Starfighter Down

by M. G. Herron

  This seemed to confirm his theory of why the power of the ancient relic was dampened for the mutant. He was part-human, and the relic only seemed to affect Kryl, not Solarans. Elya studied the human half of his face, the brown eye. Something about that eye seemed so familiar, but he couldn’t place it. Perhaps Elya merely saw his own humanity reflected back in the mutant’s twisted visage and didn’t want to believe it was possible.

  “So what, you were going to put the boy through the same hell? Turn him into some kind of deformed monstrosity like you?”

  Subject Zero spread its mandible mouth. The grin revealed a few scattered human teeth. The left side of the jaw was missing entirely.

  A cold fear tingled through Elya’s chest and into his extremities.

  “You knew about this, priest?” Elya couldn’t bring himself to call the old man “Father” anymore.

  The priest had rolled into a seated position. He used the wall to lift himself back to his feet. He limped toward Elya. His missing eye was a gory black hole in his head. His face twisted and he clasped his hands before him in supplication.

  “She came to me. I had no choice. Once she knew I had it, she’d never stop coming after me no matter where I was in the galaxy. You have to believe me. It was the best I could make of a terrible situation. I prayed on it. Animus said he would protect me. He told me to gather a flock and lead them into the mountains, but no children. The Overmind wants the children. She told me so.”

  “Animus,” Elya scoffed and spat at the priest’s feet. “That wasn’t Animus talking. It was your own cowardice you heard.”

  “NO!” the priest said. “No. No, you don’t understand. They would have killed us all. Who do you think alerted the Empire that the Kryl were becoming a nuisance on Robichar? If it weren’t for me, nobody would have gotten out in time. How do you think they knew the hive was on the move in the first place?”

  “The Empire is always keeping tabs on roving Kryl hives,” Elya said. But he was no longer sure.

  The mutant was grinning again. Drool hung from its lower mandible, its pincers trembling with the pain the relic was causing.

  “I was trying to save Robichar,” the priest went on. “Once the Kryl came and took what they wanted, they would leave. Then we could rebuild. Robichar would recover!”

  ‘There's no recovering a planet invaded by the Kryl,” Elya said, disgusted. “They sucked the oceans dry on Yuzosix.”

  “She would have left Robichar whole! That was the agreement.”

  Elya looked back at the mutant. “Would your Overmind X have upheld her end of the bargain? Once you got what you wanted, would you have left?”

  An inky darkness spread through the mutant’s eyes. Its wide grin faltered and its shoulders jerked forward with a cracking sound of ligaments sliding over bones. Attenuated legs unfolded from the creature's back and Subject Zero fell forward onto hairy, clawed feet. The head with half a human face lifted and twisted at an unnatural angle.

  “We would have sucked this world dry.” The voice that came out of the mutant's mouth was not its own. It had a distant, echoey quality as if coming from a different room. Elya noted the look of pure fear that came over Father Pohl’s face. As the voice resounded, he began to tremble and inch back toward the tear in the wall. “And we still shall if we do not obtain the weapons of the Ancient Ones. Their relics are our… Inheritance.”

  Something about the way the human side of the monster’s face gleamed with pleasure when it uttered this absurd statement triggered an old memory in Elya—bizarrely, one of his fondest memories.

  He had been sitting in a holoscreen booth in the library on Yuzosix, one of the nice ones you had to book a week in advance in one-hour time slots. Elya used to go there to explore archival footage from the Kryl War. After sorting through countless press conferences, news stories, theories, and lectures given by xenobiologists, Elya had finally landed on a set of recordings of the Fleet’s finest. His hands had shaken with excitement when he realized he was holding actual battle footage. From a relatively minor offworld skirmish, granted, but actual footage of actual pilots flying actual starfighters was, in itself, exhilarating.

  Later, Elya had come to know the cockpit-cam perspective very well, but back then it had all been new. The way it jerked and twirled with the pilot nauseated him at first. But Elya stuck with it, watching from beginning to end, over and over again.

