The Excalibur (Space Lore Book 2) (25 page)

From the other side of the glass, Peto watched in fascination. Without consciously thinking about it, he rubbed at both of his shoulders as he watched the proceedings. He knew just how lucky he was to have all of his own limbs after the disastrous expedition to recruit more help.

The platform moved to the edge of the cylinder’s opening. A conveyer extended from within the bright opening, extending until it reached Quickly’s body. One of the medical bots moved next to the platform, pressed a button, then watched as the pilot’s body moved across the conveyer and disappeared into the white light. After Quickly’s body was completely inside the cylinder, the conveyer stopped moving and retreated back into the machine. The other medical bot pressed a series of buttons on a control panel. The light that was emitted from the cylinder changed from white to light blue. A minute later, the light had intensified to a blue as dark as Edsall Dark’s deepest lake.

The bot that had been standing near the hovering platform signaled for the empty bed to move back into the corner of the room. Then, noticing Peto outside, it tapped a button on its wrist. A speaker clicked on the wall above him to indicate it was active.

“The first round of light cleans the entire body,” the bot said, motioning for Peto’s benefit with one metal hand. “The next round cleans deep inside the wound.”

As Peto watched, the dark blue light that engulfed Quickly’s body changed again, this time to a vibrant purple.

The bot’s robotic voice said, “When he is done, he will be as good as new.”

Peto nodded. Personally, he wouldn’t use the words “good as new,” but he got the point. Quickly wouldn’t come out with a new arm made of human tissue. He certainly wouldn’t have an exact replica of the arm he once had.

Even before bringing Quickly to the regeneration room, the medical bots had established that the severity of the wound made an android arm more practical than trying to form a replacement arm made of biological material and then having Quickly undergo the prolonged physical therapy afterward. Instead of flesh and bone, he would have metal, wires, and a protective coating. The new arm would be stronger than the old one, five times more resistant to damage, and could even be held in flames for the entertainment of friends and family. Most important, Quickly would have no problem getting behind the controls of another starship.

Not as good as new, Peto thought. Better. Especially when Quickly was lucky to be alive at all. If just one of the meteors had struck a few inches to the side and impacted Quickly’s head, neck, or chest, nothing could have saved him.

“Good work,” Peto said to the medical bots.

Then he departed for the next round of discussions for the upcoming battle.

59

Only a moment after the first call from Ensign Spring should have come over the Griffin Fire’s comm’s system, a Burst-3 Strain Frigate, a vessel popular with pirates, appeared in the distance. As it got closer, it did a wide circle around the collection of famous ships, then immediately called for any other nearby vessels in their criminal confederation to come to their coordinates.

All pirates were always greedy, but the leader of the first pirate ship was greedy enough to be stupid. In front of them were over nine hundred legendary ships—more vessels than any pirate would ever know what to do with. They could have been content trying to steal as many of the Excalibur Armada vessels as possible, but they saw Vere’s modified craft and wanted that as well. A smarter captain would have targeted the unoccupied, defenseless Griffin Fire and left Vere, Traskk, and Baldwin floating in space until the oxygen in their space armor ran out. Instead, he had the Burst-3 Strain Frigate come alongside the same Excalibur ship that Vere had landed on. This one error was the galactic equivalent of a thief ignoring a stack of gold bars in order to pick up a small silver coin.

Traskk was the first to see the pirate ship land on the Excalibur vessel. From inside his space armor, he let out a deafening roar. Only Vere and Baldwin had helmets with linked-in comms systems, and so they were the only two who winced at the angry Basilisk’s scream. Any pirate who was watching would hear nothing, would only see a bit of Traskk’s fangs through the transparent visor of his helmet. The three of them began jogging back toward Vere’s ship.

