Earth Fleet (Rebel Fleet Series Book 4), page 24
It had been a long time since I’d been a prisoner of the Imperials. The experience was bringing back memories every moment—none of them pleasant.
When we at last reached the bridge, I was held by two of the males. Ahead of me, I could see Captain Thalia as she prowled her impressively cavernous bridge. She seemed to be circling the place, checking every operator’s station.
They were all scanning the six long term rifts, taking in countless readings. They’d been honest about that much, at least. They were very interested in these unusual phenomena.
At last, Thalia made her way around the enormous deck and took notice of me.
“Captain Thalia,” I said. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
It was a sarcastic jibe, but it seemed to go right over her head.
“Human…” she mused, reading off a chart. “ My data-cube has an unusually high number of entries with your identifier associated. Did you know you’re infamous, Captain Blake?”
“Me in particular? Or are you speaking of my entire sub-species?”
“Both,” she said. “Did you or did you not have associations with one Lael, Imperial Captain, lost two years ago?”
I almost squirmed, but I managed to contain myself.
“That name does ring a bell…”
“It should,” she said, flipping through a long-ass looking report. “According to our subsequent investigation, Lael died on Earth.”
She looked up at me expectantly.
“Uh…” I said. “That’s true. The same enemy who killed her, however, is plaguing both of us now.”
“Right now, the only entity that’s of concern to me is you. I’ve already logged the capture using our deep-link, and I hope to be commended for it.”
“Hold on,” I said. “What about our deal?”
“Deal? We do not deal with Rebel Kher at all, in most instances, and certainly not with pirates like you.”
“Hold on,” I repeated. “I want to show you something.”
She frowned suspiciously. “Show me what?”
“There’s a data chip in my front pocket. Could you have one of your walking refrigerators fish it out for me?”
She ignored my suggestion and stepped forward. Without a qualm, she dug in my front pocket. It was all I could do not to squirm.
At last, she pulled the data chip out and held it up.
“This seems small for a bomb,” she commented.
“Scan it,” I said.
“We already have. It must have a virus on it, since it’s not a physical threat. That would make sense as you began this encounter with a hacking attempt.”
The Imperials were nothing if not paranoid. I pasted on a smile and kept my voice even in tone.
“I’m so sorry, Captain, if there have been misunderstandings. We weren’t hacking, but only trying to gain your attention.”
“You should be pleased then, human. You have succeeded. You have our undivided attention.”
Thalia handed off the chip to another of her sidekicks who bore it away as if it was made of deadly plutonium. Then, Thalia turned back to me.
“I would remind you, Captain, of our agreement. I’m here to cooperate on this joint venture.”
“So far you’ve produced nothing but irritation.”
“I’m sorry, Captain. If you’d just allow the data on that chip to—”
“I find this situation hard to credit,” she said, beginning to pace in front of me. “I’m a vaunted captain of a super-massive from our primary fleet. Why aren’t you overawed?”
“A super-massive? Is that what you call this class of vessel?”
She shrugged. “Yes. They aren’t that uncommon in the important parts of the galaxy. Out here, I imagine, they’re quite rare. But none of that matters. What you should be asking yourself, human, is why such an important ship would come to Earth at all.”
“Um… why are you here, Captain?”
“We are here because there are inexplicable signals coming out of this system. There are signals in space-time that represent a possible existential threat to my civilization. We must determine how you gained this technology.”
“We don’t have it. We’re victims of its usage, that’s all.”
She squinted at me. “You resemble a true Kher far too much, primate. I don’t like it. Your similar appearance to a true-blood is offensive.”
“Uh… sorry, Captain.”
Thalia waved away my words and turned to a tech, who was returning with my chip in her hands. It looked to be partially melted.
“You destroyed it?” I demanded.
Thalia looked at me sharply. “Silence,” she said, and she turned to her tech. “Play the stream.”
A suspended tank of force fields and gases glowed into life. Inside the globular visual tank I saw the stream from the chip I’d brought along playing, and I relaxed to see it. At least they hadn’t ruined my sole piece of evidence.
What played was a series of recent clips of Godwin’s intrusions. He was shown in various forms and guises.
At first, the Imperials seemed restless. They didn’t get it. But when Godwin faded away to a stain on the carpet, they gasped.
“A Nomad!” Thalia demanded, turning to me and stepping close.
The two guards who still had my arms in their grippers squeezed reflexively. I knew that was going to bruise, but I didn’t make a sound.
“Exactly, Captain,” I said. “Watch now as the creature makes its most recent appearance.”
Leaning hard on a metal railing, Thalia watched the tank. Disguised as Ensign Costa, Godwin delivered the mysterious device and admonished me not to press the button until the Imperials arrived.
This caused a furor on the bridge. The Imperials had always been highly paranoid about the Nomads.
“We should never have created those creatures,” Thalia said. “All of this makes sense now. The Nomad used you as pawns to lure us here—to demonstrate its technology and trap us!”
“Um… I don’t think that’s—” I began, but she wasn’t listening.
“Helm!” she shouted. “Come about, leave orbit! We’re in mortal danger!”
