Starkissed (24 page)

Starfire
and
Brimstone
…a shiver ran up her spine at the ominous connotation.

Finally, communication opened between the two ships and Drew punched one more button. The large viewer flickered, went black, then a face appeared onscreen.

J’Qhir was the first to react. “Hancock!”

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Starkissed

139

Leith froze as the life-sized image of Steve Hancock fuzzed then cleared to crystal sharp resolution. She felt as if he were actually present on the Rover, once again looming over her, demanding her complete attention. She pushed the small viewer out of her way and started to rise, but she realized there was nowhere to run as well as no reason. He was aboard the other ship, not the
Starfire.

She held her breath and tried to steady her nerves as Steve looked at each of them in turn. His gaze rested on Drew.

“Well, Captain Garrison, you managed to find them. Maybe you’re not the dorgian pilot I’ve always said you were.” His dark eyes lit on Corru, who had unfurled his wings and stood. “The Paxian is still alive, I see. Tsk, tsk. I knew I should have taken care of you personally.”

Drew scowled. “Give it up, Steve. As you can see, it didn’t work. I’ve already contacted the GPs—”

“I don’t think so, Captain. LinkNet is still jammed in this sector because of a blown transmitter. They don’t expect it to be up and running for another twelve standard hours.

Don’t try to bluff, Drew. You’re no good at it. Remember who always won at Martian poker.”

Drew’s face flushed red. “We always suspected you cheated, Steve, but no one could ever prove it.”

Steve laughed. “Sure, blame me for your lack of skill. Ah, Leith…” He turned his eyes on her and the humor left them. “Sorry your vacation was cut short. Did you enjoy yourself?”

Even though she was separated from J’Qhir by several meters, she sensed him tense as Steve addressed her. Before Leith could frame a suitable caustic reply, J’Qhir spoke, drawing Steve’s attention away from her.

“Your plan hasss failed, Hancock.”

Steve cut his eyes to J’Qhir, then to the smaller Zi, and back again to J’Qhir. “Two Reps with one stroke. I consider this my lucky day.”

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140

Lanette

Curington

“What the hell—” Drew suddenly shouted and lunged at the control panel, frantically punching buttons. “Are you insane?”

Steve’s frenetic laughter answered Drew’s question. His image winked out to be replaced with the radar scan. Leith saw the blip that represented the
Starfire
and the slightly larger blip of Steve’s ship…and the torpedo pulse that traveled between them.

Steve had fired at them!

“Defense shields are powering up, but they might not reach max before it hits,”

Drew shouted. “Harness up and hang on!”

Leith barely had time to snap the harness in place before the
Starfire
pitched to starboard upon impact. Neither J’Qhir nor Rohm’dh had harnessed up, but both remained in their seats. She glanced at Corru who had returned to his seat, the harness secure over his shoulders.

“Dammit! The bastard knows what he’s doing.” Drew’s fingers flew over the controls. “I opened the SOS beacon, but the torpedo demolished that section before the shields hit max.”

“Can it be repaired?” J’Qhir asked, snapping his harness in place.

Drew shook his head. “I don’t know. Damage is extensive. Here comes another one.

Besides, we won’t get a chance to make repairs if he keeps throwing torpedoes at us.”

This time, the
Starfire
rocked to port.

Drew examined the readouts. “Shields are holding at one hundred percent, but a few more hits, and they’ll start to deteriorate. I’m going to try to outrun him, but it’s a Stellar class ship and he’ll catch up before we can reach the nearest port.”

Leith closed her eyes. She thought being rescued meant being safe, but she hadn’t counted on Steve’s desperation or tenacity.

It was over, wasn’t it? A Rover couldn’t outrun a Stellar, and the smaller ship wasn’t outfitted for battle. Its main defenses were the powerful shields and ability to gain high speeds at short distances. Rovers weren’t built for deep space exploration and great distances. She watched as Drew fired back at the
Brimstone
, but the torpedo pulses were like mosquitoes buzzing around a human—annoying but hardly lethal.

