Infinitys end books 7 9, p.12
Infinity's End: Books 7-9, page 12
“I haven’t been to Eight myself, but I’ve heard stories. About five years after the attacks we were on a transport headed for Spakxsia and this old trader said she’d been there when the Athru arrived at the station. Instead of cleaving it like they did to Five out there, they actually came aboard, and begun executing humans one by one.” She shrugged. “As horrific as that sounds, it made me think they might have revised their tactics. Because this trader told us they arrived about a year after the initial invasion, and it had taken them that long to get across the Coalition, assuming they hadn’t stopped.”
He wasn’t sure why but finding out Eight hadn’t been obliterated gave him some semblance of hope. “Does that mean it’s still there? The station?”
“As far as I know. But I heard Rutledge tried to negotiate with the Athru when they approached him. That he tried to switch sides and help them hunt down humans.” She shot him a knowing look.
“That son of a—”
“Hang on,” Samiya said, holding up a hand. “Think about that for a minute. How would that old trader have gotten that intel?”
Cas took it in. “Someone must have been there—witnessed—”
“And how many people do you think the Athru would have left behind to witness such an event?” Her smile had faded.
“Well, if they weren’t human, I’m not sure. Why?” The hypervator doors opened and they walked out into the corridor, turning right. The opening to Bay One was a few meters ahead of them.
“Because, it fits a convenient narrative,” Samiya said. “Rutledge may have been a grade-A asshole. But he wasn’t a traitor. It’s all rumors and hearsay. That old trader didn’t know what she was talking about, she was just spinning stories. Probably eighty percent of everything I know isn’t substantiated and can’t be counted on. Make sure your captain knows that as well.”
Cas masked his frustration. They were coming into this completely blind. Even a little information had to be better than none, right? “Then why even tell us?”
“You wanted to know what I know, so I told you. But my experience has been very limited. We’re lucky if we can find undercurrent-capable spacecraft, and when we do, it’s always a fight to keep them running. We haven’t seen most of the Coalition since everything happened; travel is a luxury. Just keep your eyes open for the unexpected.”
She was right. They couldn’t count on a bunch of second-hand information. But it was better than nothing. It was a starting point at least. He had no idea what Evie must be thinking, or what her next move might be, but in that moment, he was very glad he and Box had gone ahead with the procedure. Because if they hadn’t, it would be him up in that command room trying to figure out what to do. “I suppose—” He was cut off by a large shadow in the doorway to the Bay, which if he hadn’t stopped at the last moment, he would have run into its owner. Cas glanced up. “Consul…” He was about to ask what she was doing down here, until he realized she was staring exclusively at Samiya, and his heart jumped into his throat.
Samiya stood back, taking in Zenfor’s two-point-five-meter frame and she went pale, all the blood draining from her face. “Oh,” escaped her lips and nothing else.
“Um…Captain Samiya Gysan, this is Consul Zenfor, of the Sil Alliance. Consul, Captain Gysan is one of the refugees from the station.” He moved to position himself between them, but Zenfor held out a hand.
“I know who she is,” the Sil replied. “And I know what she’s done.”
By Garth, word on this ship spread fast. How long had they been over here, an hour? He had hoped for more prep time before dealing with this inevitability.
Samiya held out her hands. “Consul, please accept my sincere—”
“Save your worthless apologies,” Zenfor snapped, leaning down so her face was directly in front of Samiya’s. “They mean nothing. Your actions, however, mean far more.”
Cas motioned for Samiya to back up, which she did, and he moved around Zenfor’s hand to stand in front of her. “She’s not the one who ordered the attack on your people. She was following orders. Her purpose was to help the mission. You can understand that.” Zenfor’s eyes flashed with anger. An anger Cas hadn’t seen since they’d returned, and he’d hoped had been well in her past. But it seemed old habits die hard. They’d only been back a week and already she was on edge again.
“And yet, your people have the choice whether to follow orders or not. And she chose to follow them. More than once. And she never came to your aid.” He could almost feel the anger radiating off the Sil. If he didn’t do something soon, Zenfor might kill her by pure accidental rage.
“She was the one who sabotaged the weapon they stole. She made it kill everyone who was involved.” Cas gritted his teeth. It wasn’t ideal, championing the death of a hundred Coalition personnel wasn’t typically a good thing, but it might be the one piece of information that saved Samiya’s life at the moment.
Zenfor raised herself to her full height. “And here I thought they were too stupid to figure out how to use it.”
“That’s how we wanted it to look,” Samiya said. “That the technology was beyond us. Because it didn’t belong to us.”
Zenfor stared at them a moment, then stepped forward, grabbing Samiya by the collar. “Zen, no!” Cas yelled. The Consul lifted Samiya a few centimeters off the ground, then casually tossed her to the side, where she slammed into the bulkhead, falling to the ground in a heap.
Without another word, Zenfor walked away down the hall.
Samiya coughed and sputtered as Cas ran over to help her up. “Jesus, are you okay?”
She coughed again. “I think?” Drawing a deep breath, she held it for a second before letting it out again. “Damn old body. There used to be a time I could handle something like that better.” With Cas’s help, she stood, leaning on the wall. Another passing crewman came over to assist but Cas waved him away.
