Dangerous Evolution (27 page)

Taking her hands in my own, I spoke softly, “I trust Del to do the
right thing, but I can’t put the fate of humanity in its hands. I have to go—to
ensure
that the Sentient fleet is stopped.” I looked down into her eyes,
savoring their beauty, “Believe me, I will do everything I can to get back here
in one piece.”

She reached out and hugged me, and I responded by wrapping my arms
around her and squeezing tightly. I reluctantly broke away, then Stinson held
out his hand and we shook firmly. As I turned to leave, Doctor Sa surprised me
by extending its hand as well. I smiled at the Sentient, then returned the
gesture and left the hub.

At Del’s direction, Gos was waiting in the corridor to take me to
the stealth ship. As we walked away, I heard the voices of Thov and Captain
Prescott behind me, discussing engagement strategy over the com system.

A good first step,
I thought.

I just wondered if any of us were going to survive long enough to
see where it leads.

Chapter
Eleven

Gos and I practically jogged to the hangar, where the Sentient
manipulated the encrypted control pad and we rushed through the door. I was
struck by the sheer size of the open space on the other side. It was a large
rectangular area, three stories tall, with metal walkways ringing the perimeter—the
elaborate structures extended all the way up to the ceiling. The walkways were
connected to one another by a web of crisscrossing stairwells, and I could make
out numerous Sentient technicians moving about the intricate framework.

The hanger was easily two hundred meters long, terminating in a
wide opening where I could look out and see the blackness of space. The vacuum was
held back, or the atmosphere in depending on your perspective, by an iridescent
force shield. The immensity of the room was made even more impressive by the
fact that it only contained a single ship, sitting off to one side.

I saw Del standing in the open hatch of the stealth craft, holding
a portable scanner and slowly moving it across the surface of roundish, red
object. The elongated orb was adorned with two bright yellow bands, one
circling it from top to bottom, and the other painted around its circumference.
 I estimated the size of the device at a little over a meter tall—its shape reminding
me of an inverted egg. It was balancing on its narrowly tapered edge in
defiance of gravity and any orthodox understanding of balance.

Even though I’d never seen one before, I knew that it had to be
the Mass Nullifier. My mind also noted the irony of the egg shape; a form that
usually produced life, was in this case, a powerful tool of death. Del looked
up as we approached and turned off the scanner. “Commander, the ship is ready.
We should depart immediately.”

The
Na’ardeen
began to rock from weapons fire, echoing
Del’s urgency; the impacts signaling the arrival of the attacking force that
had split away from the main Sentient fleet. The large ship began moving with
such force, either in attack or evasion, that I could actually feel its motions.
Whatever was happening, the warship’s extreme maneuvers were pushing the
stabilization systems to the limit.

I hopped up into the open hatchway. “Let’s go.”

I took a closer look at the bomb as I passed by it, experiencing
disbelief at the power contained in that small package. I filed the information
and its implications away, then followed Del to the front of the ship, where we
both assumed positions at control pedestals. On my viewer, I saw Gos run from
the room; as soon as the Sentient cleared the door, the atmosphere began to
vent from the hangar.

The ship’s shaking sent debris flying everywhere—tools and spare
parts now littered the deck. Apparently, there hadn’t been enough time to
secure everything before the attack. Once the air had been displaced, the
gravity field shut down, and the detritus began to float about aimlessly—harmlessly
bouncing off the hull as the vessel began to rise. Del spun the ship around to
face the opening and the twinkling force shield disappeared, exposing the
hangar to open space.

“I’m engaging the stealth device,” Del stated, then the ship
darted forward—trading the large hangar for the even greater vastness of space.

“What the…?” I exclaimed.

We’d almost been struck by an impossibly fast flash of white, as a
small attack craft sprinted across our bow. Unlike the Sentient capital ships, fighters
couldn’t detect us, no matter how close they got. While this prevented them
from attacking our ship, it also meant that they couldn’t see us to avoid
collisions either.

Del brought the ship down low relative to the bulk of the
Na’ardeen
,
and then we dove underneath—emerging on the other side of its substructure
where we narrowly avoided crashing into another attack fighter. The small ship
erupted into fragments in our wake—taken out by the
Na’ardeen’s
guns.
The explosion was so close that some pieces of the craft bounced off the rear
of our ship, other bits flew into the engine’s invisible emissions trail where
they flared white before burning up completely.

Once we escaped the immediate battle zone I turned my attention back
to my monitor—trying to use the information displayed there to gauge the probable
outcome of the struggle. The three large Sentient ships had already disgorged
their attack craft, and were now holding back from our group, firing their main
guns.

The
Na’ardeen
and
Invincible
had also sent out their
fighters, and were now performing evasive maneuvers—trying to avoid the heavy
fire pouring out of the Sentient dreadnoughts. Our ships appeared to be using
speed and random course changes to lower their target profiles. They were also
training the majority of their guns on the Sentient fast attack craft harassing
them.

The four destroyers escorting the
Invincible
broke away from
the battle proper and started concentrating all of their firepower on a single
Sentient dreadnought. It had no choice but to leave formation and address the threat—moving
off to engage them while the other two focused on the mixed Sector/Sentient formation.

That took some of the pressure off Thov and Prescott, but the
situation still looked bleak. The Sentients had an additional capital ship, and
more vessels overall, and that numerical advantage had borne fruit. Quite
simply, our fighter craft were disappearing faster than theirs. But the
coordinated fire coming from the
Na’ardeen
and
Invincible
—all directed
at the Sentient fighters—was starting to even things up.

