Let’s hope he wants you—”
Arachnid Z didn’t wait for complete exposure. Luckily the robots had faster than light reactions. Romeo was already diving for atmosphere. Carey’s DTF’s were heading down, too.
“Spread out and prepare for incoming,” he said.
The ship seemed to shudder, and Kraye heard the sergeant utter something that was probably profane in her language.
“Both weapons are firing.”
“There are the controls for the Beugrimt Seeker 55THT.”
“Got it,” she said. “We’re in control of weapons systems on both ships.”
“I am shutting down weapons fire,” Kraye said, aware it might be too late for his crew and hers.
He pulled up a tracking screen. He tried the comms, but could not break through to warn his ship. His crew mates. He leaned on the console with both hands, his chin up because he could not take his eyes off the spreading waves of particles and projectiles racing toward the incoming formation.
He felt a hand on his arm. He looked, found her staring at the tracking screen.
“They’ll make it,” she said. “The colonel will have a plan.”
“You seem certain.”
“I am. He always has a plan.”
Her hand slid down over his. He looked at her hand on his, felt warmth where she touched him, felt hope spread out from the warmth. It made no sense, but he believed her.
“Sergeant…”
“Call me City. Or Caro.” Her gaze met his. “My friends call me Caro.”
Friend. Did he know what that was? Or what that word meant.
“Caro. I am Kraye.”
“Just Kraye?”
“As far as I know, just Kraye.”
OxeroidR entered the bridge, stopping when he saw the tracking screen.
“We were too late,” Kraye said bitterly.
He moved forward until he stood at Kraye’s other side. His metal arm lifted to rest on Kraye’s shoulder next to the parrot.
For once the drag of atmosphere felt good as Carey dove for what he hoped was cover, the squadron spreading out, and firing decoys to confuse the heat suckers. The persistent suckers seemed to hesitate as they hit the atmospheric speed bump, too, and then, they ran into the counter measures his guys had deployed in their wake.
The heat suckers were determined, but according to RaptorZ, if they could keep them confused for long enough, they’d run out of fuel. No, it was the shield smackers that worried him more.
There was a confusion of comm traffic as the heat suckers flailed around, looking for real targets, and then the first wave of shield smackers connected with the atmosphere. For almost a minute, it looked like a fire bomb had hit, creating an orange and red canopy above them.
Then he didn’t have time to worry when a heat sucker pinged on him.
He jinked right, then left. Despite the high risk of dying, it felt good to be flying with enough G’s to make his speed jeans inflate. When the heat sucker stayed on his tail, he fired off counter measures, hoping he wouldn’t have to do that again for a while. He didn’t have an inexhaustible supply.
His ship rocked as a heat sucker detonated
a little close for comfort.
The patter in his ears was non-stop.
“…GSF-4 you got a sucker on your tail…”
“…hang on, I’m coming…”
Then the shield smackers punched through.
“What are we looking at?” Carey asked.
“The penetrations appear to be concentrations of flammable gasses.”
Great. The shield smackers and turned into great balls of fire, Molotov cocktails of fun. He needed Bangle to provide a playlist. It was like threading a needle, trying to dodge the balls of fire and the suckers. The only good news, the fire balls looked like they flamed out about halfway to the moon’s surface.
“I’m hit! I’m hit!”
Carey saw a smoke trail from GSF-7, saw the bird spiraling down and then it managed to get their nose up.
“Can you make it back to home plate, GSF-7?”
“That’s a negative, CAG. Gonna put her down on the surface. Don’t forget to pick me up.”
“Roger that, GSF-7.” Even as Carey dodged incoming—and didn’t dodge everything—his screens showed him at least two more waves heading their way. “Romeo flight, this is GSF-1. Any chance we can safely deploy our shields in atmosphere?”
“Not advised,” came the steady voice of RaptorZ. “The liquid fire could still become explosive on impact with shields.”
“Don’t you mean more explosive?” put in GSF-4, making a hard turn to avoid a cluster of fire balls.
“Roger that.” Looked like the heat suckers were starting to thin out, but the great balls of fire were brutal. Another Dauntless took a hit but managed to make a controlled descent. “Looks to me like the balls of fire flame out as they hit thicker atmosphere. Let’s drop down into the thicker atmosphere. That will slow down the heat suckers, too.”
He noticed Romeo rising toward the upper atmosphere, trying to give a damaged Dauntless cover. The pilot managed to get the nose up and did a slow spiral down with his wingman also providing cover.
“You can join us now, Romeo flight,” Carey suggested. “It’s a lot cooler down here.”
The Najer, not as limber as a Dauntless, began a wide turn with its nose coming down just as the last wave of shield smackers connected with the atmosphere. There must have been more of something or other in that spot because it lit up, the impact zone bulging downwards and slapping the Najer.
It tumbled in an uncontrolled descent, vanishing into the clouds beneath him.
City held her breath as the Najer dropped toward the moon’s surface in what appeared to be an uncontrolled descent, tumbling top over tail.
“Pull up, pull up, pull up.” She didn’t realize she’d said the words out loud until Kraye’s hand tightened over hers. She looked at him.
“They will pull up in time.” He said the words confidently, but his face showed the strain as he turned back to the tracking screen.
It fell…
…and fell…
…and appeared about to crash into the ground…
“It’s straightening out,” City muttered. “Isn’t it?”
“It is,” Kraye’s mouth widened into a smile.
She liked his smile she decided. She liked it a lot.
“So what just happened?” General Halliwell asked.
“I wish I knew,” Doc said. Boy, did she wish she knew. At last sight, the squadron had been dodging some nasty looking fire and rocks, according to their last readings.
Hel reappeared, out of sight of the video connection with the General.
