The Orphan Alliance (The Black Ships Book 3) (9 page)

“It’s alright,” he said loudly. “The fear is just a side
effect of the sound pulse.”

They nodded dubiously as the sound suddenly cut off. Harry
instantly felt better, but he knew the Dactari beyond that hatch had been hit
with the full force of the pulse and they would be severely affected.

He pushed ahead, making certain that he was first through
the hatch.
Just wouldn’t do to let our allies be first to risk their necks
for my ship.
He saw
incapacitated enemy everywhere, kneeling or simply lying on the floor in the
fetal position. Without a shred of mercy, he raised his weapon and began firing
on the hapless forms.

The
Midgaard poured in behind him and they made short work of the slaughter. Harry
saw an enemy officer attempting to draw his sword while simultaneously trying
to come to his feet. He could only rise to his knees before falling back down
again, his sword clattering onto the engineered hardwood of the lounge, a
luxury from the ship’s commercial days.

Harry
stepped over and picked up the sword, taking off both of the officer’s arms
with easy, expert swings. He glided to the right and decapitated an under
officer who was trying to bring his weapon to bear, before rotating to the left
to drive the point into the throat of a Dactari who had managed to come to his
knees.

He stepped
back to the horrified officer who now lay, armless, on the deck as his life
poured out onto the polished walnut to pool around an overturned club chair.
“Give my regards to Emperor Hemchala!” He drove the point through the officer’s
left eye and into his brain.

He stood to
catch his breath. Looking around, he could see that Liam and his Marines had
come into the room. Everyone was staring at him. Even the Midgaard, accustomed
to brutal combat as a part of everyday life, seemed to regard him with mild
alarm.

“Well, that
was… effective,” the major was looking fixedly at the sword in Harry’s hand.
“If you don’t mind, sir, what language were you speaking in just now?”

Harry
frowned back at his security officer. If Liam didn’t understand him, then he
couldn’t have been speaking in English, Midgaard or Dheema.
I must have
slipped into Oaxian.
He knew he had wanted to kill these Dactari, not just
to save his ship, although it had started out that way. Something else had
begun to grow in him as he fought.

He wanted
revenge.

Revenge for
lives he’d never actually lived.

He looked down at the sword in his hand.
A natural reaction,
he decided.
Once I saw the sword, I started to access Orontes’ memories,
including his language.

He was about to answer Liam but the major was suddenly
twenty feet away, and yet, still standing right in front of him. The ship was
dropping out of distortion.
Has it only been ten minutes?

The waves subsided and all eyes turned to the windows that
formed the port side of the crew lounge. The small alliance fleet, flagged by
the
Bangalore
stood ready to fight off any pursuit. A shuttle, floating
directly above the
Bangalore
suddenly turned and accelerated toward
Völund.

“Sir,” Carol’s voice crackled in Harry’s earpiece,
“Commander Flemming is requesting permission to come aboard.”

Harry sighed. “Granted. Has the
Freyer
dropped out
yet?”

“Yes, sir. Shall I ask Lothbrok to join you here on board?”

“Do that.”

Harry looked around at the bodies then back to Liam. “How
are your boys?”

“Two dead, four wounded,” Liam answered. “I’ve got fifteen
men sweeping the other decks right now.”

Harry nodded. “There’s bound to be a few more of the
bastards hiding somewhere.” There could also be dead crewmen that he didn’t
know about yet, but he had to deal with Flemming first. “Fenris, could you help
Major Kennedy with clearing the ship? I need to get down to the hangar deck to
meet with Lothbrok and one of our intelligence officers.”

Having secured Fenris’ assistance, Harry headed for the
hangar bay, finding both Flemming’s and Lothbrok’s shuttles had already
arrived. He nodded affably to Lothbrok. “Good of you to let Fenris come over
and play.” Though his words were casual, his tone conveyed his gratitude.

“That’s what happened?” Lothbrok grunted. “Good for Fenris.
Next ship I get my hands on will have him for a captain. He’s due for a
reward.”

“Did you get it?” Flemming could contain his anxiety no
longer. Harry and Lothbrok had dangled the holy grail of intelligence in front
of him when they were selling their plan to the two Alliance commanders, and he
was itching to get his hands on it.

“We ran into a little hitch,” Lothbrok answered dryly.

Harry elaborated on his friend’s maddeningly sparse reply.
“Looks like the enemy had the same idea as we did. They obviously realize how
important their logistics tracking system can be if it falls into the wrong
hands. The station blew as soon as it was clear we were going to win.”

Flemming sighed. “We knew it would be a longshot, taking a
module by force.” He crossed his arms. “We shall simply have to come up with a
way to stop them from blowing the next one up – all while making it look like
we failed, of course.”

