A Clash of Aliens (The Human Chronicles Book 13) (21 page)

He marveled at how quickly situations—and fortunes—could change.

“Send Hargo’s ships to cut off the lead Juireans,” he commanded. “Then order the rest of the ships to scatter. The aliens are used to fighting organized forces, following specific battle plans. Let them now deal with two hundred independent rogue units, each following their own unpredictable path. Engage!”

********

“Maintain stations!” Ranor screamed into the comm.

“It is difficult, my Lord,” came the reply from one of his captains. “We are being swarmed from multiple directions. Our screening units have broken off to pursue their own attackers. We cannot remain on course. If so, we become a prime target ourselves.”

Ranor understood what the captain was up against. His ship was also in a life-and-death struggle with hordes of annoying assailants. Individually, none of the rebel ships could stand against his Class-Fours. Yet in the attack swarms the captain had mentioned, the rebels had already managed to destroy five of his nine ships. On the tac screen, Ranor could see the enemy units were down to seventy-four. But following their current strategy, that was more than enough to overwhelm his remaining force.

He was still attempting to break through the screen of attackers to reach the planet, but as the seconds passed he saw the chance slipping away, especially when his own escorts were being drawn away to pursue the rebels off the course line. Within a minute, his ship would be on its own, engaging twenty to thirty simultaneous attackers at once.

The ship shuddered as his aft quarter shield dissolved. The lower level bolts from the rebels were still capable of penetrating the hull if they were not absorbed by the remaining shields.

Again the ship rocked, this time harder.

“Hull breach, my Lord. Second shield has failed.”

The Overlord scanned the status report of his ships. He only had three left, and all those—his included—were suffering damage. This left him no choice.

“Disengage, Commander. Seek the clearest path the back we came. We will return with the Humans once they arrive.”

“Will this not be too late for the mission objective?”

“That is very possible, Commander. Yet we cannot proceed. We will have to find another way to stop the mutant and his Human allies. Execute my orders.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

********

Panur had placed sensors leading to and within the star system of his sanctuary, so he was fully aware of the battle taking place a light-year way. Riyad stood next to him, watching the contact points representing the Juireans as they turned tail and ran.

“Who the hell are they?” he asked no one in particular.

“Gravity signatures would indicate a variety of miscellaneous starships, culled together from a dozen worlds within this part of Kidis.”

“But why?”

“Apparently there is a revolt taking place, and we have become its beneficiaries.”

“It would have been tight otherwise.”

“Extremely so. I need eight more hours. Unimpeded, the Juireans would have been able to stop us.”

“But that will put Andy knocking on our doorstep,” Sherri pointed out.

“Yes. Both the Juireans and the Humans are becoming annoyances.”

“Let us just finish the conversion and then depart,” said Benefis Na. Sherri knew he had stored a couple hundred pounds of gold in a storage cabinet in the cargo hold. Whether he’d ever be able to cash it in, she had no idea. But with his treasure aboard, it had secured his loyalty to the crew and the mission.

Now if they could just keep a determined admiral of the fleet from kicking their asses from here to Timbuktu.

********

 “We’re proceeding ahead,” Admiral Tobias announced. “Maintain fleet integrity after we’re gone. Admiral Nichols, you’re to assume command.”

“Good luck, Admiral. If anything, you’re going to catch them by surprise.”

“Thank goodness for government redundancy,” Tobias said. “Can’t build one experimental prototype starship without having a sister ship in waiting. Just hope we can get there before Panur completes his modification of the other Mark IV.”

Chapter
19

 “We are ready,” Panur announced without fanfare. He simply straightened up from the bulky apparatus he had been tweaking and headed for the bridge.

“No testing, no checkups?” Riyad asked.

“There is no need. It will work.”

“Benefis is still at the palace.”

“Signal him. We depart in five minutes.”

Lila and Arieel were already on the bridge, the mutant installing a new command module to sync with the TD engine, her mother hovering nearby. The two had been inseparable over the past couple days, Arieel refusing to leave Lila alone with Panur.

