“We could rig something if we need to,” Ben said.
“Ben,” Pershing said over the com-link. “We need to engage the flux shield again.”
Magnum and Jones both gave Ben a look of concern. He tapped his com-link. “Okay, go ahead.”
“It’s not responding, Ben,” Nance said. “The computer is showing the system is offline.”
“Better hurry,” Kim urged. “Those ships are moving fast.”
“We’ll be in range of their grappling arms in just under a minute,” Nance added.
“Alright, let me see what I can do from Engineering,” Ben replied. “Are we up to speed?”
“Full throttle,” Kim said. “But the alien ships are faster.”
Ben didn’t need to see the looks on his friends’ faces to know that things were serious. He jogged back to the engineering bay. The problem with the flux shield was immediately obvious.
“The wave generator is missing,” Ben said.
“How is that possible?” General Pershing asked. “Sabotage?”
“No,” Ben said, as he peered at the device he had rigged to keep the small wave generator from flying away. The tether was broken. “Just a system failure.”
“Is it fixable?” Pershing asked.
“Sure,” Ben said. “I just need to find the part.”
“Find it?” Kim asked.
“It was thrown away from the art grav gennie when we turned off the shield,” Ben said. “It’s down here somewhere.”
“Well, find it fast, buddy,” Kim said. “The aliens are breathing down my neck.”
Ben dropped to his knees and began searching. It was impossible to see far with his space helmet on. He pulled it off and set it on his workbench, then snatched up a small flashlight. It came on with a click and Ben flashed it around the floor. The voices from the bridge were still transmitting through his com-link.
“They’re launching grappling arms,” Nance said.
“Evasive action,” Pershing ordered.
Ben felt his heart pounding. Even if he found the wave generator, he wasn’t sure he could get the shield up and running in time.
“They may be faster, but let’s see if they can maneuver like this,” Kim said.
“Found it!” Ben shouted.
His flashlight beam shinning beneath the hydrogenerator showed the little device. He crawled over to the big machine that took the oxygen produced by the Zexum burning in the fusion reactor and combined it with hydrogen atoms to produce water for the ship’s crew. Reaching under the generator wasn’t difficult, but unfortunately his arm wasn’t long enough.
“Hurry, Ben,” Nance said.
“They can’t maneuver like we can,” Kim said. “But we’re outnumbered.”
“Almost got it,” he said, flopping onto his back and stretching as far as his arm would go. The bulky space suit was snagging on the underside of the machine. Ben had to sit up, unfasten the flaps on his suit, and unzip the upper portion. He pulled his arm out of the space suit and dropped onto his back again.
“Damn!” Kim said. “That was too close.”
“Without that shield, we’re finished,” General Pershing said.
“I’ve got it,” Ben said.
The truth was, the wave generator was almost in his grasp. He pressed himself into the space between the deck and the hydrogenerator so hard, the metal felt as if it might rip the skin off his shoulder and back. But at last his fingers closed on the small component. The wave generator, salvaged from Torrent Four, was the size of a cigar and only as long as Ben’s pinky finger. He pulled it out from under the hydrogenerator and rolled to his knees.
The wave generator didn’t look damaged, but Ben had no way of knowing what might have happened to the device when it was flung away from the gravity generator. He put it back in the housing he had assembled and set the wave generator spinning around the silver orb on top of the artificial gravity generator that actually produced the gravity bubble used by the occupants of the ship.
“She’s spinning,” Ben said. “Just give the system time to build enough momentum to produce the shield.”
“How much time?” Kim said in a tight voice. “They’re right on top of me.”
“The system is back online,” Nance said. “We need ninety seconds, Kim.”
“Great,” the pilot replied. “No problem.”
Ben wanted to run up to the bridge to see what was going on, but he was afraid something might go wrong with the shield so he stayed in the engineering bay. He checked the fusion reactor, which was producing a surplus of energy. From his workstation, he could see that the ship’s main and auxiliary drives were all in the green.
“Almost there,” Ben said, checking the status of the flux shielding.
“That’s good,” Kim said, trying to sound casual. “We’re almost surrounded.”
“General, I count a dozen ships through the wormhole,” Nance said. “And it looks like the first vessel is moving toward the opening now.”
“Maybe that means the first wave is over,” Pershing said. “We need eyes and ears in this system.”
“Shield is up,” Ben said. “All systems green.”
“Pilot, get us out of here,” Pershing said.
“Yeah, no kidding,” Kim replied.
Ben gave his systems one last glance, then sprinted out of the engineering bay and toward the staircase that would lead him up to the bridge.
Chapter 20
Kim was flying hard and doing her best to avoid the alien ships that were swarming them. Whenever one got too close, its tentacle-like grappling arms would shoot out toward them and Kim would have to dive into a steep spiral, which usually brought them too close to another of the alien vessels.
“Check it!” Ben shouted as he raced back onto the bridge. “We should have a solid gravitational flow around us.”
“He’s right,” Nance said. “We’re good.”
“General Pershing,” Staff Sergeant Visher said from just behind the elevated bridge platform. “I have the queen.”