“And before the Weirans decide to send us packing,” Lothbrok
growled.

Lightning can strike in the same place twice, if you
build a really tall lighting rod,
Harry thought inanely. He suddenly caught
his breath, then darted a look at the lanky intelligence officer. “The last
time I saw that module, I was a prisoner.”

The other two men began to nod and then, almost comically,
comprehension dawned on both faces.

Lothbrok was first to speak. “You’re going to let them
capture you.”

Harry grinned. “That’s right, and I know just the right
person to help make it happen.”

The
Dark Defiance
,
Unknown Dead World

T
ommy
stared out through the bridge shields with a growing dread. They had been lucky
that Earth was tended by a guardian with a very ‘hands-off’ approach, but
every world they went to was a roll of the dice. He had managed to talk Keeva
around to sparing Khola but that had been a very lucky convergence of events.

He’d been so sick of trying to help and failing every time
that he’d been almost indifferent to Keeva’s intentions. The symbiote of the
massive ship hadn’t viewed him as being in opposition and so she had left him
on the bridge while she removed the rest of his team. She had explored his mind
as she prepared to sterilize Khola and the two of them managed to convince each
other that chaos could breed diversity and resilience.

The chances of a repeat performance with a different ship’s
symbiote were slim at best.

“I’d say we’re too late,” Kale muttered. The three had come
to the bridge, eager to see the latest, exotic new world.

The planet below them was dead. A massive crater near the
equator showed where a large asteroid had impacted, dark lines radiating out
across the surface. There was no visible water and the entire planet was a
mottled, dull grey.

I would estimate that an asteroid of roughly seventy-five
kilometers in diameter struck this planet over three thousand years ago,
Keeva announced.

“Was there a civilization on the surface?” Gelna asked.

An image window appeared in front of them, showing a
magnified view of the surface. Several smudges might have indicated cities. The
image zoomed in on one of them and, sure enough, there was a massive sprawl of
smaller structures that ranged out from a central area of tall buildings. They
looked remarkably intact.

“I always thought humanoid structures would disappear after
a few centuries,” Tommy mused. “These are still standing after several
millennia?” He felt a guilty relief – there was no need to worry about saving
them if they were already dead.

On Earth, they will disappear,
Keeva replied.
Here,
there is no oxygen left to react with the structures, no weather to wear them
away, no plant roots to pull them apart.

“
Will
disappear?” Tommy frowned. “You don’t hold out
much hope for my planet, do you?”

I have much hope,
she replied, surprise evident in
her voice at Tommy’s challenge.
But you simply won’t have the numbers needed
to maintain your current cities. Keeping a city like New York in proper working
condition would require the combined efforts of the remainder of your species,
to the cost of all other considerations. You will have to devise a more
efficient way to organize yourselves.

Before anyone could respond to that, another screen appeared
showing a small structure in orbit.
It seems they were on the verge of
becoming a spacefaring species.

“We should take a look around,” Tommy said, surprising
himself. The urge had been sudden, perhaps brought on by his thoughts of
Earth’s future. He waved a hand at the planet below them. “If Earth ever ends
up like this, I’d like to know that someone would spare us a thought one day,
walk our streets and imagine what we were like…”

There is a large coastal city that survived the blast
intact,
Keeva offered.
It was spared most of the shock wave by a
mountain range. I can put you in the center of the business district.

Tommy closed his eyes. “Ready.”

“Ready,” Kale declared.

“Count me in,” Gelna added.

You are projected.

Tommy opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by tall
buildings. They appeared to be more than a hundred stories in height and they
looked unfinished. There were no windows above the ground levels. He took a
half step towards the center of the street and squinted up at the first exposed
floor. There were emitters mounted on the outer edge of the floor. “They must
have used shields instead of glass.”

A layer of dust and ash covered every surface. Any
horizontal surface had at least a foot of accumulation on top of it. “No air
left, so I suppose it all just fell straight back down.” He was about to step
over a hump on the ashy ground before he realized what it must be.

He shivered. “Let’s take a look inside one of the
buildings.” He pointed toward a set of doors set back underneath a broad,
skeletal canopy. They walked over, leaving no footprints in the ancient ash
fall.

“Hell of a big door,” Kale muttered. “Wonder how tall they
were.”

They passed through the material of the door and found
themselves in what was undoubtedly a shopping venue. An open space extended
through several floors above them and there were shop fronts on each level.

And everywhere they looked, they could see bodies.

They were roughly a third larger than the average Human and
their desiccated corpses lay where they had suffocated. Untouched by the ash
fall, their features were easily visible.