“Trust me, you got off light. She’s hit me twice before and each time I was in so much pain I thought it would kill me.” Cas made sure she was stable before letting go.
“Not that it wasn’t deserved,” Samiya said, turning to watch Zenfor’s massive form continue down the corridor. “Did she know someone on the ship we captured?”
Cas nodded. “Another Sil told me she did. Maybe her brother? I’m still not fully versed on Sil family dynamics.”
“I just hope…” She shook her head, not finishing the thought. Instead, she pushed away from the wall, standing under her own power. “We were on our way to assist the shuttles?”
“I can take care of that. Why don’t you go to sickbay to make sure—”
“No. I will not be relegated to a bed when I can still be useful. I’ll check with your doctors after we’ve gotten my people on board. And not a moment sooner.” She stared at him with a deep intensity that told Cas she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
He nodded. “Then let’s get it done quick.”
Evie watched the different lines light up the viewscreen on the bridge. The red represented shuttles headed back to the station and green represented shuttles on their way back. All but five of the people had already been transported, but they were still waiting on this equipment they needed to help shield the ship from the…Athru. She rolled the word around in her mind. It was so familiar. Like she’d heard it before somewhere, but she couldn’t recall where.
Behind her the hypervator opened but she barely registered it. Her thoughts remained focused on that word. It was like feeling a memory rather than actually remembering it. And the fact she couldn’t remember bothered her.
“Excuse me, Captain?”
Evie turned to face a man that had to be at least half a meter taller than her, salt and pepper stubble covering most of the lower part of his weathered face. But his eyes were a vibrant blue. He wore a Coalition uniform, though it was faded and torn in at least half a dozen places. But she saw the rank on the side of his lapel. “Commander…?”
“Graydon, Hank Graydon, sir,” he said, holding out his hand.
“Ma’am is fine, Commander. You’re Captain Gysan’s second, is that right?” She took his hand; he had a firm grip, but she noticed she caught him by surprise as he raised his eyebrows at the strength of her own hand.
“Yes, ma’am. She told me to assist you with anything you might need while they got the final shuttles across.” While his attention remained on her, she caught his eyes grazing the rest of the bridge, stopping for a moment on Zaal.
“Tell me what I need to know about this system you have that keeps the Athru from finding you.” She gestured for him to take the empty configurable station behind tactical. His stature reminded her a bit of Zenfor, though she would dwarf even him.
“It’s a specialized field generator,” Graydon said. “We’ve only used it on smaller ships before, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t be scalable with your power reserves. The Athru use Candam Radiative Particles that help power their scanners, which means they can penetrate most anything. So, what we had to do was develop the same technology. We had to do some fine-tuning, but once we figured out the frequency range, we were able to emit a negative signal so when they scan us, it passes right over, showing empty space.”
“Clever,” Evie said, even though she only understood part of it. Physics was not her forte.
“But we also have to continually adjust it. Because otherwise when they aren’t scanning for us, we’d be very easy to detect due to the amount of radiation we emit. It’s a delicate balance.”
Evie was only half listening. Her mind had pulled her back to that word again: Athru. It was like she was being drawn to the word for some reason and in her mind, she felt that same pressure as before. Only this time it was stronger, more urgent. Almost like a pulse.
“Captain?”
She glanced up to see Graydon staring at her. Oh shit. How long had he been talking? She probably didn’t need to make a bad impression with what might be the last humans they’d ever meet. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“Just that—”
Something snapped in Evie’s mind. In the dark spaces of her mind where nothing resided, she saw very clearly the image of three ships, moving along a trajectory that would put them right on top of Starbase Five in a matter of seconds. And in that moment she knew what she saw was true, there was no doubt in her mind.
“Raise the armor!” Evie yelled.
“But the shuttles—” Zaal began.
“Now! Tileah, full power to forward armor!” She only hoped Zenfor’s defensive upgrades could take the strain. Less than a second after the viewscreen notified them the armor was up three alien ships appeared in their screen, having dissolved into existence. “Time bubbles,” Evie whispered.
“What the hell?” Graydon said.
The ship rocked with the blast of an energy weapon and Evie clambered into her chair. “Armor holding,” Tileah said. Alert claxons sounded all over the ship.
“Prepare to collect the shuttles,” Evie said. “We need to—” She stopped when one of the alien ships broke off, turning toward what was left of the station and fired. The station itself exploded in a bright white light.
“The shuttles,” Evie said, watching the explosion ripple through the debris.
Chapter Sixteen
Cas had been standing in Bay One, waiting for the last of the shuttles to fly in when the ship went into lockdown while Samiya was off helping to direct where to unload the rest of the cargo from the station. The armor went up and the massive door rolled down on the normally-open Bay as the ship rocked back and forth from weapons fire.
“Report!” Cas yelled.
“It’s an attack,” one of the ensigns helping Samiya said. “They only drop the doors when we’re under assault.” He’d been standing beside the cargo when half of it went sliding across the floor.
