Desperate Times (Lost Planet Warriors Book 1) (7 page)

S
parks blasted
from the overhead lighting and it went dead. The bridge was cast into half darkness, emergency lights cutting in to slash through the smoky gloom. Sirens blared out warnings. We were venting atmosphere badly.

“Forward screens are failing!” Carrick said.

“Rotate ship to shift the impacts to ventral screens,” I ordered. “Maintain the fire on their ship. We need to keep their screens down.”

My fingers hovered near the controls which would activate the self destruct sequence. We were close enough. The enemy’s shields were in tatters as much as ours, and the two ships were simply pummeling each other with weapons, blasting away with everything they had in hopes of tearing the other apart.

A few quick keystrokes and it would all be over. Part of me wanted that end. No more suffering, no more agonizing over my failure to save my home planet. All of those lives lost, because we had failed them in their moment of need. Everything that Cymtarra had once been was gone. It was easy to touch the despair, to feel the depths of that depressive hell.

But always there was a little spark sitting there between my consciousness and that final immolation. Kim’s light, her life, her capacity to keep hoping and trying even when it seemed hopeless, was a like a beacon in the night for me. She could have hidden when the Skree attacked. Instead she fought. She could have fled this battle and left us to fend for ourselves. Most species I’d met would have. But again she had turned desperation into a fighting chance.

I smiled at the thought. I would not give up hope.

A series of crashes against the hull brought my full attention back to the battle. Impacts that I knew all too well.

“Fighters have driven their noses into the ship,” Galadrin warned.

“They’ll be disgorging boarders,” I said. “Sound the alarm and get teams there to fight them off.”

The Skree fighters were built like torpedoes with guns. They were armed, and could dart about in a way that made them hard to target. They had little firepower, but the main threat they posed was that they could ram a ship and then release a team of Skree into the ship. We’d been boarded in a similar manner in the last battle, and some of the enemy had managed to hide away inside my ship, waiting for the chance to strike. That was the Skree we’d met and defeated near the engine room.

“We’ll need to ensure we get all of the damned things this time,” Carrick said, echoing my thoughts.

“Teams are on their way,” Galadrin said. “We’ve got reports of at least six hull breaches though. That’s a lot of Skree.”

I grunted acknowledgement. If Kim didn’t show up soon, I was going to have to blow the ship whether or not she made it. If those Skree broke through to the engines they could disable them, blocking my ability to overload them at all. I looked at the time stamp she’d sent for the millionth time. She would be here in seconds.

The seconds crawled past. I heard myself suck in a breath as the last one ticked away without any register of new jump activity. Then we were at plus one second. Plus two. Plus four. Plus ten.

She wasn’t coming. Something had happened. Perhaps her ship had some sort of mishap. Terran jump drives were using old technology that could easily have failed. Or she’d misjudged something small, some little bit of data that had been off by just enough. When trying to coordinate an attack like this, even a fraction of a percent was a huge variable.

There was a reason no one used jump drives to attack like this. It was as risky to the attacker as it was to the one attacked, and it would almost certainly fail. My fingers went back to the console where the self destruct was primed.

“Skree are breaking through the lines, sir. They’re making for the engine room,” Galadrin said.

I was out of time. We were at plus fifteen seconds. Fifteen seconds beyond where Kim had said she would arrive. Still I hesitated, wanting to give her every moment that I could. I had faith in her.

“Incoming jump signature!” Carrick shouted.

“Where?” I yanked my hand back from the console, reaching for another display.

“Right on top of us. Goddess!”

The main screen showed the brilliant, blinding display of energy coruscating around the jump opening. It was more beautiful than anything I’d ever seen. Whirling patterns of light clashed violently into one another in a symphony of explosive energy, bursting outward from the jump arrival point in a devastating wave.

“Bank the ship!” I called out. Our forward screens would never survive such an immense energy source. We’d be annihilated along with the Skree. “All power to aft screens! Brace for impact!”

I sank back into my chair and pulled a restraint across my chest. This was going to be rough. Space swept past dizzyingly fast on the view screen as we whirled in place, pivoting with every bit of energy the engines could give us. I’d never seen a wake like that, not in all my years in space. Where the hell had she picked up that much particle mass from? No wonder she was late. The extra mass would throw off the jump drives. Every particle brought along in the jump bubble’s wake added to the energy cost of the trip.

Now all of those particles were released with the pent up energy of being swept along in the bubble, transported through space at immense relative speed and building up potential energy. Reverted to real space, all of that potential energy was released in one massive kinetic blast.

The Nova Song shook as the wave hit. Our screens fluoresced into vibrant oranges and reds as they overloaded and began to fail. Energy blasted through weak points in the screens, smashing the ship. Explosions burst out from consoles all around the ship. I heard shouts of surprise. One bridge officer hadn’t managed to strap himself down in time. I watched him fly headlong across the bridge and crash into a stanchion. He didn’t move after the fall.

But the rocking subsided quickly. The burst was just a flash of energy, not a sustained attack. I brought the sensor data back up on my console. If there were still enemy capable of battle, then I needed to get the Nova Song back into the fight.

