Dark Space: The Invisible War (17 page)

By the time he stepped back onto the bridge deck, he was already barking orders to his crew. “Nav! Set course for the Dark Space gate. Engineering, check all systems green and report! Comms, we’re on orange alert, notify the crew and have them standing ready at their stations as soon as we exit the gate.”

“Engineering reports all systems green.”

“Nav, setting course.”

“Sir, most of the crew is asleep, should I wake them with the orange alert?”

Brondi shook his head as he reached the end of the gangway. “Set their alarms for an hour before we exit SLS and update readiness then. No need to deprive them of sleep.”

The captain whom Brondi had appointed and then left on deck to deal with the minutiae of running the
Valiant
walked up to Brondi now. “Sir,” he stopped and saluted one step down from the gangway, bringing him to eye-level with Brondi.

“Yes?” Brondi asked, frowning at the dark-skinned captain. He had white hair which was suggestive of his age, but the body and musculature of a much younger man. His eyes were dark and glinting with steel.

“Are we going to chase the
Defiant
through Sythian Space? While you were off deck I came up with a plan to hunt them down.”

Brondi was already shaking his head. “No, Captain Thornton.” He turned to look out the viewports and nod at the distant space gate—the new Dark Space gate, which was really just the in-system gate, repositioned to replace the shattered cloud of debris that the overlord and his crew had left of the old one. “The
Defiant
is only one ship. We have a whole fleet out there waiting for us to take command, and it’s time that we did so.” Brondi turned back to his captain with a gaping smile. As he met the captain’s curious gaze, Brondi mentally activated the holoskin he now wore.

Captain Thornton gasped, “Overlord Dominic!” Soon every eye on the bridge had turned to stare at Brondi in his new form, uncertainty and shock warring across their faces.

But when Brondi spoke once more, it was still his voice which reached their ears. “Relax,” he said.

“Is that a holoskin?” the captain asked, his mouth agape. “Where did you get that?”

Brondi smiled. Holoskins were supposed to be very rare. Not only were they illegal, but they were made of strictly-controlled substances and very expensive shielding. “This is the overlord’s very own holoskin,” Brondi replied. The confused looks which answered that revelation prompted Brondi to explain. “Our beloved Dominic was an imposter.”

Now the bridge grew loud with gasps and exclamations from the crew, while Captain Thornton just stared straight ahead, his eyes glazed and unblinking as his mind struggled to catch up.

Brondi shrugged and then turned in a slow circle to address everyone. “Whoever he was, the overlord has left us with a great gift! He’s left us himself.” Turning to the captain, Brondi shook his head. “Except I’m not tall enough to pull it off. Would you do us the honor of being the overlord, Captain?” Captain Thornton just went on staring at him, and Brondi nodded, his mouth gaping in a smile once more. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Brondi turned his smile out to space. “It’s time we took back our birthright—” He nodded once at the gate which was now growing steadily larger in the forward viewports. “—freedom.”

*  *  *

Ethan strode onto the bridge with Tova walking silently behind him. She was naked, so as not to overly upset any crew members who might remember the Gors’ black armor from the war. As a concession to Tova’s physical needs, the lights on the bridge had been dimmed and the temperature dropped to just a few degrees above zero, adding to the frigid silence which swept across the bridge as she came in. Atton was waiting with Commander Caldin on the far side of the captain’s table, his eyes on them as they approached. Atton gave a shallow nod which Ethan returned as he turned to address the crew.

“Deck Officer Grimsby, open the intercom to the rest of the ship, I need to make an announcement.”

Grimsby worked quietly at his station for a second before nodding up at Ethan.

Ethan took a deep breath, and then he began. “Good morning,
Defiant.
This is your overlord speaking. We are about to set out on a journey to cross Sythian Space in order to make direct contact with our forces at Obsidian Station. Without a cloaking device, it will be dangerous, but I can assure you we have reviewed all of the alternatives, and setting out in the
Defiant
to cross Sythian Space was the very last option we considered. There are no easy ways out of what’s to come.