The ship slewed around and became very noisy. I tried to get Thalia’s attention again, but she wasn’t interested.
With true worry in my heart, I realized I’d lost control of the situation—if I’d ever had it to begin with.
=46=
Captain Thalia of the Imperial super-massive was in a state of near panic. She clearly believed she was in the jaws of a trap—with me playing the star role as the wretched bait.
The ship turned around and moved away from Earth, away from the spinning rifts. No one was listening to me, so I stopped trying to call attention to myself. Hopefully, when nothing untoward happened, cooler heads would prevail.
Unfortunately, events spun further out of control with every passing moment.
The rifts glowed brighter. All six of them.
The timer, I thought.
Looking up at the glowing imagery in the holotank, I watched as the Imperials replayed the final scene. Godwin appeared, holding that box. She showed me the function of it, the button and the spinning numbers.
I squinted to see the values. They were going down, as before. But how long ago had that been? Hours, at least. Could the timer on the box be down to all zeroes by now?
I should have known the answer to that question, but I’d been so concerned with the appearance of a super-massive hostile warship over Earth, I’d kind of forgotten about Godwin’s box.
Where was that box, still on the conference table near the War Room? I suspected it remained there, counting down…
Until about now.
“Something’s coming through those strange rifts, Captain,” a staffer warned.
Thalia showed her teeth. “Give me some distance. This could be a trap. Those rifts—what’s that?”
An outpouring of ships erupted. Six vessels, heavy cruisers all, orbited above my beloved homeworld.
My heart sank. How could I hope Earth would escape this conflict unscathed? All told, our navy wasn’t a match for either the huge Imperial ship or this new squadron of invaders.
“Identify those ships!” Thalia demanded.
“Nothing valid is coming up… they’re Rebel Kher, best guess.”
Captain Thalia nodded. “Or Nomads,” she said, “masters of disguise and subterfuge.”
I thought she was being paranoid—even for an Imperial. To me, they looked like Fex’s ships. Same size, same configuration… Yes, it was almost certain.
But no one was asking me.
“How long until the generators can produce a fresh rift?” Thalia demanded.
“At least eight minutes, sir. If we drop our shields, that is.”
That surprised me, but not too much. A ship as large as the one I was aboard now would take a monstrous rift, which meant a monstrous release of power. Such a thing took time to build up and control.
“It’s too late to run, then,” Thalia said, her voice dropping and becoming calm again. “Come about to face the enemy. We can’t allow them to rake our stern. Forward shields, up. All gun ports open.”
At last, she turned toward me. She peered at me malevolently. “I’m not sure what part you play in all this, Blake. But you’d better hope we can’t destroy all these ships. If I survive long enough, I’ll make your final hours a living hell of torment!”
I almost made a loud retort at that moment, but somehow I managed to keep my mouth shut.
Quite possibly, Fex was about to attack Earth. In that case, I wasn’t going to allay the fears of these Imperials. If this Imperial super-massive ship distracted Fex—great. I wanted this ship to fight with Fex’s armada. If that happy event occurred, I’d take my torture and count myself an unsung hero.
Following Thalia’s orders, the super-massive swung around and glided back toward Fex’s flotilla.
Already, the fireworks were going off above my homeworld. Missiles flew, and they were met by counter-missiles and automated defense beams. Explosions lit up the shielding on the Kwok ships which seemed intent on Earth herself.
Our own ships closed in on their flanks, but they seemed to be moving too slowly. Maybe Vega was playing it dangerously, hoping the Imperials and the Kwok would engage. If they did so before…
“No!” I gasped.
The first missile had struck Earth. I could see the flash, the expanding fireball. Soon a mushroom cloud rose up into the upper atmosphere.
Another strike flashed, and another. They were all raining down dead center over North America—the Midwest.
“They must hate these humans as much as we do,” Thalia reflected. “The best moment to strike them is now, while they are engaged by the human defenses.”
Still, she hesitated.
I thought of a dozen ploys to get Thalia to attack. I could lie about Fex and his intentions—but I’d already feigned a lack of knowledge about them. Finally, I struck upon a plan.
“The better part of valor, is that it?” I called out loudly.
The grippers that had clamped onto my arm squeezed painfully, but I ignored the pinch.
Thalia turned toward me with a frown. “What was that, human?”
“It’s an Earth idiom. Running away, avoiding battle, such tactics are acceptable—under certain circumstances.”
She began to frown, and she stepped toward me. Her hips swung dangerously as she walked.
“Are you suggesting our observation at a distance is due to cowardice?”
“Not exactly,” I said, “it might look that way to any outside observer, of course. But you’re simply waiting for the Kwok to finish off Earth, if I’m not mistaken. Perhaps we can take down a ship or two of theirs with our missiles…”
“Where’s your fleet, human?” she asked. “Where is it hiding?”
I shrugged helplessly. “We have a few ships, but nothing that can face this.”
Thalia turned back toward the displays thoughtfully. “They’re annihilating your cities for no purpose? Is that it? I thought you rebels banded together when facing a superior foe.”
“We do. But there’s only your single ship here, and you’re clearly no threat.”
“No threat?” she bristled. “How dare you suggest—?”
