The Enclave (The Verge) (30 page)

“Yes Sir.”  It was reluctant, but Hunter quickly turned their quick climb into a looping Immelman maneuver.

“At least we have dampeners in air cruisers,” Hunter muttered as the
William Light
began to go over onto her back as they reached the zenith of their loop.  Hunter cut back the power to the ships engines.  Tom’s fingers then flew across the command panel and activated the power siphon from the engines to the pulsar power cells.  Tom held his finger above the cut off control.  Light rippled across the optics as the indicator showed the power shunt was working.  This would not fill the batteries completely but it will give enough to do the plan that was beginning to form in his head.

The
William Light
felt like it was going to float forever until Tom’s body began to feel the slow change in direction that the dampeners could never disguise.  Tom looked at the tracking and saw that the Tiger was only now starting to rise a little but it had not tried to follow them.

“Lieutenant.” 

Tom heard Hunter and pressed his finger down on the control.  The shunt stopped and Tom quickly flicked the power path back to the engines.  Hunter did not wait for Tom’s confirmation as he gunned the engines back to full power and zoomed down the rest of the loop.

Tom barely paid attention to Hunter.  His attention was now focused entirely on the golden band in his lap.  The heat from his hand collected quickly to the band, which seemed to amplify and radiate heat back.  Instead of burning his skin, it felt strangely comforting.  Tom lifted the band to eye level, giving himself one final opportunity to talk himself out of what he was about to do.

He could not.

He slipped the circlet onto his head; his fingers came away wet with sweat.  He gave them a brief wipe on his thigh before fishing the control box from his utility belt.

They looked simple enough.

A control for amplification and one for power boost.  Easy.

“What’s that?”

Tom was vaguely aware of Hunter’s question, but he tried to answer it.

“Something the Commander found.  A weapon that I am about to test.”

The pilot gave no answer, a glance at the optics showed that the
William Light
was now angling straight on target towards the rear of the enemy tiger.  And the Tiger still gave no sign of deviating from its course.  The torpedo fire had stopped, replaced by a barrage of rear laser fire.  Hunter was doing well to avoid these blasts and Tran was quick in activating re-enforced kinetic shielding to targeted areas of the craft.  But the energy shunt to keep mobile spots on the outer shielding re-enforced was draining their power cells at an alarming rate.  Something had to happen.  And quickly.

Tom looked again at the control box and found his hand tightly gripping it.  He did not know what was going to happen but he had to try something to save his ship.

He took a deep breath and ran a thumb along the amplifier control. 

Immediately Tom felt a tingling sensation soak through his skull and tickle into his mind.  The feeling appeared to last forever but in reality lasted only moments.  Then Tom felt his Talent rush through him, flooding his body with Ontolic energy burning for immediate release.  It felt intoxicating.

The proximity alarm flared to life, bringing Tom back to concentrate on the immediate problem of survival.  The Ontolic flow was many times stronger than he was used to but its manipulation should remain the same. 

Tom concentrated and pushed and directed the Ontolic energy to his clenched fists.  As it gathered he saw his hands begin to glow bright neon blue, reflecting against the cockpit instrumentation.  His Talent had never done
that
before.

But what to do with it?

Tom looked again at the optics and a malicious grin spread over his face.  He closed his eyes, drew a deep breath and flicked his fingers out of the fist.

The blue disappeared from his hands in a flash of silent light and Tom felt abruptly empty and drained as if he had just run a marathon.  He sank back into his seat and immediately felt the tingling begin through his skull again.  It was not immediate this time.  After all, his internal batteries were drained but that may be what the boost control could help with.  Hopefully he would not have to use it.

For the moment nothing happened.  And then the laser fire stopped and Hunter stopped the
William Light
from swerving and kept a straight course, chasing the tiger.

“
Okay, they’ve stopped firing, so what so we do now?” Hunter snapped.  “We can’t damage them, their shields are still at full pow-,” he cut short his sentence as an alert flashed up on his optics screen.

“I can’t believe it.  Their shields are down.”

Tom released the breath he did not realize he was holding.  It had worked.

“Shit!” he whistled as the running lights blinked out and the Tiger rapidly began to decelerate.

“They’re slowing.”   Hunter said in confusion.

“Hunter, decelerate to match their speed.”  Tom leaned towards the optic display.  “Tran, target the rear engines.”

“Already done Lieutenant.”

The Tiger started to slowly lose altitude.  “Hunter, follow it down.”

“And then what? We don’t know how many are on that vessel and we’re not in the best of shape ourselves.”  Even as he voiced his concerns, Hunter adjusted their heading to match the descending Tiger.

Tom glared at the astrogator.  “We do it because I say so.  We owe it to the Commander.  Because if she were here we would be doing exactly the same thing.” 
And I would normally be the one telling her exactly what Hunter is telling me.

“Even if it gets us killed?  Sir, we have a prisoner to deliver and not to mention
an unconscious Ambassador Val Myra.  The Tigers position should be marked and sent to the
Australia
.”

Tom bit his tongue and fumed.  Hunter was right.  Their first duty is to deliver Ross back to New Holland and to return Joshua Val Myra safely back to his people.  Tom fingered the circlet at his forehead; the tingling was steadily growing stronger.

He drew a breath and slowly removed the metal band.

“Belay my last order.  Relay Tigers new heading to the
Australia
.  Once confirmation is received turn our nose back to New Holland.”

“Aye Lieutenant.”