She listened as J’Qhir made suggestions for defensive maneuvers. Drew put them into action, avoiding the next three torpedoes. Leith knew Drew was an excellent pilot, but he had never been in a real battle. Simulations were not the same as actual wartime experiences. Drew wisely turned the helm over to J’Qhir’s console. The wait, if only in seconds, of J’Qhir having to explain a tactical maneuver could mean life or death for them.

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Starkissed

141

All of this only delayed the inevitable. Leith opened her eyes and reconfigured the viewer in front of her to display the same readings as the control panel. According to the readouts, the
Brimstone
would catch up to them and erode the defense shields long before they reached the safety of a planet, just as Drew predicted. Steve had already cut off their path to Arreis, and they headed in another direction. Before Leith could determine the nearest planet, a salvo of torpedoes hit and Leith rolled with the ship.

“His system is computing your maneuvers,” Drew explained, “and anticipating the next move before firing.”

J’Qhir nodded. Leith could only see the back of his head, but she could imagine the grim determination on his face as he concentrated.

They were going to die. The worst part was Steve would probably get away with it.

The only beings who knew his plans were on this ship. Once they were dead, Steve could concoct a plausible story. He probably already had an alibi in place for this time period.

Leith released the harness and stood. Everyone’s attention was on the viewer or controls. Even Corru didn’t notice as she slipped to the back of the ship. The next salvo of torpedoes hit and Leith, clinging to the edge of a bunk, remained on her feet.

“Shields at ninety-four percent,” Drew announced.

Leith pushed the button to open the tube door. On a ship as small as a Rover there was no lift, only a ladder between the two decks. She swung onto the rungs and placed the insides of her booted feet firmly against the outsides of the ladder, then slid all the way down. Steve chose this moment to send another salvo against them. Slightly off balance from her rapid descent, what few seconds she had saved were wasted as she fell against the bulkhead. Her hold on the ladder prevented her from going down.

The secondary control room was to her immediate left. She sat in the lone chair and snapped the harness in place.

The room was barely larger than the facilities, yet the ship could be operated from here if the main bridge were damaged or destroyed. Leith had taken the required basic flight courses in school. She could fly a ship the size of the Rover, but since she wasn’t here to take over command, her eyes bypassed the flight controls and settled on the communications panel.

Leith had decided if they were destined to die by Steve’s hand, the universe would still learn of his treachery as well as the truth concerning the Zi-Crucian conflict. Leith took a few moments to gather her thoughts, pressed the record button, and began to speak into the microphone.

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142

Lanette

Curington

Fifteen standard minutes and two torpedo salvos later, she turned off the recorder.

She hadn’t explained the situation as eloquently as J’Qhir since she lacked the passion of the oppressed, but she tried to remember his words and repeated as much as she could.

Unfortunately, message beacons couldn’t penetrate the defense shields. With shields up, they were essentially cut off from all communications, but she had seen a trick used in a vid last summer and hoped it was based on reality. If not, her only hope was the survival of the black box. She had inserted her recording in with the continual stream of the ship’s data. A ship could be blown to stardust, but the black box usually survived. A wry smile crossed her lips as she thought of the old joke, if the black box was indestructible, why didn’t they make the ship out of the same material? She had never heard a satisfactory answer to the question.

And then it occurred to her how many things she would never learn or do. Her life would end here and now. She thought of her parents and tears filled her eyes. She would never see them again. They already thought she was dead, but then they would learn she had been alive and rescued only to succumb to Steve’s drive for vengeance. They would have to grieve all over again. She wished she could somehow spare her parents, but the only way was to delete her recording. In this instance, the salvation of an entire species was more important.

She thought of J’Qhir, of their differences both physical and cultural. She regretted only that she had never told him she loved him. Until this moment, she had believed she couldn’t truly love him. Because of their differences, yes, she had to admit that, but also because they had known each other for such a short time. Love, she believed, a deep and abiding love developed over time, aged like fine wine, and withstood the test of time as well as hardships. Until now, she thought their physical intimacy was the result of their situation, nothing more. Two abandoned souls reaching out to one another rather than face the empty loneliness of a lifetime.

