The Ninth: Invasion (11 page)

The second slammed into the side of the battleship.  A small chunk of the battleship was momentarily engulfed in the flash of the impact.  The once thick plates of armor had been weakened by the strain of the pull of gravity and buckled against the tremendous force.  Several of the massive jets of flame under the wounded section faded to silence as smoke drifted out of the gash in the ship’s armor.  The battleship started to list to its wounded side.  Like an animal protecting an injury, the ship seemed to curl toward the smoking gash in its side.

The third impacted the base of the remains of the skyscraper just in front of the battleship.  The massive structure wailed as the support struts buckled and gave way.  For a moment it remained firm and upright, but gradually the sides wavered and the shattered superstructure fell.  The massive tower rolled as a few of its supports futilely struggled to hold firm.  It slammed onto the battleship as the ship’s guns fired again.

Between the strain of the gravity and the impact of the second shell, the ship was in no condition to endure the toppled tower.  As the metal beams of the tower ruptured and fell, they sliced into the remains of the once imposing ship armor.  Alarms flared to life in the bridge as the tower eviscerated the hull.  In an instant all the lights cut out as the terrible wail of grinding metal filled the bridge.  In the darkness the howls of destruction mixed with violent trembling as the ship struggled to clear the Wall.

“Anyone still alive?” Doyle called out in the darkness.

“I am, somehow,” the meek voice said softly.

Dull emergency lighting filled the bridge in a pale red light.

“A few cuts, but I’ll live,” the hulking man said between coughs.

“Captain!” Vincent shouted.

They all turned to find a massive metal strut had breached the bridge and had impaled Nadia.  Vincent scrambled over the debris to her side.

“Is the ship safe?” she asked weakly.

“We’re almost through the Wall now,” Vincent said comfortingly.

“Good.”  She coughed violently and groaned in pain.  “Looks like you are in charge now.”

“Get a maintenance team up here,
now
,” Vincent roared.

“It’s too late . . .”

Vincent slammed his fist against the metal beam.

“We are on Trica,” he said through grit teeth.  “The best doctors in the Commonwealth live here.  We are going to cut you out of there.  We will get you to a hospital.”

“Ensign . . .”

“I won’t give up,” he said as he squeezed her hand.  “Don’t you dare give up on yourself.”

Doyle put a hand down on the boy’s shoulder and shook his head.  Vincent violently shoved off the hand.  The hulking man pushed past both of them and jammed a large needle into the captain’s arm.  She screamed in bloodcurdling pain.

“What are you doing?” Doyle demanded.

“Gravity treatment,” he said as he wrapped his arms around the metal strut.  “Slows my heart rate.  Should keep her from bleeding out.”

The sound of grating metal echoed out of the bridge as the hulking man’s muscles tensed.  The metal strut resisted him but finally started to shift.  Nadia cried out in agony as he finally ripped it free.

“Get her to Medical,” Vincent ordered as the hulking man lifted the screaming woman.

The meek man gave chase and the two made their way through the wreckage of the ship.  As the sounds of her wail faded into the distance, the pair stared at one another and what was left of the bridge.

“Your orders?” Doyle asked at last.

Vincent stared at him for a moment, unable to process the words over his thoughts of the captain.

“Your orders,
sir
?” Doyle repeated.

Vincent surveyed the damaged bridge and thought.

“Have the troopers and any surviving crew start disassembling the ship,” Vincent said at last.

“Disassemble?”

“The Steward is dead, Doyle.  Gave what it had left to get us here.  The ITU
will
return and this smoldering hulk won’t be able to do anything about it.  We need to get every last working weapon off his ship and get them set up in defensive positions around what’s left of the city.”

“Yes, sir,” Doyle said with a salute.

He watched as the man raced off to find any working communication terminal.  With a deep sigh Vincent placed his hand on the twisted bulkhead.

“You did good,” he said quietly.  “We’ll take it from here.”

“This might work for history, but how are we supposed to follow instructions we can’t see?” Dante asked.

“Now watch very closely.”  Cain joked.  “I want everyone to do exactly what I’m doing.  Now be careful, if you do it like
this
you’ll break your arm.  But if you do it properly, like I’m demonstrating for you, this will be the most valuable thing you’ll ever learn.”

The other troopers started laughing.  Even Ronald thought it was funny.

“So, what now?” Kindra asked.

“This definitely won’t work.”  Sanderson took a seat next to Kindra.  “Even if one of us watched the screen up close and told the others what to do, we can’t pause the feed from here.  We’ll waste more energy trying to keep up than actually learning.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Humphrey mumbled.  “How about instead of wasting our time straining our eyes, why don’t we fix our wall?  It got pretty cold last night.”

“Your wall?” Tyra asked in surprise.  “What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s not as vertical as you’d hope,” Cain said as he held out his arm horizontally.

“You guys
broke
your barracks?”  Angela burst into mocking laughter.  “On the
first
night!”

“I thought I heard a thud last night.”  Erin started laughing with Angela.

“It wasn’t like I did it on purpose!” Mr. Springate said in his own defense.

The girls eyed Frank as he realized he just taken personal responsibility.  The troopers all started laughing.  Mr. Springate’s head drooped.  Together the squad pitched in to raise the wall and secure it in place.  In the end it was more stable than when they had first landed.  After that they checked the other walls, making repairs here and there as necessary.  As they finished the last of the minor repairs, a small group of Protectorates passed out lunch.  It was another set of bread rolls.  They were exactly the same make up with the goopy center, but the meat taste was slightly different.  Cain had taken a bite and said with a shrug that it all tasted like chicken to him.  When they were finished with the meal and were confident the barracks would survive the night, they all moved on to the girls’ barracks.  It was in far better shape, relatively speaking.  There was still plenty that needed some fixing.  It was getting towards dusk as they finished.