In the brief strategy meeting the Humans had had with Panur a few hours earlier, it was decided that Riyad’s ship couldn’t be used to land on Kor. It was too unique, too different to try to pass for anything close to a Sol-Kor ship. So to reach the planet they would need to locate a beamship to be
appropriated
. This also meant they’d need to find a base of operations from which to launch their covert action, as well as store the
Najmah Fayd
for the return trip back to the Milky Way.

Riyad suggested a planet he and the strike team had found respite on. It had crumbling cities and Neanderthal-like natives. Riyad noticed when Panur’s expression turned hard and his eyes glazed over, but then he agreed that the planet would make a good base, even if he didn’t appear overly enthusiastic about the decision. Riyad tried to evoke more acceptance of the location—since he’d suggested it—by saying the natives might even have a spare beamship lying around, the one the natives had acquired from the unfortunate Sol-Kor crew, of which Riyad and Adam had met the last surviving member. They had also been present when he became the last of his crew to die. It seemed the primitive natives of this nameless world were not to be trifled with.

If this effort failed, they would have to take valuable time trying to track down a lone beamship in the space near Kor. This would also enhance their chances of being detected. The natives of the long-forgotten world would be the rescue team’s first best hope. 

All they had to do now was make the jump.

********

 “You were going to leave me!”

The huge Juirean stumbled through the entry hatch moments before Sherri shut and dogged it. Several strips of bright yellow metal spilled from his pockets as he fell.

Sherri shook her head. “I’ve met a lot of Juireans in my day, but never one like you. Damn, Benefis, you could pass as a…a Human.”

“There is no need for insults. I have needs, just like everyone, and my needs require credits.”

“Hey, I’m not knocking it. If I didn’t already have more money than I could ever spend, I would have been right there with you.”

“You are wealthy?”

“Back off, big boy, you’re not my type.”

“All crew to the bridge,” Riyad’s voice said over the 1-MC. “We’re ready for launch.”

Sherri took the weapons station, Lila navigation, Benefis damage control, and Arieel the comm. Panur monitored the new engine control module Lila had installed, prepared to make adjustments as needed. The two mutants were the only ones who had any idea how the drive worked, or what was about to happen.

Riyad sat in the pilot’s seat, anxious to get back into space. He felt vulnerable sitting on the ground, especially on an alien world.

“You may lift off using conventional methods,” Panur said. “Your engines have been upgraded, yet they are essentially as before, only about twenty percent more efficient. The transit function is something…different.”

“That’s good to know,” Riyad said as the ship lifted off the planet Panurland in a cloud of red dust. Moments later they were blasting through fluffy white clouds, heading for the deep blue of outer space. “At least I won’t have to learn anything new…”

The ship bucked violently to starboard, before losing power and screaming back into the atmosphere. With the power down, inertia dampers were off, and the crew was subjected to tremendous pressure as they fell from orbit.

“I thought you said you didn’t need to test anything!” Riyad screamed at Panur, as he gripped the stick, trying to gain any kind of control from the increasing air flow over the outer surface. Most conventional steering was achieved by gas jets. Without power, these too were down.

“This is not a result of my engines. We have been struck with a plasma bolt.”

“From where?”

“From the other Mark IV starship located directly above us.”

“Other Mark IV! What the hell are you talking about?”

“He’s right, Riyad,” Sherri cried out. “It has to be Andy!”

“That’s just great. Do something, Panur! You and Lila will walk away from the wreckage but the rest of us won’t.”

“I am rebooting the power mods,” Lila announced calmly from her station. “Then I will route the TD function to Panur’s console.”

“That will work,” Panur stated with equal calm.

Lights flared on and Riyad felt control return to his stick. He pulled back, and the view through the viewports changed from a rapidly approaching volcanic plain to a rapidly approaching mountain range.

“I need more power!”

“No you don’t,” was Lila’s snarky reply.

“Bullshi—”

Suddenly the scenery outside shifted and they were back in space. The compensators were back online, so the incredible velocity of the transfer was barely noticeable.

“Did we just jump to another universe?” Sherri asked.

