Authors: Doug J. Cooper
Cheryl looked over at Jack and then
back at the projection image they were both watching. The Kardish vessel loomed
like a hungry predator as it approached the
Alliance
.
“They’re not slowing,” said Yang from the navigation bench.
“They’ll hit us if we don’t move.”
The pace was frenzied throughout the ship as the skeleton
crew struggled to execute the emergency-status tasks normally performed by a
much larger staff. Too busy to dwell on their fates, the crew’s tension was still
palpable. The
Alliance
had been served up as bait. The marauder was
moving in for the kill.
“Time to impact?” asked Cheryl, confident in her ability to
handle the situation.
“Thirty minutes,” answered Yang from the navigation bench.
“Let’s not let them get any closer. Match their speed.”
“Aye, Captain,” Yang hadn’t even started to respond to her
command when the ship went dark. The background noise from the engines,
ventilation, mechanicals, and electronics began to wind down. Backup lights and
auxiliary power kicked on, but the ambient noise was distinctly quieter. Cheryl
could tell that they’d lost a lot of subsystems.
“Ensign Parvin.” She swiveled her head toward the
engineering bench. “What just happened?”
The man’s fingers were dancing across his bench as he
searched for an answer. “I don’t know, ma’am. We’ve lost power to…everything.
We can’t move, see…”
Cheryl interrupted, “Lieutenant Freedman. Is communications still
linked with Fleet Command?”
“I’m dark, Captain. No signals going in or out. Not just
Fleet. Everything’s gone.”
It registered with her that there was empty space where the
image of the Kardish vessel had been displayed just moments earlier.
“Get me eyes on that vessel.”
Everyone was scrambling, but no answers were forthcoming.
“Operations,” called Cheryl. “Let’s get the crystal in the
loop.” After a moment of silence, she tried again, “Report, Ensign Young.” Silence
again. “Cait?” Cheryl’s tone was tentative as she called into the air.
Jack, standing near her, reached his fingers into a small
pocket at his waist and pulled out a speck. He held it up with his thumb and
finger, fiddled with the tiny device for a moment, and then turned to Cheryl.
“Hold still,” he said in a no-nonsense tone. He touched her face right in front
of her left ear and pressed. Cheryl instinctively lifted her hand to feel.
“Gentle,” he cautioned her.
As he spoke that word, she heard him not only through the
air like she did normally, but also in a more direct fashion as if his voice
were wired directly to her brain.
He turned his head and pointed to the identical spot on his
face. She saw what looked like a tiny blemish. “You can hear me, and I can hear
you.” He lowered his voice. “Even when we whisper. And they offer more privacy,
dependability, and security than a com.” He turned and ran off the bridge. As
he ducked into a passageway, she heard him say, “I’ll check on Cait and let you
know.”
* * *
Jack strode into the operations bay
to find Cait spewing a string of curse words at a control panel. He could see
she was overwhelmed with problems and realized he was about to add more
pressure. “The captain called down and never got a reply,” he said. “What’s
up?”
“Didn’t hear her,” said Cait over her shoulder, never
slowing her furious pace. “I’ve called up to everyone on the bridge myself and
never got a response from anyone. So I guess that means that communications are
as dead as everything else down here.” Jack followed her gaze as she looked
around the operations bay. The rich sounds of an active ship that had been present
during his last visit no longer dominated the setting.
“What’s the status of the crystal?” asked Jack. “We could
use the help right now.”
“The crystal is getting power.” She pointed at a tiny green
light near the housing. “But it’s isolated from us. I talk and it doesn’t
respond. My sense is that it’s functioning fine. It’s more like it can’t talk
back. Whatever caused this,” she swept both her arms in the air, “is probably
causing that problem as well.”
“Could this be the Kardish?”
“That’s my best guess,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything
like it. But it also could be the mother of all malfunctions that a new ship
could theoretically experience, and it just happened to hit at the worst
possible time. My training is to assume nothing and keep working to find
solutions, so I’m not giving up.”
Jack knew that Cheryl’s speck would let her hear the words
he spoke, but she would not hear other sounds or voices. He walked a short loop
around the operations bay, and while he went through the motions of inspecting
the area, he briefed her on what he’d learned.
When he finished, Cheryl said, “Would you get to a rear
viewport, Jack, and be our eyes? We need to know what that vessel is doing.”
Jack turned back to Cait. “Do you know of a viewport where I
can see outside the ship?”
“Sure,” said Cait. “The ship has twenty-two ports placed around
the outer hull. You can see at all angles and every direction. I’m guessing you
want to look back?”
Jack nodded. “Take me to a rear port right away.”
Cait had spent years of her career on a ship, and speeding
from one point to another was second nature to her. Jack struggled to keep up
as she scurried through the labyrinth of passages and crawl spaces.
After several minutes of twists and turns, she stopped and
turned to him. “We can’t see straight back through any of the ports because the
engines are in the way. Your choices are to look back and angled up, down, or
to either side.”
“Which will let me see the Kardish better?”
She turned and climbed a couple of steep steps. Jack
followed to find her looking through a round window about as big as her head.
“Holy moly,” she whispered.
