Weapons of War (2 page)

"Go ahead, Sergeant," Choi said.

"According to Corporal Rogers, the blown conduit can be rerouted through one of the internal circuits, getting us back to full power. There's also some damage to secondary plumbing that is causing a loss to water reserves."

"What kind of loss?"

"Zero point three percent per hour at the current rate," Abdullah said.

"How long to patch it?"

"Three hours, ma'am."

"Not bad. Get on that first. Right now, water is more valuable than engine thrust."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Mr. Mokri," Choi said, calling out Reza. The scientist was sitting at his station, checking the star charts. "Do you have any idea what just happened, or where we are?"

"I think we hit a dead zone, Colonel," Reza said.

"Dead zone?"

"Yes, ma'am. There are areas in space the slipstreams don't cross. I'm still calibrating, but I think we're in one of them. It would have been easier to pinpoint if we had a target for the slip."

"Understood. Interrupt me whenever you have our position."

"Yes, ma'am."

Choi returned her attention to Gabriel. "So. Do you have it? The weapon?"

Gabriel nodded. "I left it with O'Dea. We'll have to bring Reza to take a look at it."

"It really works?"

"It does. I saw the ground forces take down armored Dread soldiers that my guns couldn't touch." Gabriel lowered his voice and leaned in closer to her. "There's something else. They had a girl there with them. I think she was one of the enemy's clones. They copied her, Vivian. They copied my mother."

Colonel Choi froze, her surprise obvious. "If they copied her-"

"It means they captured her. I know. As if things aren't going to be hard enough with Theodore. When he finds out about this-"

"You can't tell him, Gabriel."

"I have to. He's going to ask for news about her. You know he will. He almost cared more about Rodriguez updating him on her whereabouts than he did about recovering the weapon."

"It's going to break his heart."

"His heart is already broken. It's going to piss him off, make him irrational. He's already not thinking clearly."

"That's the medication."

"It doesn't matter what it is; he isn't thinking clearly. That's dangerous territory considering what we just did."

"I know," Choi said. "Like I said, you can confront him on that later."

"Colonel Choi," Reza said, standing at his station. "I have it."

"So where are we, Mr. Mokri?"

"There's some math involved here," Reza replied. "So the projection may be slightly off. I've had to recenter based on the position of Earth in relation to the rest of the known universe, and then estimate the wave speed based on the data collected by the QPG nacelles."

"The short version, Reza," Gabriel said.

"Uh. Right." He smiled. "About six hundred light years beyond Earth."

"Six hundred light years?" Sarah Larone said. "We were in the slipstream for what? Twelve seconds?"

"Thirteen seconds," Reza said. "We traveled approximately forty-three light years per second."

"Are you certain that's right? At that speed, we would be able to reach Calawan in less than two seconds."

"From Earth. Not from here."

Gabriel had been too busy to look out the viewport ahead of them. He did so now, staring out into the expanse of emptiness beyond. It was difficult to differentiate from any other part of space. There was a red dwarf star nearby, close enough to be a little more than another white dot against the black backdrop. Otherwise, there was nothing.

"It would still only take about twenty-two days," Choi said. "We have more than enough reserves for that."

"Yes, ma'am, that's true," Reza said. "There is one complication."

"What is that?"

"I'm scanning for streams, ma'am. As near as I can tell, there aren't any."

Gabriel forgot about the view. His head snapped toward Reza, as did every other head on the bridge.

"Excuse me?" Colonel Choi said, not quite sure she had heard correctly.

"I know," Reza said. "It seems impossible, but there's nothing."

"We came here on a stream," Gabriel said. "That means there has to be one in this area. Doesn't it?"

"That's not how slipspace works, Captain," Sarah said. "The paths aren't random, but they also aren't constant. Are you familiar with the tides on Earth?"

"Caused by the gravitational pull of the moon, sure," Gabriel said.

"Slipstreams are like the tide," Reza said. "During high tide, they'll extend further than during low tide."

"It's only been five minutes."

"For us, Captain," Sarah said. "Remember, slipspace sits outside of our conceptualization of time. We know a lot about how it works, enough that we can plot courses with some measure of accuracy, but only to a certain point."

"And we're beyond that point," Reza said. "It was nothing but insane luck that we were able to even find a slipstream to ride that was passing through the Earth. We should all be dead right now. That stream has crested, though. It will pass through here again, but without a point of reference, it may take weeks to figure out when that will be."

"What's the bottom line?" Choi asked.

"We took a calculated risk to escape the Dread the way we did," Reza said. "That part of it worked out for us, and we made it out alive."

"But?"

"But Captain, unless something changes, we're stranded out here."

"It can't be much further," Major Donovan Peters said, pushing past another bit of low-hanging brush. His eyes drifted above him, to the wisps of smoke illuminated by the starry night sky. They had been tracking the fallen starfighter for the better part of two hours, making their way back down the mountain toward the area where they had seen it touch down in a controlled crash.

"Wait," Ehri said, grabbing his shoulder to slow him down. "Look."