In these last few moments of her life, she realized with crystal clarity, she loved J’Qhir. With the realization came the resolve to tell him before they died. When she finished here, she would return to the upper deck. She would stand behind him and lay her hands on his broad shoulders, to have a connection to him when the end came. She would wait for a moment in between attacks, when she wouldn’t be a distraction. She would share with him one last kiss and tell him that she loved him. The action would shock Rohm’dh, but she didn’t care and she hoped J’Qhir didn’t either. She didn’t think her declaration of love would mean much to J’Qhir because he had never spoken of love in any context, but it would give her the strength to face whatever lay beyond death.

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Starkissed

143

Leith wiped the blurring tears from her eyes and glanced at the readouts. Shields were at seventy-nine percent. She remembered from the battle simulation course that with standard torpedo pulses shields lost five to seven percent with each hit until they reached sixty percent. After that, percentage loss was geometrical and the chances of shield recovery were slim and none.

Leith prepared the message for general dispersal and pushed the send button. Under normal conditions, the send light would flash green and automatically spew the message into all subspace frequencies. With the defense shields up, a flashing red light warned the message wasn’t going through. The trick was in the torpedo pulses. Upon impact, the shields disintegrated for a few nanoseconds, then rebuilt. At the point of disintegration, the message would deploy.

Leith watched the panels. For every ten salvos the
Brimstone
tossed at them, only one scored a hit due to J’Qhir and Rohm’dh’s expertise. If not for them, the
Starfire
would have been blasted to stardust long ago. As each salvo grew closer, Leith kept her eyes on the send indicator and braced herself. When at last a torpedo hit, the indicator light briefly turned green then resumed its annoying red flashing.

Satisfied, Leith released the harness and stood. She would leave the message to be deployed as many times as possible before the destruction of the
Starfire.
She had no hope that someone would receive the message in time to save them. Subspace communication was excruciatingly slow, but the message would eventually be heard and the word spread.

Leith hurried to J’Qhir’s side. She was inside the tube and halfway up the ladder when the next salvo hit. Unprepared, the force knocked her backwards off the ladder. She crashed into the bulkhead and fell to the deck. Pain ripped through her head as stars burst across her eyes. When the lights faded, blackness consumed her and she lost consciousness.

”””

Leith opened her eyes to find Drew perched at her side on a bottom bunk. He held a coldpack to the side of her head. She saw movement at the edge of her vision and turned, much too quickly, but caught a glimpse of J’Qhir as he paced back and forth between the sleeping area and bridge. She brushed Drew’s hand away.

“Are we—” She stopped short and bit her lip. She had almost asked,
Are we dead?
, but she didn’t believe the afterlife would be eternity aboard a Rover. Somehow they had survived. Somehow the
Starfire
had outrun or out-maneuvered the
Brimstone.
Somehow the danger was past because Drew was too calm.

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144

Lanette

Curington

At the sound of her voice, J’Qhir had stopped pacing. He hovered near, but not too close, just out of range of her sight.

“We’re safe,” Drew assured her and tried to replace the coldpack, but she pushed him away again. “You have a concussion. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” she said a little too loudly and started to sit up.

Drew placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her to lie back again. She didn’t argue. The Rover had begun to spin around her, and the pounding in her head increased.

“The med said you shouldn’t move?”

“What med?” As far as she knew, there had been no med aboard the Rover unless he had been hiding in the hold.

“From the Artilian ship that’s towing us in.”

“Artilian?”

“By the time it was all over, we were closer to Artilia than Arreis anyway. The Artilian ship picked up one of the messages you sent and came to help. The
Starfire
took a beating, so they’re towing us to Artilia.” Drew tightened the hand he’d left on one shoulder. “Steve’s dead.”