“As you may or may not have already heard, we have a Gor aboard to help us make the trip safely. The Mighty Tova is going to help us detect cloaked Sythian ships, and to make contact with her crèche mates aboard Obsidian Station before we arrive. We are crossing just two systems before we will stop to launch another, smaller vessel to complete the journey. Tova will go along for that final leg of the journey, and we will wait at a designated safe location for reinforcements to arrive with fuel and a relief crew. Our preliminary recon shows that we will encounter only mild resistance while crossing the two systems between us and our launching off point, but we are about to conduct a recon of Taylon, where we are now, to confirm this. Let’s hope there are no Sythians lying in wait for us. From this point on, we are on orange alert. Our departure is set for twelve hours from now, so we’re going to have to work hard to get everything ready before then. Make sure you are standing by your stations and reachable on the comms at all times. Ruh-kah!”

Ethan ended his speech and gestured for the comm officer to turn off the intercom mode. Some muted grumbling followed Ethan’s introductory speech, but Ethan ignored it. The crew didn’t have to be happy that they were working with Tova, they just had to accept it.

Ethan turned back to his son. “You’d better get to the flight deck.”

Atton nodded and started toward the doors at the back of the bridge. Ethan caught him by the arm as he walked by. “You know you don’t have to do this, right?” Ethan said in a quiet voice.

Atton shrugged. “If not me, then who? We’re short of capable pilots.”

Ethan grimaced. “Your mother would kill me.”

Atton gave a sad smile. “She would, but she’s not here.”

“Yet.” Ethan raised a warning finger. “Don’t think I won’t tell her when she is.”

“And get yourself into trouble? She’d kill you, too.”

Ethan snorted with laughter. “Then we’ll die together, won’t we?”

“Guess so,” Atton replied, grinning wryly at him before starting off at a jog. Ethan watched him go with a painful lump rising in his throat. Letting his son join the
Defiant’s
fighter screen was like signing the boy’s death certificate himself. Ethan didn’t expect to make it to Obsidian Station with very many of their pilots still among the living, but Atton had insisted he be allowed to fly one of the remaining novas, and like father like son he also had an “A” pilot rating—his kill score was lower, making him 4A rather than 5A, but overall that rating still marked him as a superb pilot—so if anyone were going to live through the crossing, it would be him.

And Ethan couldn’t argue with the boy’s logic. If their capable pilots didn’t fly, then what chance did any of them stand? Ethan turned away with a shaky sigh as the doors swished shut behind Atton. Besides, the necessity of the matter, there was no guarantee that Atton would be any safer aboard the
Defiant
. At least in a small, maneuverable fighter he could dodge most of the enemy fire.

The
Defiant
,
on the other hand, would be a sitting duck.

Chapter 11

A
lara sat at the small table below the viewport in her parent’s quarters, her arms crossed, her gaze averted from the room as she stared out into space. She’d been doing her best to ignore her parents—if they even really were her parents. They could just as easily be two imposters and she would never know. They certainly felt like imposters.

Her memories, the ones that she could bring to mind and the ones that felt real, were of growing up in a girl’s orphanage. When she was just 16 the orphanage had run out of funds, and Alec Brondi had generously agreed to take in all of the orphans. He’d raised them like his own daughters, and then he’d taught them a valuable trade, one which would enable them to live in comfort and ease while the rest of humanity starved to death.

As for the old couple sharing a room with her aboard the
Defiant
, they were just a pair of overbearing strangers who wouldn’t let her out of their sight. She’d spent the night in the overlord’s quarters, and nothing had happened, but her “parents” hadn’t been satisfied with those assurances. Since then, she’d been prohibited from leaving the room. They’d brought her breakfast, and just a moment ago the old man had left to get her an early lunch. She’d sent him off with that request more to shut him up than out of any real desire for food—he’d been telling her stories from her childhood in order to trigger her memories, but she couldn’t remember any of the things he’d been recounting.

Alara looked away from the viewport to see the old man’s wife, Darla, standing to one side of the room, staring at her with a heartbroken smile and watery violet eyes.

“What?” Alara asked. She wasn’t buying the act.

The old woman flinched at her tone, but Alara couldn’t have cared less. These two weren’t paying her to be nice, so why should she be?