An attack? The Athru couldn’t have found them already, could they? He needed to get back up to the bridge. But first he needed to get the Bay open again so the last of the shuttles could land.
“All hands, this is the captain. Full alert, we are under attack by a hostile force,” Evie’s voice said over the ship’s comm.
No shit, Cas thought. But they couldn’t leave those shuttles out there. Not only were they carrying the technology that could help obscure Tempest from the Athru, but Jann was piloting one of the shuttles, and there were still five of Samiya’s crew aboard.
“Get that bay door back open,” he said to the ensign, running back to the main corridor, then he motioned at Samiya to stay there and help. She nodded as he crossed the threshold, looking for the nearest access ladder.
“Cas.” His personal comm chirped.
“Go ahead.” He reached the access ladder that would take him a level up to flight control. It was safer to use the ladder than rely on the hypervators while under attack. He didn’t want to get stuck inside.
“I need you to get back to Engineering. We have to activate the undercurrent again,” Evie said.
“What about the shuttles?” he said, pausing on the third rung.
“The Athru destroyed the station, we lost the shuttles on our screens up here. We can’t wait around, there are three of those things out there.”
“We can’t just leave them,” Cas said, debating whether he should keep climbing or not.
“Cas, they’re gone. Now get to Engineering otherwise none of us is going to make it.” Cas grimaced and punched the bulkhead beside the ladder, the knuckles of his hand came away bloody. He wasn’t ready to accept they were dead. Dropping down the ladder, Cas re-emerged in the corridor.
“Cas to Samiya,” he said, tapping his comm as he ran for a different access ladder.
“Go ahead.”
“You have about three minutes to find those shuttles and get them back in the Bay otherwise we’re leaving without them.” Cas reached the second ladder. This one traversed the ship vertically and would take him back up to level ten, Engineering.
“That’s—I understand,” she said, cutting the comm. Cas couldn’t believe Evie was willing to leave them behind. The ship rocked again, and he almost slipped off the rung. He wanted to both get there and not at the same time, to get the ship into the undercurrent and stay. He only hoped Samiya could reach them before Tempest had the chance to leave. She might need some help.
“What are you doing?” the ensign yelled as Samiya slipped into the cockpit. She hadn’t caught his name, but he was on the young side.
“Whatever I have to,” she said, shutting the shuttle’s door and powering the ship up. It had only been half unloaded so far, but that wouldn’t matter as soon as she was out in open space. The shuttle lifted from the pad and she turned it to the Bay door only to find it was still closed. She motioned to the ensign to get the door open again and he hesitated a second before she turned her shoulder to him, making sure he could see the captain’s insignia embedded there. She watched the mental battle in his mind until he finally decided and ran over to the manual controls beside the main door. He pushed the massive lever inside the box down and at the far end of the room the Bay doors rolled up again. The fact that everything wasn’t sucked out as soon as they did gave Samiya some hope. It meant the force barriers were still in place, which meant the armor hadn’t been compromised yet. But she’d need the armor dropped for a brief second to get out there.
“Hello, captain!”
Samiya glanced at her personal comm at the unfamiliar voice. It had a tinny sound to it, like someone speaking through a can. “Who the hell are you?”
“Sir Boxington the third, supreme hero of the Coalition, at your service. My associate Caspian told me you might need assistance in your mission.” Samiya furrowed her brow.
“I don’t understand what is going on.” Something stuck in her throat and she coughed into her sleeve.
“Ugh!” the voice said, exasperated and dropping all the pretense. “My name is Box. I’m here to help retrieve the shuttles. Do you want my help or not?”
Box? Was this the mechanical companion Cas had mentioned? It didn’t matter; she could figure out details later. “Can you lower the ship’s armor? Do you have that capability?”
“Better than anyone else,” Box said. “Send me your flight plan, I’ll make sure the armor in that section is down.”
“I don’t have—”
“Your trajectory! Just send me your trajectory out of the Bay!” Samiya gritted her teeth and uploaded the plan into her comm. This Box was what some of her people might call a “loose cannon”. “Okay,” Box said. “Aim straight for the opening. The armor will be down.”
“Go now?” Samiya asked.
“Gogogogogogo.” His mechanical voice grated on Samiya’s ears. How did Caspian stand it? She punched the accelerator and the shuttle blasted toward the opening, but the yellow glow told her the ship’s magnetic armor was still up.
“Uh, Box, I need—”
“—trust. You need trust. Now hold your course,” he said.
“What are you—?”
“Ah, ah, ah. No questions. This is a trust exercise. You must trust I will not kill or maim you in a horrific fashion.” Samiya watched as the end of the bay grew closer while the shuttle’s speed remained constant. Was he kidding? Was he insane? She’d heard of some of the old autos losing their minds after long shutdown periods, and now her life might be in the hands of one.
Though, if he did end up killing her, he might just be saving the Athru the trouble. There was little chance this was going to work.
“Aaaaand now!” Box said just as the shuttle passed the terminus of the Bay. She thought she saw the armor grid flicker for a split second and then she was in open space, Tempest pulling away at tremendous speed. In front of her were three Athru destroyers. Or what she’d come to think of destroyers. All she knew was they had a lot of firepower.