W
e were late
. I’d failed to calculate how the extra mass of the particles would impact the course change I made. Not that I could have done it any differently if I’d spotted it sooner. We were already pushing the jump drives as hard as they could go without exploding.

According to the Cymtarran nav computer, we were dead on target, but we’d be as much as a third of a minute late arriving. Such a trivial number, such a small bit of time. But in this case, even that little bit might be devastating.

“Please still be there,” I whispered. All I could think of was Bran, waiting there in real space, hoping we would arrive in time. I knew intuitively that he would have gone with my plan. I was certain he’d be able to lure the Skree right into the spot I picked out. But I’d missed the window. Was he still there? Would he have given up and blown his ship? Or worse, been destroyed?

“Exiting jump,” Kara said. She’d retaken her usual seat on the bridge. “Hang on!”

There was a lurch as the ship exited the bubble space and re-entered normal reality. And then the main screen lit up like the Fourth of July. Brilliant crimsons slashed in beams and bars across whorls of green and blue, while yellow lightning flashed between them all. It was like every single aurora borealis ever seen had all settled into one place and time, filling the space ahead of the Ariel with an explosive matrix of light and energy.

“Encroachments! Very near!” Tim called out. “We are danger close.”

“Evasive action,” I said. But by the time I said the words it was already too late to take any action.

We’d popped out almost directly on top of the Skree mothership, just a few hundred kilometers away. The particles we’d brought along slashed out ahead of us, a wave of devastation that hammered the enemy ship. A few screens were still up, protecting a handful of spots on the ship, and they tried to rotate those shields toward my burst. But it was way too late, and they had no time. The wave struck and passed the Skree ship in a fraction of a second, all of the destructive potential of those particles converting into energy as they impacted the hull.

The Skree mothership exploded in a massive fireball. Smaller ships nearby it detonated as well, in a chain of little popping blasts that mirrored the larger one. The energy release clouded our sensors completely. I couldn’t tell how many ships had survived, if any had at all.

Bran had managed to keep the enemy in place for me. But had he survived the jump wake, or had the Nova Song gone up in the same series of explosions that wiped out most of the Skree fleet?

I laid in a course for the Ariel that took us around the edge of the explosions. Not all of the dead ships’ mass had been converted into energy in the blasts. There was still a ton of debris out there, and the whole sector was going to be a terrible navigational hazard until someone got out here to clean it all up. The sensors gradually blinked back online.

There she was: the Nova Song. Limping, damaged, venting air from more holes than I could count. But the ship was mostly in one piece. As I watched, a series of fighters detached from her hull, attempting to escape.

“Kara, can you nail those fighters?” I asked.

“On it!” she said. A moment later there was a stuttering sound as the Ariel’s twin railguns hammered out a thousand little slugs a second. Two of the five fighters evaporated into mist as they flew into the beams. The others got out of range before she could retarget.

“Sorry, Kim,” Kara said.

“You got two,” I replied. “We’ll get the others later.”

The enemy ships remaining were reforming. Two of the cruiser size vessels had survived, along with a bunch of the fighters. They didn’t seem interested in coming over to play, though. As I watched the fighters were docking, the small cruisers making fast headway out of range. They were moving deeper into the solar system, not away from it.

“Contact the Nova Song,” I said.

“No response,” Tim said. “But I am picking up energy discharges aboard the ship. It looks like there’s still some fighting going on there.”

More boarders must have found their way onto Bran’s ship. He had to be out there fighting them with his crew. “Bring us closer to the ship. Aeron, you’re with me. Kara, you’ve got the ship again. Tim, have a security team meet me at the shuttle.”

I swept from the bridge before anyone could think of arguing with my orders. Not that I really thought they would. They’d debated me before - but I’d been right, and we’d finished off the invading ship as a result. Maybe I was feeling a little high on my success, but it was time to go render some assistance to our new Cymtarran friends.

Besides, I wanted to see Bran again. A lot. It was surprising how strong that feeling was.

The Ariel didn’t have a hangar, so we’d attached the shuttle to the outer hull at an airlock. Aeron and I made our way there now, where we linked up with three guys with guns. They even looked like they might know how to use them. Military training wasn’t a big deal for our space forces. It wasn’t like we needed it much. I had a feeling all of that was about to change.

Aeron flew us across the void between the two ships almost recklessly fast. I could feel his need to get into the fight, and I had to admit I was almost as eager as he was. I wanted to put my boot into the face of the enemy. Personally. They’d put me and mine at risk. I was going to make them pay.

The Nova Song’s shuttle bay didn’t open as we approached, so Aeron set us down on the outer hull instead, right between two Skree fighters. They looked like ticks on the surface of the ship with their noses buried deep into the hull. I knew the bad guys were using those as strong points. Aeron tapped a button on his armor, and a helmet slid up from inside the thing, complete with face mask.

I had the same button on mine. I tapped it experimentally, and the same helmet covered my face. He nodded with approval. “You will have limited air. The gauge will show on the faceplate. Look up and to your left.”

I did, and a little indicator appeared there. “Got it.”

“You’ve used one of these before,” he said, grabbing a plasma rifle from the shuttle’s weapon rack and handing it to me.