“Oh, nothing, dear it’s all right.” The woman looked away and sniffed.

Alara’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t see why I can’t leave the room. I’m a grown woman, you know. I have a right to live my life the way I want to. You can’t keep me locked up in here.”

Darla looked back with tears dribbling down her cheeks. She wiped them away with the backs of her hands. “Oh, my dear sweet little girl, we’re not trying to limit your freedom; we’re just trying to help you avoid making any mistakes you’ll regret later on.”

“You mean when I get my memories back.”

“Yes.”

“What makes you so sure that your little girl is still there to bring back? I’ll tell you one thing, Darla, I’ve looked for her, and there’s not even a trace.”

The old woman’s face crumpled anew. “Excuse me,” she said, and hurried to the bathroom.

Alara frowned, watching the door swish shut behind her. It wasn’t entirely true that she couldn’t find any trace of the person she’d supposedly been, but it was close enough to the truth. Whoever she’d once been was lost in a sea of much sharper and clearer memories from an entirely different life.

A knock sounded at the door, and Alara assumed it was Dr. Kurlin. She eyed the bathroom a moment longer, waiting for Darla to come out and see who it was, but the bathroom stayed shut, and the knocking sounded again. With a sigh Alara got up and went to answer the door.

She waved the door open with her wrist, and was surprised to find a young man standing on the other side. She was even more surprised to see that it was the man from the bar last night, the one who’d tried to stop her from leaving with Commander Adari.

“Hello again, Alara,” he said.

“My name’s Angel,” she replied, frowning.

“We can make that your call sign.”

“My what?”

He held out a black flight suit which matched the one he wore. “Your call sign. It’s how we’ll refer to you while you’re flying with the squadron.”

Alara shook her head. “You must have the wrong door, Captain. I’m not a nova pilot.”

The man grinned, revealing a perfect set of straight white teeth. “Not yet you’re not.”

“Hoi there! What’s the meaning of this?”

Alara turned to see Darla coming up behind her with a scowl. The old woman squeezed into the open doorway beside her and jerked her chin at the officer standing outside. “You can put that back on the rack where it belongs. My daughter isn’t going anywhere, least of all into the cockpit of a nova.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Vastra, but that’s not your choice to make.” The man’s eyes met Alara’s once more. “What do you say, Angel? You up for it?”

Feeling suddenly nervous she shook her head. “I don’t know how to fly.”

“I think you’ll be surprised at what you know, but in any case your fighter’s been equipped with a flight trainer AI to help you get over the learning curve.”

“I . . .”

“Or you can stay here.” He shrugged. “But you’re going to miss out on all the action.” He winked and shot her a meaningful grin. “I’ll fly your wing myself. We’ll make a
great
team. I think you’ll find flying with me to be very
stimulating
.” The officer was drawing out his words and speaking in a soft, slow voice, so that everything he said took on a whole other meaning.

Alara’s gaze turned speculative. She thought she knew what the captain was really after, and that was just fine by her. Clearly this was the new code language they’d had to resort to in order to get around her overzealous chaperones. Alara smiled and snatched the flight suit out of the officer’s hands. “I’ll be back later,
Mom
.”

“Alara!”

The old woman made a grab for her arm as she hurried through the open door, but the captain intercepted it by stepping between them.

“You can’t take her!” Darla insisted. “I won’t let you!”

Alara turned to see her erstwhile mother struggling with the officer, hitting him and kicking him, eliciting grunts and yelps from the young man. At last he grew impatient and shoved her away from him. She stumbled back into the wall, hitting it hard, and nearly falling to the floor. She recovered, rubbing her shoulder and glaring at the captain with murder glinting in her violet eyes.

The captain gave a deep sigh and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Vastra—for that—but you must understand, she’s no longer your responsibility. She’ll be assigned her own quarters on the flight deck. You can look for her there if you’d like to visit. Good day.” The captain saluted and then turned and started down the corridor at a brisk stride.

Alara had to struggle to keep up. “You didn’t need to be so rough with her.”

“It wasn’t my intention.”