Kim didn’t have the opportunity to look back over her shoulder. She was still avoiding the alien ships and it took almost all her concentration. But the mention of the queen registered despite the danger all around the Echo.
“Your Majesty,” General Pershing said. “Thank God you’re alive.”
Kim strained to hear a response as she looped up over the fuselage of another alien ship whose grappling arms were writhing like a nest of snakes in a mad attempt to capture them.
“Looks like we have Duke Simeon, but not the king,” Staff Sergeant Visher went on. “And the crown prince is missing as well. The rest of the survivors are being revived by the professor.”
“Very good,” General Pershing said. “Let’s get them to the upper deck and make sure they’re comfortable. Are any in need of medical attention?”
“No, General,” Visher replied.
“Good, that’s very good. Your Majesty, we’re leaving the system. We should be out of danger soon.”
“Good,” said a weak-sounding, shaky voice.
There was nothing royal or commanding about it. Kim thought it sounded normal, even ordinary. All her life she had heard about the greatness of the royal family. It seemed somehow unbelievable that the queen was actually on the Echo and sounding so plain. Kim chanced a quick glance over her shoulder and caught sight of an older woman with a blanket over her shoulders being led away by Staff Sergeant Visher. There was nothing regal about her, Kim thought. She’s just a frightened, exhausted woman, no different than any other.
“Is our course set to retrieve Major Le Croix?” Pershing asked.
“I’m moving that way,” Kim replied. “But the alien ships are trying to block us.”
“Show them what happens when they get too close,” Pershing said. “I still don’t want us taking chances, especially with the royal family on board, but time is of the essence. Let’s pick up the major and get out of this system before the aliens
change their tactics.”
“That might be a problem,” Ben said.
“What now?” Pershing said, unable to hide the irritation in her voice.
“Well...” Ben began.
“The alien ships are too fast,” Kim said. “We can’t get any distance from them.”
“So we can’t lower the shields?” Pershing demanded. “Is that what you’re telling me?”
“That’s correct,” Ben said.
“Can we make the jump to hyperspace?” Pershing asked. “Without lowering the gravity flux shielding first?”
“Yes,” Ben said. “We can do that. But what about the major?”
“I don’t know,” Pershing replied. “Have we engaged the aliens?”
“Not yet,” Kim said. “Here we go.”
Kim heard the general barking orders into the com-link. She was not a happy woman, despite the fact that they had successfully rescued several members of the royal family. It seemed like a win to Kim, but perhaps there was more to the general’s story than she was telling them. And they hadn’t actually gotten away yet. Kim felt certain they could. The major’s locator beacon was only a little over a hundred kilometers from their position, and the jump point was close by as well. Still, the general seemed displeased, and it made Kim nervous.
“Are the members of the royal family secure?” Pershing asked. “I want them all on the upper deck ASAP. And make sure they have space suits on. We can’t afford to take chances that our shields will hold them off.”
Kim didn’t know if she could continue to avoid the waving arms of the alien ships and reach the jump point set by Nance and the navigation computer. But she gave herself a fifty-fifty chance. And that was without Ben’s shield, which Kim knew worked. They had used it against the first alien ship with no problems. It made no sense to doubt the capacity of the shield, but then being a professional soldier in the Royal Imperium didn’t really make much sense to her either.
At one time in her life, Kim would have given anything to be accepted into the Royal Imperium’s Fleet Academy, but that was only because she longed so desperately to be a pilot. Perhaps if her family hadn’t died so young, leaving her orphaned on Torrent Four, she might have had other options, but it seemed to her that the Academy was her only chance to prove her skills and get off the trash world. Ben’s experiment with the Echo had changed that, and she was so grateful. Perhaps if they had been successful just hauling freight from one port to another, she might have felt differently, but she had gotten all the excitement she could want flying the Echo. And the Kestrel class ship was so much more than just a freighter or transport. The old vessel had style and attitude. Its controls were simple and intuitive, yet powerful and amazingly agile for a hybrid ship. Kim’s dream of flying Imperium fast-attack fighters was long gone. She had faced them in the Echo and managed to come out on top more than once. She was right where she knew she was meant to be.
“I’m closing in on that one,” Kim said, pointing to a large, bulbous craft. “We can take out its spindly arms and then use its bulk to avoid the other ships.”
“Make sure the exterior cameras are recording,” Pershing said. “This is the only real intelligence we’ll have on these vessels. I want to know how they react.”
“I just hope they do react,” Ben said.
Kim skimmed along the edge of the alien ship’s reach. The arms were there, only partially extended. They were waiting on Kim to make a mistake, and she was about to oblige them. Another of the alien vessels was closing in from above them. Kim waited until the last second, then dipped down, well inside the reach of the bulbous ship. The grappling arms shot out like vipers striking at their prey.
In the split second Kim had to react, she forced herself to move slowly. They turned, pretending to run, but not really using the Echo’s maneuvering capabilities anywhere near their full capacity. Six arms came rushing toward them. Four were shooting straight toward the Modulus Echo while two were going wide, probably thinking to wrap around the small ship.
“Incoming,” Kim warned.
“We see it,” Ben replied.