  The final moment of the footage was his favorite. After the drones were all destroyed and the Scimitars returned to the destroyer to dock, there was a moment when the pilot hopped out of his seat and squatted down to grin into the camera lens, a mad twinkle in the man’s eye.

  It was the first time Elya had seen candid footage of his childhood hero—Captain Ruidiaz, the man who attacked the Queen Mother and drove the Kryl horde back to their home planet, ushering in the end of an era, the end of the war, and over a decade of peace.

  The human half of the mutant Kryl’s face… it belonged to Captain Ruidiaz.

  Elya lifted his knee to his chest and drove a combat boot into the Kryl’s face, then brought the geode down next to the mutant’s skin. The green light was thickest where it emerged from the triangular apertures in the artifact. As the emerald glow poured over the Kryl, it melted the creature’s carapace like acid.

  The half-Kryl, half-human mandible mouth opened as the creature began to scream. Though his whole body cringed in disgust, Elya forced himself to move forward.

  Subject Zero scrambled backward on its spiderlegs. The darkness faded from its eyes, and the sharp intelligence of Ruidiaz’s brown eye returned, along with the shiny faceted nature of the Kryl eye. As Elya advanced and brought the lantern close, it lunged at Elya.

  He raised the geode up to defend himself and gasped when the creature passed right through him.

  In a singular, flowing motion, the mutant kicked itself upright, folded the spider-like arms into its back, and phased through the wall.

  Just like the drone had phased through his Sabre.

  The priest gawked at the wall in stunned silence, then turned to stare hungrily at the relic, eyes darting up to Elya. The man bared his teeth, covered his injured eye with one hand, and stepped outside through the ragged opening opposite the wall through which Ruidiaz had disappeared.

  Elya cursed. He hurried outside after the priest.

  Father Pohl was just stepping out of the alley and onto the blood-encrusted parade ground, the soil of which had been torn up by the scraping of hundreds of Kryl claws as the creatures ran from the power of the ancient relic. Elya closed the distance.

  “Elya!” Heidi called from behind him. “Watch out!”

  He heeded her warning and pulled up short. Father Pohl also heard her, and he turned in time to face a mad sentinel bearing down on him. The priest was struck by the thousand-kilo creature running full speed. He went flying backward and struck the ground hard, his body rolling limply across the dirt.

  Elya felt a moment’s satisfaction that quickly turned to sickening pity for the priest. The sentinel carried onward, past the priest’s body. The groundlings began to run in that direction as well, the direction he assumed Subject Zero—Captain Ruidiaz—had gone.

  A new noise intruded through the chaos of retreating Kryl—the soft roar of starfighter engines. Their sound increased in pitch until they were straight overhead. Guns blazed as the lead Sabre mowed down the panicking groundlings and remaining sentinel, still retreating. A second Sabre joined the fight.

  Elya whooped loudly. He turned back to Heidi and Hedrick, who stood, mouth hanging open next to her, staring up at the starfighters and watching the carnage. Whatever innocence that boy had possessed, it was gone now.

  But he was alive. And that was a win.

  “I guess now we’re even,” Elya said to Heidi. “I saved your life, and you saved mine. Now, let’s find some cover until they can land!”

  Elya waved with both arms, one hand still gripping the relic.

  The Sabres
rocked their wings back and forth as if to say, Acknowledged. We see you, Nevers. We’re here to take you home.

  Twenty-Six

  The swarm of drones was so close now that they colored the backdrop of space a mottled purple and off-black. And when the gas giant around which Robichar orbited, with its swirling yellow storms and streaks of brown and blue moved behind the swarm, it seemed as if Admiral Kira Miyaru’s view of the planet was partially blocked by another cloud.

  Only the swarm was no cloud. It was a suffocating army of mindless killers.

  The trembling voice of a Mammoth captain came online. “Admiral, permission to jump?”

  “Granted,” Kira replied without hesitation.

  The Mammoth nearest the Paladin in the viewscreen stretched, elongating, and then snapped forward as it made the transition into hyperspace.

  That left two Mammoths. Just two.

  Captain Osprey better hurry the hell up, she thought.

  “The array is in position and locked, Admiral,” Colonel Volk said. “Permission to engage?”