Tom leaned back in his chair.  The circlet felt hot in his palm.  He slipped it and the controller into his belt pouch and somehow felt that he had failed his Commander, his friend.

‘Katherine…’

Chapter

Thirty-Three

Katherine…

Her eyes flicked open.

“Tom?”

Katherine turned her head, expecting it to be Tom holding her hand.  Instead she saw Paul Hillier and around him a medical bay.  She frowned. 
Where the hell am I?

Paul must have sensed her confusion, or just assumed it.  “Kath, you’re on the
Australia.
”  He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as he spoke and followed it up with that lop-sided grin she always liked to see on him.

“Paul?”

As she spoke his name Katherine remembered a similar scene.  Paul crouched next to her in a dark corridor, working quickly to-

Katherine jerked upright, flinging the sheet away with her free hand to reveal her legs.  Paul leapt up and laid strong hands on her shoulders.

“Careful Katherine.”

Katherine barely heard him; the sight of her legs caught her attention.  She closed her eyes a moment to settle her churning mind.  But opening them did not change what she saw.

Katherine’s shattered leg was fully healed.

“How long have I been out?” she whispered.  Eyes still staring at the leg that showed the dark pink marks of freshly healed scars.  She must have been sedated for a
t least a week to have this much healing done.  But then why was she still on the
Australia
?

“Commander, Katherine, I don’t-” Hillier stopped and glanced at the leg.  “Kath, you have only been out for two hours.  The med staff had stabilized you enough to get you to the medical facilities at New Holland.  But it seems your body had other ideas.”

Katherine stared again at her leg.  She wiggled her toes, felt the tendons pulling at the newly healed muscles.

So, Barkley had told the truth.  Bastard!

“Where are the others? Where is Tom?”

Hillier kept his hands firmly on Kath’s shoulders.

“They are still on the
William Light
en route to New Holland.

Kath glanced at his hands; felt them hard on her shoulders.  She looked up into Hillier’s eyes.

“When are we transferring down to the
Adelaide
Paul?”  Her voice was low.  She felt his fingers tighten on her shoulders.

“Katherine.  The Admir-”

“I don’t care about the Admiral.  That is my ship down there and as the
Adelaide’s
CO, I should be there.”

“Is that wise?  After what happened down there?”

“What are you inferring?”  An edge crept into Katherine’s voice and she pushed against the pressure of Hillier’s hands.  For a moment Hillier looked as if he were going to push back but instead dropped his hands.  Katherine slipped her legs over the side of the bunk and sat up properly she felt a little stiff but was otherwise fine.

“Katherine, you were pretty bung up.  We didn’t expect you to be up and about so soon.”

“I feel fine Paul.  Find me something to wear and let me get back to my command.”  Katherine placed enough command in her tone as she dared.  Paul maybe in Administration now but he was once an Intelligence Operative; and could still be, knowing the SIDS.

“Don’t be a damn idiot Katherine!” Hillier snapped.  “You’ve been through hell and back.  Now it’s over and you need the rest.  Your XO and Second Officer are quite capable of ‘seeing things right’ themselves.”

That bought Katherine up.  It was the first time she had heard a raised word from the Aide.  She set her surprise aside; Katherine had no time to pander to Hillier’s sensibilities.  Katherine pushed the Aide aside as she slipped from the bunk, the medical gown riding up her thigh revealing more of the angry pink scars.

“I made a promise Paul,” she hissed in his ear.  “And I always keep my promises.”  Katherine pushed away from the bunk and was thankful that her newly healed leg was capable of holding her weight and allowed her to move under her own steam.  She moved to the closest locker, opened it and found it empty.

“Kath.  Listen to me-”

Katherine cut Hillier off short.  “I need clothes.”  She went to the next locker and pawed through its contents of blankets.  Katherine did not look back when she heard him walk away.  If he was going for security, she could deal with that.

Slamming the locker door closed, Katherine turned to the next one only to see Paul Hillier striding towards her with a duffel bag clutched in his hands.

“Here,” he said throwing the bag to Katherine.

As she snagged the bag Katherine caught a glimpse of the dark blue from a RAN uniform jacket through the opening.

“A uniform?”  Katherine asked the obvious question as she placed the bag on the ground and rummaged through it to find a pair of trousers that she then slipped on under the medical gown.

Hillier gave a nonchalant shrug.  “The
Australia
is in geo-stationary orbit above New Holland.  We can take a shuttle down and still be in time for the arrival of the
William Light.”

“They aren’t back yet?” Katherine asked as she slipped her arms within the gown and then quickly shrugged into the crumpled white shirt that was in the bag.  She tried not to smile as Hillier finally
realized that she was trying to get dressed and quickly turned his back to her.  Katherine finished securing the shirt and tossed the now useless medical gown to the floor.

“No.  They were …delayed.  The
William Light’s
ETA with the
Adelaide
is still another thirty minutes away.”

Katherine slipped her arms into the jacket and pulled on the boots over her bare feet.  It was a standard midshipman’s uniform, a little on the big side, but beggars cannot be choosers.

“How were they delayed?”

“They discovered a suspicious vehicle and trailed it.  Once it stopped, they notified the
Australia
and a team has been sent down to investigate.”  Paul neglected to tell Katherine about the attack on the
William Light
and it’s near escape.  It was something she did not need to worry about just now.

Katherine only nodded, though she was surprised that Tom did not check out the vehicle himself. “So, we are just going to walk into the hanger and take a shuttle to the surface.  As easy as that?”