“I meant no offense!” I insisted. “The kind of prudence you’re displaying now is often the wisest course. If we can hold them for another eight minutes, you can escape with your lives. I’m learning more about the Imperial way each passing moment as we sit here.”
Her face was dark now. Her small white teeth gleamed wetly as she showed them to me with a snarl. “I’ll have you know, human, that this vessel is more than capable of destroying that entire force!”
“If you say so,” I said, rolling my eyes and giving her a mocking smile. “That fleet out there is driven by the Kwok. They’re formidable local tyrants. Look how long their rifts last. Can Imperial ships do that? No—of course not. Perhaps that’s why you fear. It’s for the best, really…”
At the mention of the rifts and their unusual characteristics, Thalia checked my claims. They were proven out. The Imperials couldn’t create such rips in space-time, and it really bugged them to see someone else do something—anything they couldn’t match.
Thalia turned back to the displays with her hands on her shapely hips. “Gunners, target the lead cruiser. Open fire at optimal range—beams only.”
I gave a little gasp, as if shocked. “You dare so much?” I asked. “Fex might not be merciful when—”
“Shut up!” Thalia demanded, and the guards shook me.
I shut up, as my goals had been accomplished.
As soon as the super-massive got close enough, blinding bolts of power leapt out. They struck the nearest cruiser. For about three long seconds, there was a coruscating lance of radiation connecting the two ships.
Then the cruiser broke up into twisted wreckage. An odd warbling howl came out of the Imperial bridge-crew. They were cheering, I figured.
That was it for Fex and his boys. They wheeled around, Earth forgotten. They turned their guns on the monster vessel behind them.
“They’ve made a sick miscalculation,” Thalia said arrogantly. “Watch them all die, human. They ignored us, thinking us out of range—their crews are poorly trained. A super-massive outranges any heavy cruiser by an order of magnitude.”
I realized she was right. Fex must have been a fool to ignore the mammoth enemy ship approaching his flank—but then again maybe the Kwok had figured the Imperials were out of reach. They’d thought they had more time to abuse Earth. If so, they were now being harshly schooled.
“Our calculations show they won’t even reach us before we’ve destroyed them all,” Thalia continued in a proud tone. “This is just one more example of… what’s this?”
I followed her gaze, and I saw why she was frowning again. Six more heavy cruisers were emerging from the long-lasting rifts.
This time, they didn’t bother to attack Earth. They knew this massive ship was their real enemy. They spun around and approached immediately.
The bravado aboard the Imperial ship was immediately dampened. Eleven ships was an entirely different matter…
“Take out the next one,” Thalia ordered.
The big, long-range batteries cooled down and powered up enough capacitance to strike again. The second ship dodged—but still she was destroyed.
Another warbling cheer went up. But this time, it seemed to me, their cries of joy were more muted.
“Six more, Captain!” shouted a tech.
Captain Thalia began to hiss and fume. Two of the original five were gone, but still we faced sixteen more. Sure, none of the cruisers were in range yet, but they were without a doubt closing in.
“Reverse engines!” Thalia ordered. “How long until we can spin up a fresh rift?”
“Eight minutes, sir.”
“What?” she demanded, and she went to check the numbers in person.
They held up. I could have told her they would. The ship had been expending massive amounts of energy firing her big guns. Whatever was left over hadn’t built up enough to create a rift.
Thalia stared at the data, frowning fiercely.
I knew what she was thinking. I knew she was considering what I would have thought in her shoes: she pondered sounding the retreat.
If the big ship wheeled and ran now, she could build up some power and keep out of range of those angry cruisers. With luck, we’d escape unscathed.
She didn’t want to do it, but it was the right move—for her, for the Imperials. It wasn’t the right move for Earth.
“Captain Thalia?” I called out loudly, interrupting the sudden quiet. “You should consider running for it, you know. There’s no shame in it. Sometimes, even an Imperial has to admit when they’ve been beaten fair and square. There’s no shame in it at all. No one will say Captain Thalia was a coward. No Rebel Kher scum will dare sing songs—”
“Silence that beast!” she screeched.
Twin explosions of pain gripped my sides—literally. The two armored men at my sides had grabbed up wads of fabric and skin, giving the flesh over my ribs a vicious twist.
I felt blood run down my sides to my legs, but I didn’t care. I kept my eye on Thalia. It was all up to her now.
She bared her teeth and stared at the approaching cruisers in hate.
“Gunner, kill another one of those insects! Crush them!”
My sides burned and throbbed, but I dared to smile. The battle was on, and the Imperials were committed.
=47=
Thalia’s ship was committed now. The enemy vessels were closing, firing in unison. There was no escape due to the fact we had to keep our shields up at full power or risk being destroyed.
The battle wasn’t playing out as a face-to-face struggle with both sides standing at optimal range and pouring fire at one another. Nor was it a battle where each side charges into the other side’s lines and breaks through due to inertia.
Instead, Thalia conducted a continuous retreat while firing. This was due to her ship’s superior range. Rather than closing in with the enemy cruisers, she wanted to withdraw as fast as possible while sniping from a distance.