  “Fire at will,” Kira said.

  Colonel Volk nodded at Major Loris, the weapons officer, who referenced a time-stamped code as she punched a sequence into the concave holoscreen. Once the sequence was authorized by Harmony, there was a faint humming noise, a vibration Kira felt through the soles of her boots, and then lasers raked over the swarm of Kryl drones.

  The lasers were invisible to the naked eye, but Harmony overlaid a reddish light on the viewscreen so that the bridge could see where their weapons were hitting. Visible explosions—not modified by the AI—sprang up across hundreds of drones at once. Debris scattered as the nearest wave of drones began to combust. They popped and sputtered, like a cosmic being had thrown a handful of salt into a gas burner.

  A counter Harmony placed in a corner of the main viewscreen began to tick up from seventy, to two hundred, higher and higher. It finally settled on four hundred and fifty eight.

  The cloud of drones barely seemed diminished by the losses. They didn’t slow their advance or even flinch. Kira wondered—not for the first time—if the Kryl had any compassion for their own kind. Did they feel loss, or fear? Did the Overmind controlling this swarm force them forward against their will, or did they fly happily to their deaths?

  “Again,” she ordered.

  Colonel Volk relayed her orders. They began to warm up the laser array for a second pass. It took several minutes for the lasers to charge enough to do the damage they needed them to do. In the meantime, projectiles and missiles were fired, taking out handfuls of drones at a time. The XO paced across the bridge with long, anxious strides. Kira forced herself to sink into the command couch and be still. Her officers needed to see a calm, level head in charge, despite the anxiety she felt churning in her gut.

  “Admiral, you have an incoming transmission from Captain Osprey.”

  She checked the time. The pilots should be on their way back by now. Kira hoped this was good news.

  “Open the line.” The level of background noise changed to the familiar sound of engines dampened by the soundproofing material lining the Sabre’s cockpit. “Captain. Any issues getting off the ground?”

  “No, sir. We just cleared Robichar’s atmosphere.”

  Kira closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m glad to hear that, Captain Osprey. Avoid the swarm of drones on your way back to the Paladin.”

  “Yes, sir, I see that on my lidar. We charted a route around them.”

  If she didn’t have any other news, she would have simply contacted flight control. She was obviously holding something back. “Is there something else, Captain?”

  “Nevers wasn’t alone when we found him, sir. We’re bringing two civilian refugees up with us.”

  She frowned. “There’s no time to transfer them to a Mammoth. We’ll carry them on the Paladin until we get back to Ariadne.”

  “Admiral, this is Captain Nevers on the search and rescue shuttle. Osprey thought you’d want to hear this personally. I’m pretty sure I met the Overmind down there… through a sort of proxy. A hybrid mutant, half Kryl and half human.”

  Kira inhaled sharply and gripped the arms of the command couch so hard her hands shook. That’s impossible, she thought.

  But was it? This evacuation had been full of strange occurrences. First, the phasing ability of the manned Kryl drone. Then the parasites that had driven two men mad. Why not a Kryl-human hybrid, too?

  The xenos were evolving, all right. Evolving more inventive—and possibly more effective—ways to kill Solarans.

  Her heart pounded in her chest as these thoughts flitted through her mind. Taken together, all of this evidence should be more than enough to convince the Colonization Board to finally halt their eager expansion into distant, indefensible areas of space, like they’d done with Robichar; maybe even enough to convince the Emperor himself to come out of his pleasure palace and take an interest in the affairs of his people for a change.

  If the Kryl were back on the offensive, the Solaran Empire needed to prepare for war.

  Twenty-Seven

  Quarantine in the hangar was a new thing. Both Elya and Captain Osprey were quickly cleared. Hedrick went through next. When the boy entered the scanner, Heidi met Elya’s eyes through the clear plastic walls of the quarantine bay. There was a tense moment where the AI hesitated… then the green light went on and the boy was allowed through.

  Heidi and Hedrick were escorted to the hospital to get checked out by the medics. Elya delivered the geode into Admiral Miyaru’s hands personally for safe-keeping, then talked to flight control and got himself assigned to a new Sabre.

