Far From Home: The Complete Series (3 page)

“Aye,” Greene said.

The
Defiant
lurched to one side, its nose veering away from the convoy to face the giant Draxx ship.

“Locked,” Greene reported.

“Fire both birds!” Singh ordered.

The viewscreen showed the two sparkling balls rush into the irregular hull of the Draxx ship. There was a shimmer of light as they exploded against the ship’s energy shielding. Small explosions bloomed along its outer hull but the ship stood whole.

And still firing.

“Minor damage,” Chang reported.

Singh’s face went white with shock. “Banks, get us out of here!”

At the helm, Lieutenant Kyle Banks’s hands flew across the controls. The
Defiant
turned.

King became aware that the batteries were still.

“The enemy vessel has stopped firing,” Chang said, studying her readouts in confusion.

“Maybe we did more damage than we thought,” Greene offered, standing from his station.

Singh cocked his head to one side. “I don’t know …” he said.

Kyle took the
Defiant
above the last of the convoy as they Jumped away.

“Firing up the Jump Drive,” Ensign Boi reported.

“On my count,” Jessica said.

“Incoming bird!” Chang yelled. All of the bridge crew turned to face her. “It’s some kind of stealth torpedo. Our sensors can’t get a proper lock. Five seconds!”

“All hands, brace for impact. Banks, evasive -” Singh started to order.

The Draxx weapon hit. Singh was knocked back into his chair.

King flinched but looked up in time to see Lieutenant-Commander Greene fly across the bridge and strike the far wall.

He’s dead,
she thought.
We’re all dead.

Circuits blew all over the bridge. Sparks rained down. The
Defiant
rode an earthquake. The emergency klaxons sounded.

Jessica hit the comm. panel at her station, “Emergency. Medical team to the bridge. Medical team to the bridge.”

A fire erupted by the side of the helm. Lieutenant Banks sprang from his seat to grab an extinguisher.

“Damage report!” Singh shouted over the din.

King got up and ran to Greene’s side. A gash in the side of his head pumped blood that formed a thick, red puddle on the floor. She removed her uniform jacket, bunched it up, and held it hard against the cut.

“Multiple hull breaches decks thirteen through to sixteen. Teams are working on them. Power down to thirty percent. Damage to the fin. Coolant from the Jump Drive leaking into space,” Chang said. The last was a blow to them all. There was no way the Drive would work without the proper coolant. She looked up at her Captain in need of direction, reassurance.

King could see that Singh wasn’t sure he could give it.

“I want all repair teams to make the Jump Drive their number one priority!”

A medical team rushed onto the bridge. King handed over to them as they worked on the floor to stop Greene bleeding out. Despite herself, she could feel her eyes fill with hot tears. She bit them back.

Now is not the time.

“Sir! They’re firing again!” Chang said.

King ran to the now-vacant weapons station and quickly targeted the incoming warhead with the batteries. They fired a hail of energy against the warhead, successfully detonating it before it could hit. The
Defiant
shook.

“Fire reported in munitions tubes,” Chang called.

King shot Singh a look. “Captain, if that fire reaches the Missiles …”

Singh got up. “Commander, you have the bridge. See to it we don’t let any of their birds through. Buy us some time.”

“Captain, I’ll go,” King said. She walked toward him. Singh smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“No. This is
my
ship. I’ll go,” he said, his voice strong and sure. “Keep her together for me.”

He turned and left the bridge. Jessica looked about. Every eye on the bridge watched her as she sat down in the captain’s chair.

“Ensign Rayne, take the weapons station. Co-ordinate with Lieutenant Chang and try not to let any of their birds through,” she ordered. “Banks, try and get us some distance. We need to give the repair team time to fix the Drive.”

“Aye ma’am!” they reported in unison as they followed her orders.

* * *

“I’ve seen the data from the sensors, and the visual logs. That was a big ship, Commander. The biggest I’ve ever seen that’s not one of ours. And you say the Duotonic Missiles had very little effect?” Grimshaw asked.

“No. They had a very powerful energy shield around their hull, unlike any I’ve ever encountered. It seemed to absorb the hit. The damage was minor at best,” King said.

Grimshaw nodded slowly, in thought. “I see.”

“I think that if this is the new class of Draxx ship, then they’ve upped their game sir,” King said.

“Yes, well, I will be sure to pass on the data from the
Defiant
to Central Command. I’m sure it will assist them in their analysis of the new Draxx starship classes.”

King frowned. “Sir?”

“We’ve known for some time that they’ve been focusing their efforts on building bigger, better ships. Several months ago we came into possession of intel pointing to a ship of the size you encountered,” Grimshaw explained. “But we weren’t sure if they had the capability, or the resources, to build it. Evidently they have.”

“How many of these things are there?” King asked.

“We think just the one at the minute. They call it the
Inflictor
. The first of a new class,” Grimshaw said. He shook his head. “I don’t know … just when you think the conflict has abated, it goes a stage further. This is just the beginning of something bigger I feel. The next stage in the conflict.”

King let that sink in.

“Where were we?” Grimshaw asked.

King looked up at the ceiling as she found the words.

“The fire …” she said.

* * *

“Fire team, report!” King snapped into the comm.

The speakers issued a loud roar, filled with clicks and static. The voice of a male officer broke through it.

“Lieutenant Morris here, sir. The fire has breached sections two, three and four. We’re trying to fight it back and stop it spreading further.”

“What’s causing it to take hold like that?” King asked.