“My turn,” said Jack as he moved her out of the way.
He looked out and his eyes widened. The viewing angle was
limited, but it was enough to see the Kardish vessel looming. A huge hangar
door was opening in the vessel’s bow—or what he took to be the bow. It would be
only minutes before the
Alliance
would be sliding into the belly of the
alien beast.
“Thanks, Cait,” said Jack. “Get back to operations and dig
deep into your bag of tricks. Every ship capability you can get up and running
gives us more options.”
“Aye, sir,” she said, already moving back the way they had
come.
Jack kept his face glued to the viewport and fed Cheryl a
steady commentary of events. He could see a slice of their outside surroundings
and did his best to separate his inferences from what he knew to be fact. He
told her when the
Alliance
was passing through the doors of what
appeared to be a huge hangar deck at the bow of the Kardish vessel.
An interior wall enabled him to track their relative movement.
He watched as the lighting outside the viewport changed and speculated that the
hangar doors were closing behind them. Moments later, he reported that they’d
been fully consumed by the predator.
The
Alliance
remained floating in an apparent
weightless environment as it drifted deeper into the larger craft. Jack
combined the clues from his observations with the passage of time to gauge
their movement into the bowels of the Kardish vessel.
At one point, he commented, “These specks let us hear each
other. I’m kicking myself because I left extra dots back at the base. They
would have let you see as well as hear. I brought one for me. But without an
extra for you, mine ain’t worth much right now.” He continued with
self-deprecating sarcasm. “Thank goodness I saved that space in my pack by
leaving it on a shelf.”
“You’re doing great, Jack,” Cheryl assured him. “Keep
telling me what you see.”
He watched as they approached a massive wall that divided
the ship into sections along its length. A huge set of hangar doors in the
middle opened as they drew near. They drifted through these, and the doors shut
behind them. A short time later, they repeated the sequence through a second set
of hangar doors. It was difficult to judge distance, but Jack guessed they had
traveled somewhere between a quarter to half the distance into the alien ship.
They slowed to a full stop—or at least, Jack could no longer
detect movement relative to the Kardish vessel’s interior wall. And then they
began to descend. As they traveled through the last set of doors, Jack saw what
he described to Cheryl as a simple framework of support beams into which they
were now moving.
Minutes passed and then the
Alliance
shook from a
solid thump. The ship settled and listed ever so slightly to one side. Jack
presumed that the framework the
Alliance
was now resting in was a cradle
of sorts and was either poorly designed or constructed for a different vessel.
As he searched for more clues outside the port, his knees flexed. The gravity had
increased and was now close to Earth normal.
After several minutes with no movement or change outside the
viewport, Jack concluded that the
Alliance
was docked and secured. With
this realization, he turned and ran through the ship as fast as he could,
talking as he moved. “Cheryl, we will be boarded. We have twenty minutes.
Thirty tops. But that’s a wild-ass guess. We’d talked about fighting them when
they boarded, but that was when we thought we’d be out in the open and could
abandon ship. We’re captives now. A fight would be to the death. That’s not a
good choice.”
“I’m open to ideas,” Cheryl replied.
“I’m certain their mission is to get the crystal. Maybe you
should move Cait out of the operations bay. In fact, spreading everyone around
the ship might be a good idea. If the Kardish are sloppy, maybe a couple of the
crew will get overlooked. We can’t hide everyone, or they’ll end up using gas
or something to kill all life on board.”
“Damn it, Jack. I’m hoping for something a little more
sophisticated than hide.
”
Jack arrived at his cabin and ducked inside. “I’m down in my
cabin and need a way off the ship. Please come down now, Cheryl. I need you
here.”
* * *
Cheryl opened Jack’s door and slid
inside. While she watched, he stepped into a one-piece gossamer suit that
covered him up to his neck, then picked up his toy-master packs and slung one
over each shoulder.
“I feel like I’m traveling a little light right now,” he
said with a wry grin.
Next, he picked up a sheet of the exotic material, shook it
once, and then draped it over his back like a cape, covering his packs. “The
DSA’s been giving us this cape material for a couple of years. The full suit is
a prototype.” Then he pulled on a hood, and before her eyes, he faded away and
became invisible. “This is why they call me a ghost.”
Jack spoke both through the air and in her ear. She studied
where he’d last been standing and could make out a slight fuzziness around the
edges of where the cloaking of his ghost suit ended and the actual background
began. Focusing on that helped her locate him as he moved to her right, and she
concentrated on tracking his movements.
“You can see me?”
She could hear the concern in his voice. “Not really,” she
assured him. “I can see a disruption around your edges compared to the
background. I’m watching that, but if I lose you for even a moment, I won’t be
able to find you again.”
“I need off the ship. Can you get me to an access hatch out
the bottom of the hull? Sooner is better.”
Cheryl complied without hesitation. During their brief walk,
she checked in with her crew on status and progress, fretting at the
discouraging reports. She led Jack down a ladder, opened a pressure door, and
stepped into a small room. Pointing to a hatch in the floor, she said. “That’s
the way out. Can I ask what you’re doing?”