  On his way to the starfighter, Elya stopped by the bot machinist’s station and checked out a replacement power source for Hedgebot. When the new battery was inserted, Hedgebot rolled onto his feet, made his body very small and compact with upturned bristles, and cycled through a rainbow of colors. It took the bot a few moments to recalibrate before it beeped questioningly.

  “We’re back on the Paladin, buddy,” Elya said. “Now, come on. We’ve still got work to do.”

  BEEP beep. Hedgebot shook his body like a wet dog. Translation: Really, man?

  “Afraid so. Can’t let the squad down.”

  The Sabre that was standing by for him had been preflighted, so all he had to do was put on his helmet, seal the cockpit and get comfortable. Elya looked around and took a headcount. “Where’s Naab?”

  Osprey and Yorra were in their Sabres beside him, but Park was nowhere to be found.

  “He’s still in the sick bay, recovering,” Yorra said darkly.

  “Recovering? What happened?”

  “Bit of a long story,” Osprey said. “Would have told you on the flight up but we were distracted talking about other things.” Most of their conversation had revolved around Elya’s encounters with the Kryl, Heidi and Hedrick, Father Pohl and his followers. And then, of course, relaying the most important news—about the Overmind’s desire to collect the Telos artifacts and turn children into mutants, not necessarily in that order—to Admiral Miyaru.

  “Don't worry, Fancypants,” Yorra chimed in, “he’s tougher than some Kryl parasite. Naab will be back cracking jokes and rolling spliffs before you know it.”

  Elya’s stomach dropped out, a feeling reminiscent of high-speed maneuvers in his starfighter but caused by a terrible recognition. He’d kept the bit about the parasite to himself. He’d figured there was no reason to make trouble where there wasn’t any, and was vindicated when Hedrick cleared quarantine. Now, he knew why the quarantine procedure had been put into place initially. “Did you say parasite?”

  “Some xeno parasites hitched a ride on my Sabre and got loose on the Paladin while you were gone,” Osprey said. “Two of them wormed their way into the heads of a couple crew and made them go crazy. We thought it was space madness at first, but as it turned out…”

  Elya closed his eyes and let himself feel waves of helpless sorrow rol
l through him as Osprey told the story of how Petty Officer Mick Perry had been infected and blown himself up, causing the death of Lieutenant Colonel Walcott and injuring several others, including Park, in the process. This explained the caution tape around a repair in the corner of the hangar he’d noticed on the way to his starfighter.

  Osprey was ordered to pull her Sabre into position for launch, so Yorra picked up the thread and told Elya how Park had woken up in the sick bay and started acting the same way the mechanic had.

  “But we recognized the pattern and managed to corner him. Raptor forced him into the surgical bot, and the thing extracted this tiny Kryl parasite.”

  “Extracted? You didn’t destroy it?”

  “No,” Yorra said, “From what I understand, Admiral Miyaru is keeping it locked up somewhere so that Imperial scientists can study it when we get back to Ariadne.”

  “Can I see it?” Elya told them he thought it was the same kind of worm Subject Zero had tried to put up Hedrick’s nose. He asked if there were any more, but they told him that Harmony scanned the entire destroyer and had found no other xenoforms aboard.

  “That’s messed up,” Yorra said. “No wonder the boy looked so traumatized. Not to mention exhausted. The search and rescue pilots said he slept most of the flight up.”

  “Admiral Miyaru is going to want to hear this herself,” Osprey added.

  “We’ve got a lot to catch up on,” Elya said. He’d glossed over the part about the relic’s abilities. He was waiting to show that to Admiral Miyaru personally, when there was more time, and now it sounded like he might even have a subject for a live demonstration. “But the mission’s not over yet.”

  “Right you are. Furies one-eight, check?”

  “Two,” Elya said.

  “Three,” said Lt. Yorra. “Let’s frag some Kryl.”

  Most of the wing was already deployed, so they didn’t have to wait long. A few ships ahead of them had come back for minor repairs or refuels. In a handful of minutes they were rocketing out of the hangar and into space.