Shadows of Golstar (28 page)

She had never been held by a stranger and had
involuntarily recoiled at his touch. Owens appeared not to have noticed. She
could just make out his words over the din. She immediately saw the reason for
his actions and stopped her struggles to squirm out of his grasp. She tried to
relax her stiff bearing.

She shouted back, “Keep going straight, then at the
end of this corridor take the left branch. The life craft docking bay is just
beyond.” She had barely finished when she felt him increase his pace. His gait was
smooth and measured. She felt as if she were flying down the corridor. He
seemed to run effortlessly. He held her close to his chest and she could feel
the smooth movement of his muscles, his steady beating heart and even
breathing.

Owens had felt Sharné initially stiffen as he picked
her up, but after she stopped fighting him, she had gradually relaxed as he ran
with her in his arms. Even under these calamitous circumstances, he couldn’t
help but notice that the firm body cradled in his arms was definitely feminine.
Her hair brushed his cheek and smelled of citrus and wildflower.

His thoughts were quickly brought back to the present
when a particularly loud sound of tearing metal and crackling electrical
discharges came from somewhere up ahead of them. A haze of thickening smoke was
beginning to mask the ceiling and the harsh smell of burning insulation
intensified. The ship shuddered again but Owens barely slowed. He knew that
time was rapidly running out. He reached the end of the long corridor and quickly
turned left as Sharné had directed.

Almost losing his footing, he was just able to stop in
time to avoid disaster. They both looked in dismay at the corridor ahead.
Instead of a clear path to the lifeboat dock, the corridor was caved in. A
solid mass of twisted metal was blocking their way. He shuddered to think what
would have happened had he not been able to stop. Sharp and pointed pieces of
broken metal protruded from the pile of debris.

He stared blankly at the destruction wondering what to
do next. Blue-black smoke curled from shorted circuitry and mangled cabling
peeked throughout the wreckage. There was a corresponding ragged hole in the
corridor’s wall adjacent the blockage. Well, he thought, now at least he knew
where the loud noise had come from. It probably blew an energy coupling, Owens
thought. As he surveyed the damage, something nagged at the back of his mind.
He quickly dismissed it for later, gauged the mass of wreckage and decided that
even his Loder muscles would be insufficient to clear the tangle of shattered
bulkheads and broken supports in time. They would not go on in this direction.

He looked to Sharné and saw that her composure
remained intact. Still resting in his arms, she tried to think of an alternate
route. Try as she might, she could not think of one. They were so close, but
they could not make it beyond the blockage. She looked at the adjacent hole in
the corridor’s wall and saw what might have been a storage room with its
ceiling partially collapsed, making it impassable as an alternate route.

She was mildly surprised to find she was not
frightened by this turn of events. Instead, she felt only regret and sadness;
regret for things never to be realized; a heavy sadness for her people. She
felt like weeping but could not muster the tears.

She took a deep breath and then slowly turned her head
to face Owens. She put her mouth close to his ear and said, “You may as well
put me down now. I do not know of another route. I can think of no clear path
to the emergency ship. We have nowhere else to go; this was the sole location
of the only working emergency craft with engines onboard. I am sorry. I regret
that you have taken such a long journey only to meet with…” She found that she
could not finish.

Her statement surprised Owens. He couldn’t believe
there was only one working life-craft in their vicinity on a ship of this size.
Surely, the Golstar military didn’t take ‘going down with the ship’ that
seriously. But Sharné had said it with such finality that he had to accept her
words, but another idea had already occurred to him.

He still held her and her face was close to his. He
inhaled her sweet fragrance. It had a bracing effect on him. No lady, he
thought, I don’t give up that easily, at least not while we’re still breathing.
You forgot that we
do
have an alternative. Then with some reluctance, he
gently put her down and leaned toward her ear.

He raised his voice to be heard over the noise, “I’m
not quite ready to throw in the towel. There may yet be a way out.” He
brandished his ship’s comp-link that was still attached to his wrist. He raised
the comp-link, which had been beeping furiously since the attack began. It was
barely loud enough for him to hear it over the cacophony; he had ignored it
until now. As he activated it, he bent down and fingered some of the debris
littering the corridor in apparent distraction.

He picked up a piece of the wreckage and looked at it.
He turned the ragged piece of metal over when the signal verification tone
warbled and Hec came on the comp-link. He dropped the shard and rubbing his
hand on his thigh, he straightened. With an apologetic expression aimed at
Sharné he said, “Hec, you can drop the AI act. What’s the ship’s status?”

Hec immediately responded, “Where are you? All hell’s
breaking loose out here. This Golstar ship is taking one hell of a pounding and
from what I tell, the attack is originating from more than one ship.”

“Never mind that,” Owens ordered. “What about the
Holmes
?”

Hec quickly responded. “That’s the good news at least.
The
Holmes
is fully functional and in the green across the board. We’re
lucky to be positioned on the backside of the ship, away from the attackers.
The Golstar ship is effectively screening us. I have the shields raised and
re-activated most of the ship’s systems. I think that our hosts have their
hands full and are too busy to care what we do right now. The bad news is that
we are still anchored tight to the docking rig. I don’t know if I can break us
away on my own.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough, Hec.”

“Does that mean you are coming home, Boss? I don’t
know what exactly is going on, but I can tell you that unless the cavalry comes
to the rescue, this ship isn’t going to last much longer.”

“I know. We’re on our way. Make ready for a fast
getaway.” Owens dropped his arm. He looked at Sharné. “Can you guide us back to
my ship?”

“I think so, yes,” she replied. “You really do think
we can use your ship to escape?”

“That’s the plan,” Owens quickly replied. Without
warning, he again unceremoniously picked her up and asked, “Which way?”