She pointed through the trees, to where a large shape stood sentinel. At first, Donovan thought it might be one of the bek'hai mechs, before realizing it was too small. An armored Dread soldier.
 

Where there was one, there had to be more.

"I've got a clear line of fire," Lieutenant Renata Diaz said, hefting one of the Dread Hunter's rifles to her shoulder. "One shot, one kill."

"At ease, Lieutenant," Donovan said. "We don't know how many more are out there."
 

Of course, the bek'hai had reached the site before them. They were on foot and tired, while their enemy had powered armor and genetically enhanced human clones to send out to survey the scene of the crash. Had they already found the pilot? Captured him? Killed him? They had moved as fast as they could to reach him ahead of the Dread.
 

They were too late.

Donovan motioned to Diaz. "See if you can find a good line of sight that way. Don't shoot until I do."

"Yes, sir," Diaz said.
 

"Ehri, you're with me. Matteo, stay low and out of sight. If you get in trouble, don't be afraid to use that thing."

Matteo glanced down at the Dread rifle. Donovan could see his friend's hands were shaking slightly, but the tech didn't complain.

"Okay," Matteo said. Then he took a few steps back to hide behind the brush they had just pushed past.

Diaz headed off to the left, vanishing into the woods a moment later. Donovan kept an eye on the Dread soldier, making sure it didn't notice the movement. It continued to sit motionless, watching whatever was taking place near the wreckage. Donovan was sure he could hear soft voices now, coming from that area.

He headed to the right of the Dread soldier, creeping slowly through the brush with Ehri right behind him. She was so close he could feel her breath on the back of his neck, calm and even. Did anything make the bek'hai scientist nervous? He doubted it.

It took a few minutes for him to get a better vantage point. He stopped when he caught a glimpse of the source of the wisps of smoke, the side of the starfighter where a scorched hole in the fuselage had burned through one of the thrusters and left it unable to climb out of the atmosphere.
 

"There," Ehri said, tapping his shoulder and whispering into his ear.
 

She pointed to the left of the fighter, to a small area in front of it. Two female clones were kneeling beside a man laying on his back. The pilot. They had pulled his flight suit down to his waist and were talking quietly to one another while they placed a bandage over his abdomen.

"What are they doing?" Donovan asked.
 

He continued scanning the area. A second armored Dread soldier was standing perpendicular to the first, at the edge of the small field. A handful of clone soldiers stood in formation beside him. None of them seemed concerned that they might be attacked, or that they were in any danger. They had to know what had happened up on top of the mountain. They had to know their Hunters had been defeated, their weapons falling into the rebel's hands.
 

Didn't they?

"He must have been wounded," Ehri replied. "The salve is similar to the restorative bath the drumhr use to keep their skin healthy. It will heal most of the damage within hours."

"Why are they healing him? Why not kill him?"

"Why do you think, Major? The Domo'dahm will want information about the ships. Especially where they came from. The bek'hai have been monitoring the activity for years, but were never concerned enough by it to seek out the source."

"Until tonight."

"If they escaped with the weapon, then yes. Until tonight. To use a human expression, the tides have shifted, Major. Yesterday, the bek'hai were invincible to the human rebellion. Now, they are not."

"Thanks to you, in part," Donovan said. "Those soldiers don't seem that concerned to me."

"They have grown complacent over the years. Some will take the threat more seriously than others, at least until you start winning more battles."

"Which I have every intention of doing," Donovan said, his thoughts drifting to his mother. Had the Dread discovered her and the children? Was anyone from their base still alive? "We can't let them take him."

"No."

"What about the female clones?" Donovan asked, putting his eyes back on them. They were nearly identical to Ehri, created from the same base DNA. "Are they a threat?"

"They can't be permitted to escape."

"Is there anything else you can tell me that might be helpful?"

"The armored soldiers. Aim for the helmets. Severing the connection to their oxygen supply will kill them. Be careful not to hit the tanks. At this distance, you'll wind up killing the pilot."

Donovan remembered the explosion that had followed when they had killed the bek'hai Hunter, Orik. "Affirmative. I'll take the one on the right. Can you hit the one on the left?"

Ehri raised her rifle. She had confided that she had trained with Orik for a number of years. She knew how to fight, better than he probably ever would. "Of course."

"On my signal. I expect Diaz will open up as soon as she sees the plasma."

"Affirmative."

Donovan lifted the Dread plasma weapon, sighting along it to the armored soldier, getting a bead on the helmet. He focused on his breathing, making sure to keep himself centered and steady while he took aim. He couldn't afford to miss. Not this time.

He was about to take the shot when a flash to his left broke his concentration.
 

A scream pierced the night.

"Matteo," Donovan said, lowering the rifle and breaking back toward where they had left him.
 

His motion drew the attention of the Dread soldier, and a moment later a heavy plasma bolt hit a tree right in front of him, sending hot splinters into the alien cloth he was wearing. The second skin absorbed the attack, deflecting it without harm, and he continued to run.

A second bolt came a little closer, flashing past his chest, nearly cutting him down. He dropped to his stomach, sensing the light and heat of the third shot crossing over him.