“Propellant leak, sir.”

“Okay, Lieutenant. Do what you can. Is the Captain with you?”

“Yes sir. The Captain is assisting the crew trying to control the fire in section three.”

“Keep me informed,” King said, closing the channel.

The
Defiant
was rocked by a direct hit. She gripped the sides of the captain’s chair despite being strapped in.

“Load whatever tubes we have left at our disposal and return fire,” King told Ensign Rayne.

Another hit made the
Defiant
skew to one side. The bridge tilted and all hands took hold of something to keep from spilling out of their seats.

“Re-stabilizing,” Banks shouted as he fought with the controls to bring the
Defiant
level again.

“We can’t take much more of this. Are the tubes ready?” King asked Rayne.

“Yes sir, ready to launch,” Rayne said.

“Fire starboard tubes.”

The front display changed to a view of their starboard side. The huge Draxx battleship loomed to the side of them, the jagged, almost haphazard design of it like some deformed mythological sea monster. Eight Duotonic Missiles spiralled away from the
Defiant
on a direct collision course. The Draxx ship made no attempt to stop them hitting. They struck with full force. The energy shield on the Draxx ship erupted in white light as it took on the full brunt of their explosive power and absorbed the majority of its energy. The shockwaves rocked the
Defiant
as if it were fighting a rough sea, but the Draxx ship remained unscathed.

Union starships only ever carried twenty or so missiles at any one time, due to their power.

“Jesus …” Olivia Rayne said in disbelief.

“Right. Lieutenant Banks, full power to the engines. Drain every system if you have to,” King ordered. “Chang, I want you to -“

An explosive scream tore through the
Defiant
. Bits of hull and particles blasted out from the bow of the ship. The secondary tactical console to the left of Chang’s station burst into flame and spat white sparks. Chang took a fire extinguisher from the wall and smothered the console with it. The ventilation systems whined as they sucked toxic fumes from the bridge and out into space.

Before the bridge crew could say that it came from inside the ship, King knew it was the Missile bay.

She unbuckled herself, got out of the chair and ran to her own station below Chang’s. She saw the flashing red sections of the ship illuminated on her screen and swallowed, hard.

She jabbed a finger at the comm. panel. “Captain Singh. Come in please.”

Silence.

“Captain Singh?” King repeated.

Silence.

She looked at Lieutenant Banks. She tried not to let the distress register on her face.

King stood.

“Lieutenant Banks, you have the con,” she said on her way off the bridge. “Keep her flying until I get back.”

She caught a few looks of bewilderment as she left, but they were background noise to her need to see that Captain Singh was still alive.

I shouldn’t be leaving the bridge. This isn’t the time to have a personal crisis,
she told herself.

But it was no use. She’d already reached the end of the corridor and slid down the ladder to the deck below. Then she ran.

* * *

Immediately following the explosion, the fire team had dragged the bodies of the wounded and deceased out behind the nearest blast door. The tear in the hull made short work of sucking the atmosphere into the vacuum of space, along with the fire. The blast door separated them from the severe pull of the void through the broken hull. If the fire team had wasted any time they would have been sucked out as well.

King spotted Singh straight away. He lay on the floor, his helmet off. Two medics worked to keep him alive. They looked up as King approached.

Doctor Clayton stood. Jessica went to fall at Singh’s side, but the doctor stopped her. He placed his hands on her shoulders, held her at arm’s length.

“Commander, look at me.
Look at me
,” he said.

Her eyes locked onto his.

Dr. Clayton’s eyes were full of regret, his voice firm but tinged with sadness.“He’s dying. The explosion tore him apart. There’s too much … there’s nothing I can do for him now …”

Jessica looked over his shoulder. She saw the blood that covered the Captain and coated the floor around him. Her hand went to her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Dr. Clayton said. “He doesn’t have long.”

He let go of her, dug his hands into his jacket pockets.

She walked past him and knelt by Singh’s side. He looked up at her and smiled. He was burnt all over. She fought to hide her horror. Jessica knew the Captain needed to see all the strength she could muster.

The mangled mess of his legs. The blood pooling from his mid-section. His face grey, washed-out. Tears streamed down her face.

Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Please don’t go, please.”

Captain Singh shook his head slowly. Smiled. “Jess … We each have our time. My own is at an end …”

“No …” she managed to say.

Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. “Now it is
your
turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”

He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued slowly from between his lips.

“No …”

She cradled him in her arms.

* * *

“Water, Commander?”

“Yes please,” King said.

Admiral Grimshaw handed her a glass. She thanked him and took several mouthfuls of it before setting it in front of her on the desk.

“Why do you think he insisted on going down there and helping to fight that fire?” Grimshaw asked her.

King shrugged. “He was like that. He was hands-on. I remember one morning the cook fell ill so he got behind the kitchen counter and made the breakfast himself. That’s just how he was. It’s what made him such a good Captain, in my opinion. He was involved in all aspects of the ship. It’s one of the reasons the crew loved him so much.”

“Noted,” Grimshaw said as the slightest evidence of a smile touched his lips.

King closed her eyes, took a deep breath. She felt the weight of her own heart in her chest, fit to burst.

“I know it’s hard, Commander. But please continue,” Grimshaw said softly.

King looked down at her hands …

* * *

She took a minute to compose herself, to take her grief, put it in a box and lock it away inside until later. She looked on as medical orderlies zipped Singh into a blue body bag.

“Are you okay?” Dr. Clayton asked her. He looked upset himself.