She found herself not minding being in his arms this
time. She started to tell him what he needed to know. Before she was finished
giving him directions, he began running down the corridor once again.

New sounds assailed her ears and the bucking
vibrations continued to increase. She knew that she was hearing the beginning
of the
Light Saber’s
death song. In addition to weapon strike booms and
shudders, the ship’s superstructure groaned loudly under the incredible
stresses brought on by the failing dampers and inertia canceling generators.
They were finally succumbing to the unrelenting assault. Metal supports cried
in seeming anguish at the inexorable stresses they were being forced to endure.
But before she could grieve the ship’s impending fate, she felt a change in
Owens’ pace as they raced down the corridor.

This time Owens held back nothing. A mental clock
counted down in his head and he knew there couldn’t be much time left. He felt they
were making good progress when a portion of the corridor gave way with a
thunderous crash. They were showered with falling debris, most of it light
insulation. But there were some larger pieces of metal paneling and struts that
Owens had to dodge.

He was almost through the obstacles when he
encountered and barely avoided a large falling girder. He managed to twist
aside, shielding Sharné. But in doing so, he rammed into a jagged piece of
metal protruding from a broken wall panel. He could feel the metal pierce his
flesh, a sharp stab of pain making him gasp. He pulled back and glanced down.
He saw a long gash in his left shoulder, just starting to bleed. He couldn’t
tell how deep the cut or how much blood he would lose, but he knew it would
eventually take a toll on his strength. Sharné demanded to be put down so she
could inspect his wound, but he ignored her, feigning that he couldn’t hear and
increased his pace.

Twice more they encountered blocked corridors and were
forced to backtrack. Fortunately, Sharné knew of other routes. Unfortunately,
the noise of the ship being battered had become so loud that she was reduced to
gesturing and pointing, forcing Owens to slow his pace while he concentrated on
her hand signals.

The alternate paths they were forced to take were
delaying their escape. At times Owens had to climb or descend to different
decks to maintain their forward progress. All the ship’s lifts were in
emergency shutdown and Owens had to use the maintenance stairwells. He agonized
at the time they were losing. The delays were costing him precious energy he
could not afford to lose. He didn’t know how long he could maintain his frantic
pace. The pain from his throbbing shoulder had become more intense and the
weeping wound further drained his strength. What was worse, the conditions he
was running under had continued to deteriorate.

Along with the incessant pounding, the ship’s
emergency lighting was beginning to fail. Owens had to navigate carefully the
patches of dark shadow, trying to avoid hidden obstacles from newly fallen
debris. He railed against the additional time it took to traverse these new
impediments as his energy continued to ebb.

Finally, they reached an area where the lighting still
functioned. But the ship was falling apart. Broken lines bled oily hydraulic
fluid while others spewed steam and noxious gases.

He was staggered again and again as the two attacking
ships pounded the
Saber
. He thought it impossible, but the vibrations
continued to grow worse. A back part of his mind was amazed the
Saber
remained in one piece. Somehow, he managed to stay on his feet but the bucking
deck, slippery from leaking lines, and Sharné’s added weight were beginning to
take a more noticeable toll on his strength. Sharné was now frantically holding
on to him for fear of falling. She could feel his breathing become ragged as
his heart thudded in his chest. But still the great pistons that were his legs
continued to pump, relentlessly driving them forward.

Signs posted in the corridor indicated they were
finally nearing the grand entryway and were approaching the inner lock to the
docking bay that held the
Holmes
. Sharné was thankful they were close to
their objective.

His strength almost spent, Owens was forced to let
Sharné down. She would have to travel across the last corridor on her own. He
had come to the end of his endurance. His left arm was covered in blood from
his flowing shoulder and had gone completely numb. The gash might have been a
little deeper than he had first thought, he mused dazedly.

They staggered to the dock and he foggily asked Sharné
how to release his ship. She looked at him blankly, barely able to hear him.
She realized he must have assumed that she knew how. But before she could
answer, the
Light Saber
shook under another barrage. This time the
vibrations did not abate, but were increasing in magnitude. The ship was
finally beginning to surrender to its ultimate fate.

Owens unexpectedly felt lighter; then abruptly, the
gravity returned to normal. He knew the
Saber’s
gravity generator was
starting to fail. If the
Saber’s
life-support systems were built along
the same lines as
Confederated Planets ships, the gravity generator was
likely protected by the mass of the ship. It was usually located near the core.
For the gravity to start to fluctuate, serious damage was taking place deep
within the bowels of the ship. The
Saber
was in its final death throes.

Owens urged Sharné down the docking umbilical before
the gravity failed altogether. He could see to the end of the reinforced
docking tube. He was having increasing difficulty in concentrating, but did
note that Hec had opened the airlock.

Their progress was excruciatingly slow as they tried
to travel down the bucking docking tube. Finally, they stumbled the last meter
and practically fell through the
Holmes
’ outer airlock’s opening. Hec
immediately sealed it behind them.

The deck was now shaking so violently that they had to
crawl through the inner lock. Hec sealed it as soon as they were through. The
Holmes
was still attached to the disintegrating
Light Saber
and could not
completely compensate for the larger ship’s gyrations. In spite of the higher
gravity level within the
Holmes,
Owens managed to pull himself up to his
feet. For the moment, Sharné was content to remain sitting on the deck.

“Hec, is there any way that we can break away from the
ship?” Owens asked in a strained voice.

“I now believe we can, Boss. The
Saber
has been
taking a mean pounding. The last of their shields just went down and this docking
structure has been shaking like a wet dog. It’s definitely weakened. I think
one good yank and we can pull away, although we
will
be taking some of
the umbilical with us, and unless we can shed the unbalanced mass, we won’t be
able to enter subspace.”