They reached the lift tubes at the end of the corridor and waited for the first one to arrive.

“You’re Captain Reese, the man from the bar last night, aren’t you?” Alara asked.

“That’s right.”

“The overlord told me about you.”

“Oh?” He quirked an eyebrow at her. “Good things I hope?”

She smiled. “He said you’d make a good friend.”

“Ah.” The lift arrived and they stepped inside.

Alara brushed up against the captain as he scanned the control panel inside the lift. “So . . . where are you taking me?” Her hands found his biceps and squeezed.

He punched the button labeled
Flight Deck
and turned to her with a tight smile. “For flight training,” he replied.

“What?” Alara took a quick step back from him. The lift doors closed and it fell swiftly to the specified deck. “You mean that wasn’t just a ruse to get me away from Darla?”

“No, why would you think that?” the captain asked innocently.

Alara crossed her arms. “I’m not actually going to fly a nova.”

“Too late. You’re already enlisted.”

“I didn’t sign anything.”

He took a step toward her. “I’m sorry, did I say enlisted? I meant conscripted.”

“Frek you!” she said and gave him a violent shove.

“Hoi,” he chuckled. “Watch how you speak to your superior officers.”

“What are you going to do if I refuse to fly?”

The officer shrugged. “I’m not going to do anything, but if you don’t fly, you won’t get back to the
Defiant
.”

Alara’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

The lift stopped and the doors swished open. “We don’t have enough simulator pods for all the trainees, so to speed things along training missions are going to be conducted in the cockpits of real novas.” Alara gaped at him, and he gestured to the open doors. “After you.”

“Go frek yourself!”

“Don’t worry, if you flunk the mission, you won’t have to fly.”

“Good, because that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“Well, don’t throw your scores. The fleet needs you, Angel.”

Alara stormed out of the lift, calling out over her shoulder, “Frek the fleet, too!”

She heard the captain chuckling behind her as she went. “Well, Angel, if you flunk this test, you can go back to doing exactly that.”

She turned to glare at him. “Watch it.”

“So you do have some self-respect. That’s good. Hold on to it. You’re going to need every shred once the other pilots discover what you do for a living.”

Alara glared at him with naked fury. “Of all the men in the galaxy,” she said, picking her words carefully. “You’re the worst.”

The captain’s laughter echoed back to her ears. “You would know!”

*  *  *

The briefing room was cold and airy. It was an auditorium with a double high ceiling and tiered seating for about forty. Alara sat through the briefing with a bored look on her face. The auditorium was crowded, with almost every seat occupied by officers and trainees dressed in identical black flight suits, all balancing shiny black helmets on their laps. Alara looked down at her own helmet and studied the inscrutable visor instead of paying attention to the briefing. She couldn’t fly a nova! What was Captain Reese thinking?

She felt his elbow connect sharply with her ribs, and she looked up with a scowl to see him nod down to the man on the podium.

“Pay attention,” he whispered.

She smiled thinly at him, and then turned to face forward again. Why should she risk her life for these people? They were nothing to her. She didn’t owe them anything. What had people ever done for her besides abandon her and use her? The only person she owed anything to was Alec Brondi.

Commander Adari’s deep voice began cutting through her thoughts. “The
Defiant
has moved out to the edge of the Stormcloud Nebula in preparation for our first SLS jump.” The commander turned to the holoscreen behind him and gestured to it, bringing a glowing star map to life. The lights automatically dimmed so they could see the map better.

“We’re currently situated here.” The
Defiant’s
position was indicated by a green icon. “And we’re going to follow a flight path along these coordinates.” He gestured to the screen once more and a jointed green line appeared in three dimensions, joined with dots wherever the heading changed until it reached a lasso shape that curved around the system’s only planet. “We’re going to conduct a quick recon of the system, doing a basic slingshot around Taylon before heading back here. Your waypoints are already set, so all you have to do is master the flight controls well enough to reach them. This is as easy as it gets, so when you get out there, don’t go skriffy on me. You’re flying real novas, and although there should be no actual danger on this mission, it is a live exercise and a nova can be more than dangerous enough if you don’t follow the instructions in your tutorial
carefully
.