Four pirates disembarked from the frigate and moved across the surface of the same Excalibur vessel to cut them off before Vere and the others could get back inside the Griffin Fire. Each pirate was in a mechanized space suit, the armor of which made them twice as tall and four times as wide as an average human. Vere couldn’t see who or what was driving the mechanized suits because the armor shell encased them completely, but she guessed none of them were human. Usually, the pilots of mech suits were aliens who had too many arms or legs to fit in any kind of traditional space armor, or who had wings that required a larger protective shell. A Quad-Lipe, with four legs and four arms, would fit inside a mech suit with no problem. For all she knew, the giant mechs walking toward her could be driven by tiny MaqMacs that were each smaller than a human infant. That didn’t change the fact that a group of the two-legged and two-armed tanks were standing between them and the Griffin Fire.

One of the four mechs was a step ahead of the other three. As it approached, a series of small yellow lights blinked beside its chest. Vere tapped a button on her wrist to establish a comms link between the two parties.

“Away you walk,” a computerized voice said in a tone that was even more robotic than Pistol’s. One of the mech’s arms raised to shoo Vere away from her own ship, as if the rough translation of the mech operator’s language might not be clear enough to understand. “Away you walk and hurt no one will be.”

Vere had just enough time to turn off the speaker in her helmet before Traskk let out another roar. Baldwin, not reacting fast enough, put both hands up to his helmet and stumbled backward.

Traskk stomped one foot on the surface of the Excalibur vessel they were on, then the other. Vere was certain that if his tail wasn’t bunched up in the suit behind him, it would be slithering rapidly back and forth, one of the many ways his species demonstrated their extreme displeasure.

Baldwin took another step backward, but this time it was to allow Vere and Traskk to handle what was going to happen next rather than because of the deafening yell in his ears.

“How about this?” she said to the four pirates. “You walk away and we’ll let you live.”

She kept walking toward them as she spoke, making sure they could see her hands were empty. Even with a blaster in her hand, however, the mechs wouldn’t have had much to worry about. Without a blaster, they didn’t even bother arming their shoulder cannons.

In fact, the four mechs let her walk all the way up to them. As she did, she noticed the optics of three of the four mechs were focused on Traskk and not on her, as if he was the only one who posed a threat. This made her chuckle.

They were still looking at her friend when her hand arced through space, toward the nearest mech’s torso. Without black vapor to signify the Meursault blade, the other three mechs had no way of knowing their companion had been attacked. Confused, they each took a step backward. The gears of the one she had sliced in half were still turning uselessly. Then, the gears grinding to a halt, the top half of it fell forward and began to float away into space. The bottom half, two legs that were each as big as Vere, stood upright, with smoke coming out of them.

The alien that was inside the top half, whatever species it was, began to yell in a language Vere didn’t understand. It would continue to yell for only a few seconds before the oxygen inside the suit completely escaped and the harsh environment of space silenced it.

The shoulder cannons of the other three mechs clicked into place and began to charge. Traskk jumped forward, taking the one to Vere’s left. The mech was taller than the reptile and wider. The leverage benefitted Traskk, though, as he was able to grip underneath both of the mech’s arms and force them upward. As its arms went, so did the torso. The first laser blast from its cannon shot straight up and away, harmlessly sailing through space.

The other two mechs took another step backward. In the time it took them to get a safe distance away and swivel their optics from Traskk and back onto Vere, she was already beside the next one. It let off a blast of its shoulder cannons but at the same moment, a slash of silver light erupted from the mech’s knees where the Meursault blade passed through. Instead of shooting her in the chest, both laser blasts hit the metal by her feet, deflected off the Excalibur’s armor plating, and sailed off into space.

This mech thudded against the surface of the Excalibur vessel, then also began to drift away. Only its boots, still adhering to the ship, remained behind. Thinking that the mech might still try to shoot her as it floated away, she took two quick swings of her blade to cut off both of its arms and shoulder cannons.

The next mech had its cannons aimed at her. A glow of energy signaled that it was about to fire when Traskk, still engaged with the last mech, wound his tail up and smacked the one that was facing Vere. Its legs buckled under the reptiles force, causing both cannons blasts to shoot straight up and away. The mech’s driver tried to make the unit stand upright again. Before it could, Vere was in front of it with her sword. After three quick slashes, the mech was cut into thirds and drifting out into space.