Tommy looked down at two adults who lay huddled together
with a child. “They must not have known the asteroid was coming,” he said
softly. “Just a normal day, watching your little girl scampering about at the
local shopping center, and then, I expect they would have felt the impact…”

Suddenly, he didn’t feel like talking anymore. The thought
of these two parents holding their child as they died overwhelmed him.

There is something very odd up here,
Keeva announced.
Her voice was a welcome intrusion.

“What are you seeing?” Tommy looked away from the pathetic
scene.

When someone opens a tunnel through space-time, they
leave a trace, an artifact that remains for thousands of years. There are
twenty-six artifacts that all appeared at roughly the same time as the asteroid
impact. They sit directly above the crater. There are twenty-six artifacts
indicating a departure a few days later
.

“A rescue attempt?” Tommy looked over at his companions.
Gelna looked up at the soaring space above them.

“Or an attack,” Kale growled. He nodded at Gelna. “The
Dactari brought mass drivers last time they attacked us.”

“The Republic didn’t exist three thousand years ago.” Gelna
met Kale’s gaze. “The Republic didn’t take shape for another few centuries.”

“No, but your ancestors were the Empire’s military race,”
Kale replied. “They would have been the ones bringing a mass driver here, if
your emperor decided this planet would be more trouble than it was worth.”

“Whatever happened here,” Tommy cut in, “we certainly can’t
hold Gelna personally responsible for it. Still, if we hadn’t brought the
Midgaard back with us when we returned home from Khola…”

If they hadn’t brought their new ally to the battle, the
Dactari would have had the time to destroy all life on Earth. As it was, the
defensive fleet had intercepted and boarded five mass drivers on their way in
from the Kuiper Belt. Those captured ships were now with the Alliance fleet,
somewhere in the Dactari Republic.

“Let’s have a look at that station in orbit,” Tommy
suggested. He had a hunch that it might explain why this planet was attacked,
or at least,
if
it was attacked.

When they opened their eyes, they were in a large
compartment.
I think you will find this space to be illuminating,
Keeva
suggested cryptically.

The station had long ago lost its ability to convert
sunlight into power and the room was dark. Keeva had adjusted their view to
mimic a fully-lit facility. As the three were still physically on the bridge of
the
Dark Defiance
, pretty much any kind of adjustment was possible.

“Hey.” Kale nudged Tommy and pointed to the middle of the
room where a small drone lay in a docking cradle. “Back end of that thing look
familiar?”

Tommy approached the small craft. “That ring array kind of
reminds me of the engine room on the
Völund
,” he said in surprise.
“Rather odd,” he mused. “They had almost no presence up here, but they were
working on an advanced, interstellar engine?”

“Keeva, how did this civilization compare to Humans,” Kale
asked. “More specifically, how advanced were they technically?”

They were far more sophisticated than your species. Their
technology was several decades ahead of yours. Considering the exponential
increase common in technological advancement, the difference is considerable.

“So they just didn’t bother with space?” Kale sounded
dubious.

“Or they didn’t bother until theories came along that
sparked their imaginations,” Tommy suggested. He frowned, feeling a tingling at
the back of his neck. He reached out to the small vehicle, even though he
couldn’t physically touch it. “What if they created the first one?” His voice
was almost a whisper.

“The first distortion drive?” Kale approached from the other
side, gazing down at the drone.

“Yeah. Think about it.” Tommy’s voice grew in volume. “Three
thousand years ago, the Empire was starting to realize their tunneling drives
were the cause of the increasing number of drop-out disasters. Ships were
appearing on top of the artifacts left by previous voyages. It was a rare thing
for thousands of years but the occurrences suddenly started to increase at an
alarming rate. Pretty soon, passenger and commercial traffic came to a standstill
because folks have a natural fear of being scattered all over space.”

“Some folks are funny that way.” Kale nodded.

“Yeah, well, only the military was willing to travel by
tunnel drive anymore,” Tommy went on. “What if they realized what these guys
were working on and just took it?” He looked over at Gelna. “The records
indicate the distortion drive was discovered shortly after the dangers of
tunneling space became apparent.”

“But it was still too late to save the Empire,” Gelna
replied with a shrug.

“Yeah, but one planet – say Dactar, for example – could have
pushed the development of this new technology and used it to retake some of the
old imperial worlds.” Tommy looked back at the little vehicle. “It’s not as
fast as tunneling, but when the only other alternative takes centuries, what’s
a few months?”

“But why kill this planet?” Gelna demanded. “It was no
threat.”

“Sure it was,” Kale retorted. “They stood between the
Dactari and their stranglehold on interstellar travel.”

“It does make sense,” Tommy added. “Distortion drives
appeared too late to resurrect an imperial economy based on instant transport,
but they would have supported the birth of something new.”

“Like the Dactari Republic,” Kale offered.