“Not yet,” Panur answered. “Just a short hop above the planet. The enemy vessel is still with us. It has as much speed as do we. Before you ask, the TD function is not a normal means of propulsion.”

“Then let’s make the frickin’ jump,” Riyad shouted. “Andy won’t be able to follow.”

“He is within our gravity influence.”

“So what—”

“Incoming bolts!” Sherri reported. “Damn, we’re going to be hit again.”

“Panur…” Lila said.

“Yes, I understand.”

********

Riyad felt like he’d been hit with baseball bat. His head was about to explode and his vision became nothing but gray. He wasn’t conscious of his surroundings, or what he had been doing only seconds before, yet he hadn’t passed out. This was something different. He studied the grayness, gaining curiosity as a black point began to appear in the center of his vision. He squinted, trying to bring the point into focus…

Then he recoiled as the tiny black dot grew to dominate his view, rushing at him like an avalanche of sensation.

He was back on the bridge of the
Najmah Fayd
. There was an unnatural silence around him. He turned his head.

All the others were sitting motionless, blank looks on their faces. One by one, they began to look around. Then Riyad noticed Panur and Lila. They were busy at their stations, either not affected like the rest of the crew or having already recovered from whatever just happened.

“I take it
that
was a trans-dimensional jump,” Sherri managed to say.

“Exactly,” said Panur, a trace of pride in his voice.

“Chalk another one up for our mutant friend,” Riyad said as the cobwebs vanished from his head.

“We have a problem,” Lila said with casual calm. Everyone froze. “The trailing ship was caught in the gravity vortex and has made the transit as well.”

“Andy followed us here? No friggin’ way!” Sherri left her station and went to where Panur was studying the navigation screen, standing next to Lila.

“The other ship escaped the gravity influence as soon as we transited,” Panur reported. “It is several light-years behind, and just now resuming controlled flight as its crew recovers from transit sickness.”

“Which way is he headed?”

“The ship is off our screens, but the last indication was your Admiral Tobias is veering off, away from our course. He appears to be confused as the proper route to take.”

“Can you blame him? I’m sure ending up in the Sol-Kor universe was the last thing he expected would happen when he got up this morning.”

“He will attempt to regain contact with us,” Benefis stated. “Being in a strange universe and not knowing how he got here, he will seek to stay close to us. Hopefully he will not seek our destruction, since we could be his only means of returning.”

“Unless he’s bound and determined to destroy us before the Sol-Kor can get their hands on Panur’s TD drive,” said Sherri. “Andy’s a dedicated soldier. He’ll gladly sacrifice himself to make sure the SK’s don’t gain the revolutionary technology.”

“Then we must stay ahead of him,” Panur said. “Please, Riyad, set a course for our pre-determined destination. Once there, we will be harder to find than we would be in space with gravity traces to follow.”

“Roger that. Let’s get this part of the mission going. The sooner we find Adam, the sooner we can hop back home.”

********

 “Did we just do what I think we just did?” Andy Tobias asked his five-man bridge crew once the strange grayness lifted.

“There are no recognizable star systems around us, Admiral.” Lieutenant-Commander Tom Paulson continued to flip through screens, doing his best to find a match. “Dammit, sir, are we in the Sol-Kor universe?”

“Looks like it, Mr. Paulson. Must have been sucked in with Tarazi’s ship.”

“So how do we get back?” asked Ensign Stevie Wyatt.

“Probably the same way we got here. But, men, that is
not
our primary mission.”

“Getting home is not our mission…sir?”

“It’s secondary, Ensign. Our primary mission to keep the secret of the mutant’s dimensional drive from falling into the hands of the Sol-Kor.”

“But that could be our only way home.”

“I realize that.” Tobias took a deep breath. “Listen up, everyone. Nothing has changed. If the SK’s learn how to equip individual ships with TD transit capability, our galaxy will become easy prey. Everyone and everything we know will be gone. We’ve all seen what those bastards have done just coming through huge stationary portal arrays. Imagine if they can come and go at will, anytime, anywhere.”

“Yessir,” said Ensign Wyatt. “I realize we have to do what is called for. It just takes a little getting used to.”