Close by, Traskk was still forcing the last mech to shoot in a direction it didn’t want to go, but it was a matter of time until its operator regrouped and was able to get the mech balanced again.

Vere walked behind it and jabbed her sword through its chest. The blade of her Meursault burst through the mech’s torso. Without air for the Meursault to cut through, the blade seemed even more invisible than usual. The only way Traskk knew what had happened was from the sparks shooting out of the mech’s chest. A moment after Vere withdrew the blade, the mech’s gears ground to a halt and it remained perfectly still, neither drifting away or crashing to the surface of the ship they were standing on.

With the area cleared of danger, Baldwin stepped forward. It took all of Vere’s self restraint to keep from saying something sarcastic.

Instead, she looked at the pirate’s frigate, still stationed next to the Griffin Fire, and shouted that the three of them needed to get flying right away if they wanted to live.

Traskk saw the same thing she had seen. Three of the cannons on the frigate’s side were beginning to glow. One of the other pirates was charging the ship’s weapons and was going to destroy the Griffin Fire.

60

The other CasterLan officers had gone back to their other ships. Sitting alone in the comms tent on Dela Turkomann, Ensign Spring bided his time. Obviously, he wouldn’t be able to get away with ignoring Westmoreland’s order forever. He would hold out as long as he could. Then, at the first sign of trouble, he would board one of the Llyushin transports on the desert surface, take it, and flee.

An hour earlier, Westmoreland had stopped by to see how things were going.

“No contact yet, sir. They might not be near the Griffin Fire.”

“Well, keep trying. How about with Edsall Dark?”

“No luck with them either. The storms coming off Mego Turkomann might be interfering with the signal.”

“Nothing is ever easy,” Westmoreland said.

“No, sir, it’s not.”

For the next hour, he had sat in the tent by himself and planned all the ways he would spend Mowbray’s reward. His daydreams were broken up by Westmoreland reappearing, this time with a pair of lieutenants.

“Ensign Spring to the Griffin Fire, do you copy?” Spring said, knowing Westmoreland would never look at the comms system to see the switches weren’t properly set and that no attempt at communication had actually taken place.

“Any luck?” Westmoreland asked.

“No, sir.”

One of the lieutenants strode over to Spring and looked at the array of devices in front of him. “What seems to be the problem?”

“Comms must be affected by Mego Turkomann, sir,” Spring said.

Already, he was moving past this conversation with the three more-senior officers and was planning his escape. As soon as he convinced them he would recalibrate the system and try again, he would wait for them to leave, then get aboard a transport and leave.

“That’s funny,” the one lieutenant said while the other one still stood by Westmoreland on the other side of the tent. “We aren’t having any issues aboard the Solar Carriers.”

“Maybe it’s the proximity to the moon,” Spring suggested.

Westmoreland looked up from the display he was reviewing with the other lieutenant. “That doesn’t make any sense. Mego Turkomann is the source of the interference, not Dela.”

“Let me try,” the lieutenant next to Spring said, taking a seat beside him and offering a big smile. “I started off in exactly the same role you’re in now.”

“What luck,” Spring said.

Rather than return the lieutenant’s smile, he bit the inside of his mouth. All he wanted was to switch the device to the correct signal so they wouldn’t realize his treachery. With the lieutenant next to him, however, there was no way that was possible.

Westmoreland and the other lieutenant also moved across the tent to stand behind Spring and see if the comms could be fixed. It was a matter of time until they realized Spring was either completely incompetent, which they knew he wasn’t, or that he had some motive other than helping the CasterLans.

Before he knew he even intended to do so, he stood up from the desk and began walking toward the tent’s exit.

“I’m not feeling well,” he said. “Probably too much heat. I’m going to get some water.”

“Ensign Spring.” It was Westmoreland’s voice, and something in its tone was not as friendly as it had been when he had taken Spring aside and given him this task.

Spring stopped and turned to face the general. When he did, he saw that one of the two lieutenants had already crossed the room and had a hand near the blaster on his hip.