The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (49 page)

Further, now that Admiral Dolen had now seen the humans in action, he will more than likely want a full accounting of their abilities. Solear would not be able to hide the truth about their performance much longer.

The
Sunflower
reached the Influenla – Opron hyperspace lane. Captain Solear programmed the jump coordinates into the navigation computer, ran a simulation, checked for accuracy, and pressed the button to jump.

………………..

Supreme Admiral Fruid’la finished his juice in one drink and stood up. He contacted the commander of the guards and told him to get all available personnel armed and to the prisoner area as soon as possible.

There were no combat troops stationed on the Spindle Station – only a handful of civilian policemen. The HAS units guarding the Alliance prisoners were on loan from the
Retribution
. Admiral Fruid’la exited the café and ran toward the barracks. Once there, he personally led 30 HAS units toward the top spindle. There were 36 total HAS units available, but four of the soldiers were late. Fruid’la didn’t have to time to wait for them.

They hurried to the electro lift and took it to the upper level. Admiral Fruid’la was the first one to reach the archway. He realized that it was blocked and banged on it in frustration. One of the HAS units gently shooed the admiral aside and pushed on the plate.

At that moment a giant explosion ripped through what felt like the upper half of the station. Fruid’la grabbed his com pad and asked Plot’ko, the station commander for an update.

Plot’ko replied, “Someone blew up the transport hangar. As soon as you secure the area, I will send a repair crew.”

The HAS unit gave the plate a huge push and finally succeeded in breaking it free. The walked as quickly as possible up the corridor to the prisoner area. Fruid’la looked in and saw the dead and mutilated bodies. He gave another quick look around, but clearly all of the prisoners were gone.

They continued down the corridor until they were blocked by the wreckage. Fruid’la contacted Plot’ko and told him to send the repair crew.

Fruid’la noted that there were three messages marked important waiting on his com pad. He quickly scrolled through them – his command carrier was destroyed, the prisoners escaped and jumped to Opron, and Admiral Lopeq’la from the prisoner transfer force was requesting docking instructions.

Fruid’la said, “Perhaps we should have him arrive on the lower spindle.”

Chapter 22

Ella smiled. She was at the Solaria Sun beach and was lying on the warm sand. The waves were just barely hitting her toes. She was relaxed and clearly enjoying herself. She listened to the loud fireworks display in the distance.

She looked over and saw her mother approaching. Her mother! She hadn’t seen her mother in years, not since the accident that claimed her life.

Ella’s mother covered her entire body in the sand. They were laughing and singing as they did it. The only thing still showing was her head and shoulders. She laughed and smiled again. It was great to be reunited with her mother.

Ella noticed that her mother stopped smiling. She was now frowning and looking out at the ocean. Ella turned and looked that way. She saw a large wave of water coming straight for her. She realized that she would drown.

Ella struggled with all of her might to free herself from the sand. She got one arm free and used it as a lever to get the other out. She pushed and kicked with all of her might until she was free.

She looked around. The sand and waves were gone; so too was her mother. She looked around and saw a pile of dead Hiriculans next to her destroyed AAU. She realized that she was still in the Spindle Station and still in the prisoner holding area. She felt the aftershock of a large explosion somewhere else in the station.

Ella grabbed a beam weapon from one of the corpses and walked out of the room. She retraced her steps past the control room and back to the main corridor. Ella turned right and stepped onto the small people conveyor. She found it hard to believe that only a few short weeks ago she had been riding this very same escalator disguised as a Neto.

She increased her pace until she reached the transport storage area and stopped. The area was a mess. Ella realized that this was the explosion that had woken her up. She saw that the majority of the blast had been directed out of the station.

However, a small portion of the blast went inward and destroyed the interior corridor. It was blocked by the remains of a shuttle or possibly a fighter. Ella was trapped. There was no way that she could go further.

She was having difficulty breathing and realized that the oxygen was slowly drifting out of this section of the station. Ella checked; her gloves and helmet were still attached should she need them.

She heard banging in the far distance. It sounded like it was coming from the arch. Ella figured that the Hiriculans were breaking through and would be there at any moment.

Ella grabbed her com pad and said, “Computer, is there another way around this area?”

…Crewmember Dekow drew a schematic of the ductwork in the area. It should be possible to crawl through the duct and reach the other side of the obstruction…

Ella found the approximate location of the duct and fired her beam weapon at it. She repeated twice more until she had an opening large enough to crawl through. She entered the duct and crawled past the obstruction. She again used the beam weapon to create an opening and crawled out.

She passed the area and entered the top spindle. She kept going, not entirely sure what she was looking for. Two minutes later she found it.

…………………..

Jack Dogbarks was getting extremely nervous. His scanners were blocked because he was still attached to the Spindle Station, but he knew that something was wrong because he had heard and felt several large explosions.

Jack contacted traffic control for an update, but did not receive a response. He was about to try again when the computer interrupted him.

…The main cargo hold door is being hacked…

Jack yelled, “Stop them.”

…Correction. It isn’t being hacked. Someone just entered the door code. The main cargo hold is opening…

Jack stood up and exited the
Jackal’s
control room. He made it about 3 steps and came to a complete stop. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Ella Birdsong was standing in front of him with a beam weapon in one hand and chewing some Advranki sea moss in the other.

Jack tried to process all three things – Ella, weapon, and sea moss.

Ella said, “Jack, we need to leave now.” Ella casually waved the beam weapon for emphasis and took another bite of sea moss.

Jack’s brain had reached a tipping point; one of the three items finally won. Jack responded, “Where did you get that sea moss?”

Ella replied, “There are two pallets of the stuff in the third hold.” She paused for a breath and repeated, “Jack, we need to leave now.”

Jack said, “We can’t. Traffic control hasn’t officially released the
Jackal
yet. If you haven’t forgotten, there is a Hiriculan frigate out there patrolling the station. They would stop us long before we reached the hyperspace lane.”

Ella said, “Jack, there was an Alliance fleet held prisoner here. The
Sunflower
just attacked and destroyed the frigate. They rescued the prisoners and the entire fleet is fleeing the system. We need to leave now before the Hiriculan fleet arrives.”

Jack undocked the ship and left the station. He wasn’t hailed or challenged by traffic control. Once they cleared the station, Jack activated both passive and active scanners. Jack couldn’t believe the carnage.

There were wrecked fighters everywhere. He saw the asteroid was on fire. Next to it was a humongous ship with huge holes in it. He spotted a cloud of dust where the frigate should be and the large Hiriculan fleet just about to arrive at the station. Finally, he found the Alliance fleet jumping to Opron.

Jack set a course for the hyperspace lane and increased his speed to .04 light. Hopefully, he could catch the Alliance fleet in Opron. Otherwise, he would have to entertain Ella for another 19 days.

Ella deactivated the weapon and tossed it into the recycle bin. She sat down next to him in the control room and said, “It’s time to leave. Let’s go home.”