“Communications and tracking are being restored,” he told her. And I learned something interesting about something called a comet drive.
That sounds sexy.
For those who like speed? Very.
She almost smiled where the General could see it.
“What about transport between the outposts?” the General asked. “Is that working yet?”
Doc tapped into the system. “That’s hard to say. I’m going to try to open a comm channel to Central Outpost.”
“Loop me in,” he ordered.
“Already done,” Doc said. There was no sound, like in the old days when a modem tried to talk to a computer. One minute the line was not live and then it was. She’d picked video connection and was surprised to find a Marine at the other end.
“Corporal…”
“Knight, ma’am. My fire team was ordered to hold this outpost until Sergeant City returned.”
“Who else is there, Corporal?” the General cut in.
The Corporal stood impossibly more to attention. “Sir. Myself, my fire control team and Captain Bailey.”
“I want to be briefed on what has been going on there, Corporal.”
“I will attempt to do so, sir. There are some gaps in what we were able to see.”
Words formed on Doc’s console, words she was pretty sure the General wasn’t seeing.
Your people are safe.
Thank you…
Bangle. My friends call me Bangle.
She looked over at Hel. She was glad the General hadn’t seen that.
My friends call me…Morticia.
She’d almost told the AI her real name, but she still needed to be careful. Always when time travel was still on the table.
“We did it,” Rachel said, “at least, everyone did something.” Carey’s ships were mostly okay, looked like the Najer had landed safely, and comms were coming back. Rachel let go of the system and the blue frame dissolved into a mist, like the kind at the bottom of a waterfall. For a moment she was carried back to the last vacation she’d taken with her family. The air chill and slightly damp from the waterfall’s mist. So beautiful it made her chest hurt. The only sound the roar of the water over the rock’s edge. Her chest hurt now, but like that, not like after. She rubbed the spot, and half smiled at the ghosts of her siblings. Then they faded, too. Through the fading memory, she saw Valyr, a weary grin tugging at the edges of his mouth.
They weren’t dead. They weren’t a spider’s dinner—
“How did you know,” he asked, “that we needed to quit fighting the system?”
Rachel bit her lip. “I didn’t know, but you can’t fight devil’s snare. The more you struggle, the worse it gets.” According to Harry Potter. She was such a geek. “I wish I’d thought of it sooner.”
His grin was crooked. “We are all alive—”
“I require your assistance, Dr. Frank,” CabeX’s voice cut through her move in Valyr’s direction. And his move in hers. “Savlf has gone into shock.”
She activated her headset comm. “What’s your twenty? I mean, where are you?”
“I am in transit to the shuttle.”
“We’ll meet you there.”
She picked up her weapons. “There may still be crew milling around,” she said as they jogged out the door. The trip through the ship was still creepy, but they didn’t run into any humans. The webs had shriveled into dirty lace on the bulkheads and elsewhere. She didn’t lower her guard, or her weapons until she saw Mike3 ahead of her.
“They are on the shuttle,” Corporal Knight told her, stepped out of her way as she started to run.
She yanked off her headgear and thrust her weapons at Valyr. This was a different kind of battle, a battlefield she knew well. No spiders or bad guys, unless you counted Death as a villain. Sometimes she did.
Ahead of her, she could see the dark figure of CabeX and the woman limp in his arms. The Mikes had found some blankets in some storage lockers and had spread them out. They’d also found the first aid kit she’d brought along and the one that was part of the ship’s stores.
“Put her down,” she said, noting how reluctantly he obeyed. She dropped down next to Savlf—it had to be her. Strands of the web were still embedded in her skin. What Rachel could see of her skin, was pallid with shock.“Elevate her feet and put some of those blankets on top of her. There are some heat packs in there, too. We need to get her warm. Fast.”
She yanked on gloves.
Valyr dropped down on the other side and started pulling items out of the Garradian first aid kit. The IV he handed to her, then he applied a device that she knew would monitor vital signs. While she got the IV going, he got her on oxygen.
“Will she be optimal soon?” CabeX asked.
She glanced up. His voice didn’t sound quite so robotic.
“She’s bad. She might not be able to survive outside the web, but I’ll do what I can.” She pushed a hand through her sweat soaked hair. “I wish we were on Kikk. They have seriously nice medical facilities.” She touched a section of the web embedded in Savlf’s skin. It lifted on the edge, but the flesh underneath was raw and red. She broke off a bit and realized it was burning through her gloves. She dropped it and ripped off the glove. A wisp of something drifted up from the bit of web before it turned into something resembling ash. It appeared that the bits of the web were still toxic. Savlf needed it removed but how could Rachel get it all off her without massive scarring?
“There is a medical facility on my outpost,” Valyr said.
Of course, there was. “We need to get there fast,” Rachel said. She glanced down. Super sonic, comet drive fast.
“If the…Captain will assist us, ma’am,” Mike1 cast a carefully blank glance at CabeX, “we’ll secure the hostile ship and bring it to the outpost.”
“I’ll do everything I can,” Rachel promised him.
He nodded slowly and followed him back onto Arachnoid X.
Rachel looked up. Captain Gibson, looking grave, stood at the bridge hatch. “Captain Gibson, I need you to bust a comet drive move for me.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am.”
21
For Rachel, getting off Xaddek’s ship was a blur centered on the deathly white face of Savlf as she and Valyr fought to keep her alive until they could get back to the medical resources of Central Outpost. Twice she thought they had lost her. Without the Garradian emergency devices on the ship, they would have. Once they got her into a semi-stable condition, Rachel donned gloves and began the process of carefully peeling away the strands of the spider web. She couldn’t prove it, but she believed the webs were working against Savlf’s recovery.
Lost Valyr: Project Enterprise 7 Page 28