In all, the joint Sentient/Sector strategy was an interesting
approach that made a lot of sense. Going toe to toe in a fight with the other
dreadnoughts would certainly spell defeat, so concentrating on the small ships
first—removing them from the field—might help change the odds. Hopefully, the
Sentients didn’t catch on until there were no fighters left to protect
them
from a counterattack.

Scanning out ahead of us, I saw that the main Sentient fleet finally
realized that the humans were trying to escape, and had finished repositioning
their ships to pursue them. The smaller, faster craft continued to engage the retreating
Sector forces, but the capital ships and other heavy hitters were only slowly
catching up.

“We will never get there in time,” I said.

“We will,” Del replied. “I am sacrificing the engines to make it
possible.”

I realized the Sentient wasn’t kidding when the ship began to
shudder in protest. The control pedestals not in use automatically shut down,
and the lights dimmed as the ship went on emergency lighting. Del was pouring
everything
into the propulsion systems.

“Won’t that increase our power signature, making it more difficult
to conceal our approach?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter, Commander. The Sentients are still the only
ones that can detect us, and they’ll think we’re part of their fleet. It’s only
when we make our intentions known that they’ll pay any attention to us at all.
By then, we’ll be too close for it to do them any good.”

“What’s to keep them from destroying the ship and simply removing
us from the equation?”

“Because they know the explosion would detonate the nullifier,
killing them anyway. Once it has been armed it’s…volatile.”

I suppose that is deterrent enough,
I
thought. But there was something else I didn’t understand.

“Del,” I began, considering my words carefully, “if your people
are dying anyway, and they
know
they are dying; why should they care
about the destruction of their fleet? The nullifier is no threat to those
already condemned to death.”

The Sentient looked up from its control panel. “Because then they
wouldn’t be alive to kill
you
. Not you personally, Commander; all humans.
They’ve all seen video communications from their families, learned about dead
children, spouses, and parents. In some cases, they’ve seen the diseased deaths
of loved ones in person.”

Del’s face took on a dangerous aspect. “If
I
thought you
were responsible, I would kill you right now with my bare hands.”

My hand moved to my TAC pistol, just as it had the very first time
I saw Del back on Evan’s Moon. The ambassador was a dangerous being, and the last
few days I’d spent working alongside it did nothing to change that fact.

“Then it’s a good thing I’m
not
responsible. Isn’t it, Ambassador?” 

“Yes,” Del replied, its mechanical eyes blazed red, then
diminished into a deep maroon. The anger was still there, but thankfully not
directed at me.

“My child and spouse and are dead, Commander, and I wasn’t there
with them when they perished. Their bodies lie rotting on Seveq—now beyond my
reach. They haven’t been sent to the sun as our religion dictates; none of my
people have.” Del’s stare was intense, but focused elsewhere, “It’s a blasphemy
I don’t know how to fix, and a shame I find hard to live with.”

The Sentient looked back down at its screen in dark contemplation.

I remembered my own rage on El Ferras; the madness that overcame
me when I found Natasha’s broken body. At first, I howled like an animal, and then
I killed like one. From that point on in the war, I was merciless…suicidal
even. I lost all compassion and empathy; at times, I feared I’d even abandoned
my own humanity—instead becoming something simultaneously clinical and feral.

A remorseless killer.

Nothing more.

How many lives had I taken trying to bring her back? Five hundred?
A thousand? Even more? How sad is it that I don’t even
know
. And for
what? The blood I shed didn’t seep into the soil—miraculously lifting Tasha
from the grave to rest in my arms again; she is still buried on that distant
world. Her corpse cold and lifeless, wearing a ring that matched the one I was
now twirling on my own finger. Oh yes, I knew exactly how the Sentients felt,
and
that
hunger for revenge is nearly impossible to quench.

“I see you understand, Commander,” Del said, pointing at my ring.
The Sentient had been watching the outward signs of my internal realizations. My
feelings, barely diminished over time, were etched into my face.

“It doesn’t change anything,” I replied.

“I think it does…Ben.”

Ben?
Del had never called me by name before.

And then it was on me; the Sentient leaped across the small space
between us—grabbing my neck so quickly that I had no chance to react. I felt a low
current begin to discharge from its fingers and leech into my body.

This is it
, I thought,
it is going to kill me
.

My head went numb and tingly, and I morosely resolved to start
wearing rubber suits if I somehow got out of this.

“Relax, Commander,” Del said softly, “I know you are a decent
person; doing your best to help both our peoples. I’m not going to kill you.”

My entire body became paralyzed, but I could still see and hear
perfectly.
What the hell was it up to?
The Sentient released my neck and
picked me up, casually throwing me over its shoulder. It carried me through the
doorway of the hub and back toward the rear of the ship. Halfway there, we stopped
at a circular hatch set into the corridor wall and the Sentient put me down gently.
It input some commands into a control panel overhead, and then the round door
slid inward and open. Del reached inside to adjust some other machinery.

“I’m sending you back, Commander. There is no reason for you to
die as well.”

I tried to reply…to protest, but my tongue was just as numb as the
rest of me.

“There is no guarantee that Captain Thov, or any of your forces
will survive this battle, so you may yet be captured or killed. It’s my hope
you will survive.”

Del picked me up; half stuffing-half sliding me into what I deduced
must be an escape pod. It was small, but not overly so; the white cylinder
naturally designed with Sentient physiology in mind. It was comparatively roomy
with a much smaller human occupant. There was a display on the curved wall in
front of me; the screen currently showing the two fleets locked in their deadly
sprint across the system.