“Well, that’s all for today.”  The Administer’s voice boomed from the monitor no one was watching.  “Enjoy your evening and we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning.”

“I forgot that thing was still going,” Doug said as he stretched.  “What are we going to do about it?”  He wiped away some sweat on his brow.

“I already sent a message to the academy,” Ronald said.  “They should know about our difficulties.  If they can do anything about it remains to be seen.”  He walked off to return the tools they had barrowed.

“So, what do we do now?” Hiroko asked.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted,” Cain said, rubbing his joints.

“Without an examination room handy we can’t have a decent training session, even if we wanted to,” Tyra said as she rubbed her neck.  “I suppose you’re all free for the night.  Try not to cause too much trouble,” she added quickly before she started after Ronald.

“Works for me!”  Cain bolted off.  “Last one to the pub pays for the first round!”

Humphrey shrugged and followed at his own pace.  Doug ran off after Cain, trying to keep up.

“Forget that, I’m headed to the barracks.”  Mr. Springate headed off toward the men’s barracks.  “I’d rather listen to another history lecture than carry Doug back here.  Good thing I checked out a few dozen books; not a whole lot else to do around here.”

“Wait up, what books did snag from the repository?”  Erin rushed after Frank.  “I didn’t think about downloading any and my pad won’t link to the academy from here, for some reason.”

“Reading or dragging a drunken trooper back here,” Kindra said as she moved her hands up and down, as if weighing the options.  “Wow, now that’s a tough choice.”  Kindra chuckled as she casually followed after Cain and Doug.

Sanderson sighed and followed after Kindra.  Angela started to open the door to the girls’ barracks.

“Any plans for the night?” Liz asked shyly as she joined Angela.

The Weaver eyed her for a moment, as if making sure Liz had intended to ask her.

“I’m going to finish unpacking and call it an early night,” Angela said hesitantly.  “Didn’t do a lot of physical work on the academy.  Today really took it out of me.”

“Mind if I keep you company?”

“Knock yourself out,” Angela said, with only a tiny trace of annoyance.

Brent spotted Dante talking to Mahoney, the heavy weapons expert from Tyra’s old division.  It was slightly interesting to listen to as Dante had to single handedly guide the conversation.  Mahoney never spoke more than a single word at a time, but he was unbelievably strong.  He and Cassandra had almost single handedly lifted the fallen wall back into place.  He didn’t seem quite as strong as Cassandra, but he wasn’t a heavy-worlder either.

Dante and Mahoney were talking about munitions in complicated technical terms he couldn’t even pretend to understand.  The last few stragglers headed off in whatever direction sounded most interesting to them.  Brent was just content knowing Cain had enough playmates that he wouldn’t notice his absence.  The pub was interesting but not exactly his cup of tea.  Cain’s card games were almost as strategic as the war room had been, but to him the victories were nowhere near as satisfying.  As he stood wondering what to do, a pair of hands grabbed his collar and quickly pulled him behind a nearby barracks.

“What is it with the top of my shirt?”  Brent rubbed his neck.  “I wonder if it would be more comfortable if I just went ahead and added a leash.”

“Sorry, but I needed to talk to you.”

“Marie?” he asked in surprise.  He had assumed Cassandra was the one pulling him again.

“Have you said anything to Liz?”

“Nothing in particular, why?”

“She’s not acting like herself; it’s got me worried.”

“How is she acting differently?” he asked, even as the image of the shy girl skipping flashed through his mind.

“Well, she’s not clinging to me as much as she used to.”

“Maybe she’s just getting used to everyone.”

“I don’t know.  She still hides behind me occasionally.  Maybe I’m just blowing things out of proportion.  And if it was just that, I probably wouldn’t worry.”

“There’s more?”

“Well, you see, she’s acting differently toward you.”

“Me?”

“You know, she had a bit of a crush on you at first.  All I had to do was mention your name and she’d blush and smile contentedly.  But lately, she’s acting more like your sister than an admirer.”

“My sister?”

“When we found out you and Cassandra had a relationship, I thought it would crush Liz.  Instead, she was the first to congratulate her!  She was so excited, it wasn’t like her at all.”

“Why are you telling
me
all this?”

“What?”

“Well, I certainly have no idea why she’s acting differently.”

“But you’re a
Weaver
!” Marie protested.

“So they keep telling me.  Why not just ask her yourself?  She might not cling to you as much as before, but anyone can tell she still favors you to everyone else.  Why not just ask her directly?”

“I can’t do that!”

“Why not?  I’m sure she’d tell you if something was wrong.”

“What if she resents me asking in the first place?”

“I doubt she’d take it like that.  Just tell her you are worried about her.  Who knows, she might even want to talk about it and is waiting for you to ask first.  Cassandra was like that; she was practically dying to explain her condition to someone.  Had a whole prepared speech and everything.”

“It’s hard to imagine Cassandra worrying about anything like that.”  Marie giggled.  “She’s always so calm and composed.  I guess you could be right though.  I guess I will just have to go ask Liz.  But I want you to know that if this goes badly I’m going to blame you personally.”  Marie stuck out her tongue as she ran toward the girls’ barracks.

As Marie ran off, he let out a sigh.  He wasn’t sure anymore if he was a trooper or the squad’s guidance counselor.  He had originally picked the squad for their capabilities; it had never crossed his mind to consider their personalities.  Brent snuck back to his bunk before anyone else could pull him aside.  When he got there he found a large group of Protectorates waiting outside the barracks.  Philip was standing in the center of the group and waved to him eagerly.