Kim looked up at the main display screens, which were showing the camera feed from the belly of the ship. The four grappling arms reached the flux shield and were simultaneously crushed and ripped away. The two remaining arms flipped around the front of the Echo but were immediately cast off. Kim pushed her joystick forward and pulled back on both of her foot pedals. The Echo’s nose turned toward the alien ship and they dove down. More grappling arms appeared, but they moved defensively trying to shield the ships rather than capture them.
“Would you look at that,” Ben said.
“They use those arms for more than just capturing other vessels,” Nance said.
“And they look to be controlled by the crew,” Pershing added, as Kim circled around the bulbous, alien ship. “I don’t think that was a computer’s response. It looked too reflexive.”
“Like a fighter trying to protect himself,” Magnum said.
“Exactly,” Pershing replied.
“We’ve got a clear shot to the jump point,” Kim said.
“Andy chance of getting the major?” Nance asked.
“I’d say we have about thirty seconds before the aliens converge on us again if we stop,” Kim said. “Can we get the major on board in that time?”
“Doubtful,” Pershing said. “And we have no guarantee that we could raise the shields in time?”
“The system isn’t perfect,” Ben said. “Even if we don’t lose the wave generator again, it will take the shield several minutes to spin up to speed.”
“We can’t take that chance,” Pershing said.
“Trust me, General,” Kim said. “I’ll get us out of this.”
“It’s not about trust,” Pershing said. “It’s about risk. I can’t put the lives of the queen and the rest of the surviving members of the royal family at risk for just one man.”
“What about the pod he’s got with him,” Ben replied. “What if that’s the king, or the crown prince?”
“What if it’s a third cousin no one has ever heard of before?” Pershing said. “It’s too much of a risk. Get us out of the system.”
“Damn,” Kim said.
“Should we trying to hail the major?” Ben asked. “Let him know we can’t save him?”
Kim looked over her shoulder to where the general sat with a stony expression on her face. When she spoke, her words seemed heavy, as if they were laced with grief.
“Le Croix already knows.”
Chapter 21
Grubat stood near the windows of his ship, watching the other vessels chase the small ship. It was almost comical if not for the frustration at their failure. Beside him was a holograph of his firstborn, Cherbak, master of the En’Galla, which was still in the system but moving closer to the portal.
“It has powerful defenses,” Cherbak said. “An invisible barrier around it that destroys our grappling arms.”
“Why haven’t the other ships used that technology?” Grubat asked. It was a rhetorical question. They didn’t know enough about the beings in the new galaxy to say why they did or didn’t do anything. “We shall have to learn the answers to that and many other questions, my son. But first, return to the Algonny Outpost.”
“To make sacrifices?”
“And to recruit more vessels,” Grubat instructed his son. “Give one ship to the priests, have the rest processed. There should be artists of great renown from the Builder caste there by now. Enlist as many as you can into our Thralldom, then return with more warriors and more ships. Your victory here was just the beginning.”
“As you wish, Father,” Cherbak said, bowing slightly.
The holograph disappeared. His son was a Yarl, with ambitions of his own. One day he might even challenge his father for the right to be warlord of their growing Thralldom. That was a battle he both longed for and dreaded. Only one could survive and Grubat hoped it would be his son, but they were of t
he Warrior caste and Grubat would not hold back. Whoever challenged him, family or not, would suffer his wrath.
“I have the information you requested,” Yarl Hassik said, approaching Grubat on the observation platform at the front of the bridge.
“Tell me,” the chieftain said.
“There are no other vessels in the system that we can detect. Most of the planets are uninhabited, but the closest is a vibrant world.”
“Is it rich with treasures?” Grubat asked.
“Actually, no, Great One, but there is something you should know about it.”
“What?”
“It is very sparsely populated,” Yarl Hassik said, waiting until Grubat finished growling with displeasure before continuing. “But that might be a good thing.”
“How?”
“The atmosphere is ideal. Almost eighty percent nitrogen and twenty percent oxygen. There is liquid water on the surface.”
Grubat turned and stared at his underling with disbelief. Krah faces were notoriously difficult to read. Emotions were not valued by most, especially in the Warrior caste. But Yarl Hassik was clearly excited about his discovery.
“Are you saying it is a habitable world?” Grubat asked.
“Unspoiled,” Yarl Hassik said. “Pristine. We will need to go to the surface and test the planets natural resources, but preliminary scans show a very high probability that the world can sustain us.”
The news was hard to accept. The Krah had been forced to flee their home world centuries earlier after unrelenting warfare and abuse of its natural resources had made the planet uninhabitable. They had combed their galaxy for another home, and while they had conquered thousands of planets and enslaved trillions of species, no world had the resources needed to sustain the Krah. Outposts and settlements had been built, but terraforming had failed. Technology that could keep the Krah in space where they were overlords of the galaxy had become the treasure of the Empire. Hope of finding a world suitable for the Krah was lost, but if Yarl Hassik was right, Grubat would not only be a warlord, but a ruler on a new planet.
“Prepare a landing craft,” Grubat snarled. “There is no time to waste. We must get to the surface before any other can land there and make a claim.”
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