“Thanks. Let’s do this.”

“Agreed,” he said, an almost feral smile filling his face. I grinned back to match.

T
he battle was won
, thanks to Kim. But my ship might still be lost if we didn’t stop the boarders in time. Some of them had fled, scuttling back to their ships and blasting away from the Nova Song. For now we would let those go. The ones remaining were attempting to breach the engine room again. From there they could disable the ship completely, perhaps even destroy it.

Ironic that I myself had been prepared to use the ship’s engines to detonate her, and now I was trying to stop the enemy from doing the same thing.

Carrick remained on the bridge. I could tell it frustrated him no end to be left out of this final battle, but there was no one else I could trust to manage the ship while it was in such a state. We’d avoided most of the jump wake that obliterated the Skree vessel by turning our remaining screens into the blast and putting the mothership between us and the wake as much as possible. The blast had still taken out more of the ship’s systems than remained intact, though. We had life support and minimal power, but not much else.

The repair of my ship was going to be a long, drawn out thing. But it was worth doing. We’d killed the bastards, between my Cymtarrans and the Terrans.

Now I stalked down a passage toward the battle ahead. I had a plasma bolt pistol in one hand and my sword in the other. Either could be lethal against this enemy if used well. I’d had too much practice. Behind me rolled an entire squad of troops, fresh from beating back the enemy in another sector of the ship.

“They’re massing just ahead, sir,” one guardsman said.

“Let them,” I growled. “We will crush them like the insects they are. This day is ours!”

A chorus of cheers was their reply. These warriors were ready for battle. They wanted to bring the fight to the enemy. Today was just the beginning of our retribution. The reckoning would take time, but this was the start.

One claw poked out from around the corner just ahead of us. I lopped it off with my sword, eliciting an alien shriek from the creature it belonged to. It lunged at me, and I stabbed it in the face. Like that was a signal, they rushed around at us, packing the hall with their mass as they steamed forward.

I fired again and again, picking targets carefully as I could. They pressed in, rushing us, and I was forced to use my sword to fend off claws. In these close quarters their bulk was a great advantage, but my troops and I were battle-hungry, and our armor fended off the worst of their blows.

Still, there were casualties. One of my guardsmen went down beside me. A trooper behind me tried to scoop him back and out of the battle, but the distraction was deadly - a claw stabbed down and broke his armor, piercing his chest. The stabbing claw lifted him aloft. He was still fighting, blasting smoking holes in the thing with his gun.

I sliced upward with my blade, cutting the claw free from its owner. He toppled to the floor and more men grabbed him, hauling him clear of the fighting. With luck and quick care he might still recover. His nanites were undoubtedly already trying to repair the massive injury and fighting to keep him alive.

My sword sliced through the wounded Skree’s mouth, stabbing deep. It gave a gurgling sound and fell to the floor, blocking the path of its fellows and giving us a small bit of breathing space.

It was then that I realized the pressure of their assault had eased. I could hear plasma fire from somewhere nearby. Someone was attacking the things from the other side of the corner. Distracted, the Skree didn’t know which way to turn. With plasma bolts coming at them from two directions at once, they were vulnerable.

“Now!” I shouted, and rushed forward. I knew the troops remaining behind me would follow as best they could. We had to take advantage of this moment, take the fight to the enemy and crush them here.

My blade skittered off a carapace, but I danced under the claw it swung at my head and fired up into the belly of the thing, wounding it. Another one saw me and tried to stab down. I parried the blow with my sword, the shock jarring me all the way to my shoulder even with my armor’s support. Then my men were there, pouring in against the remaining enemy. Stabbing with swords, blasting with plasma guns, we took the enemy down one after another.

At last there were no more Skree to fight. One claw twitched, and one of my newer recruits blasted it, eliciting a few chuckles from the other men and a gentle cuff to the back of his head from his officer. I couldn’t blame the novice. It seemed to me like we’d been fighting in this corridor for hours, although in reality not more than a few minutes could have passed.

“Carrick, we’ve wiped this group out. Any more detected?” I radioed to the bridge.

“No, sir. All sectors report boarders defeated.”

“Have a sector by sector sweep done anyway,” I told him. “We want to make certain there are no hidden stowaways.”

“Yes, sir. Our borrowed shuttle has returned,” he added.

“Excellent,” I said. That brought my thoughts back to Kim, of course. Her ship had come out of jump intact, but the last I’d seen she had been engaging some of the remaining Skree fighters. In her antiquated vessel, that was dangerous. “How are our Terran friends doing?”

Five figures rounded the corner. All of them carried plasma rifles. They had to be the source of the fire that had come to our aid. Two wore golden Cymtarran armor, the others a sort of space armor I hadn’t seen before. One of the golden clad figures was a being I would know anywhere.

“We’re just fine, thanks,” Kim said.

The joy I felt at seeing her alive and safe banished the last of my battle fever in an instant. My sword and pistol dropped from fingers that suddenly seemed to have minds of their own. Kim snapped back the helmet from her face, letting her hair fall down around her shoulders. No sight had ever given me more joy. Splashed with gore from the dead Skree, battered, tired, and worried, she was still the best thing I’d seen all day.