“I’m not leaving you or the crew behind. My training is to
hide from the enemy and stage my operations from a distance.”
“Why don’t we all sneak off?”
“If they board and no one is in here, they’ll know we’re out
there and hunt us. I don’t have more cloaking material. You’d all be exposed.”
“Being hunted while on the run sounds like better odds than
sitting here waiting to be shot or taken prisoner.”
“You may be right,” he paused. “I don’t have a good
solution. You’re the captain. I’m going to throw that back on your shoulders.
Maybe spreading throughout their vessel isn’t such a bad thing. Living longer
is the best way you can help. That gives us more time.” Jack got down on his
knees and examined the hatch. It was large enough for him and his packs to slip
through. “My focus is to see if I can get Sid on board. If I can do that, we
win.”
“Seriously?”
“I trust Sid with my life every time we’re on a mission,”
said Jack. “Believe this—he won’t quit until we’re safe or he’s dead.”
Cheryl was baffled by his thought process.
Jack rubbed Cheryl’s arm and gave
her a peck on her cheek. She reacted as if startled, presumably because she could
not see him and was caught by surprise.
“You have to go now,” he said to her. “I need to crack this
hatch, and I don’t know if there’s air on the other side.” He put a hand on her
back and guided her to the door. She opened it and stepped through on her own.
He shut and sealed the pressure door, telling her, “These
specks work at great distances. Keep talking to me, and I’ll fill you in as I
go. Good luck,
chérie
.”
Cheryl climbed the ladder, and as she hurried back to the
command bridge, she asked the empty passageway, “Did he just call me ‘darling’?”
Jack responded in her ear. “I did. My emotional side can
peek out sometimes at really awkward moments.”
He crouched down and saw that the display on the hatch cover
was dead. When functioning normally, it showed details about the conditions
outside the ship and whether it was safe to proceed. He grabbed a testing probe
from his pack, took a deep breath and cracked the hatch. It opened with a small
hiss. He lifted it far enough to allow the probe tip to draw a sample, and then
dropped it quietly back in place.
The atmosphere analysis took longer than he anticipated, and
he was exhaling when the probe finally displayed the results. As he filled his
lungs, he was relieved to learn that the atmosphere in the Kardish vessel
wasn’t poisonous. In fact, the air was similar to that of Earth at a
mountainous altitude, somewhere in elevation range between Denver and Mexico
City.
He pulled the hatch open all the way, lowered his head, and
looked around. As he had guessed, the
Alliance
was resting on the cradle
structure he’d seen from the viewport. A support beam ran under the hatch within
easy reach. He lowered himself onto it, shut the hatch, and scrambled down to
the deck of the Kardish vessel. After a quick scan of his surroundings, he ran across
an open space to seek cover among a sea of box-shaped units. No sooner had he reached
his goal when he heard the sound of a group approaching, making no effort at
stealth.
From his vantage point, he saw three tall males stride up to
the base of the huge cradle. They walked around the perimeter of the structure
and studied the ship resting on it, occasionally pointing as they talked. Their
prolonged discussion suggested they were developing a plan.
All three had pale skin and long blond hair. While Jack knew
nothing about fashion, he couldn’t help but notice their outfits. They wore
layers of colored cloth with ornate touches of beadwork and embroidery that reminded
him of the costumes of royal finery he had seen in a play back in high school.
Two of the three wore sword scabbards at their hips, which Jack
decided were serving more as symbols than fighting tools. He based this on his
observation that all three held hand weapons that looked both modern and
lethal.
“Cheryl,” whispered Jack. “There’re three of them out here,
and they appear human as far as I can tell. They’re looking for a way in. They
have hand weapons, and they seem determined.”
“Okay. I have everyone armored up. We’ll hope it can shield
us from whatever it is that comes out of their weapons.”
The three Kardish stopped circling and stood next to the
structure, their discussion never slowing. Jack had been standing in one place
for a while and became aware that he could be surprised from behind. He looked
over his shoulder and peered deeper into the assembly of box units for signs of
danger.
The place was a warren of intersecting alleys and larger
roads. Wondering if it might hold a spot that could serve as a temporary base
of operations, he took a few minutes to explore the area near him. A few rows
back and over he located a sheltered passageway that he thought would work as a
hideout for the near term.
“I’ve found a narrow alley between some boxy equipment that
I’m going to use as our rally point. It’s really just a space that’s hidden
from the main roadways. And it has two exits, so we have options if we’re being
chased.”
“Okay,” said Cheryl.
He could tell from her brief response that she was only half
listening. He continued, knowing from experience that this sort of chatter
helped to calm their nerves while allowing them to maintain focus.
“If it comes to a point where you’re on the run, move
straight away from the
Alliance
and run toward the big boxy things.
You’ll see a central alleyway right across from the ship. Count two right turns
and take the third right. Then count three left turns and take the fourth.”
“Got it. Right at three and left at four.”
“Good.”
Shifting some items into his ghost pack and slinging it over
his shoulder, he then stowed his toy-master packs in a crevice in the alley
hideout and returned to watch the ship. The three Kardish were now standing
around waiting. And then he heard a purring noise.
“A cart just arrived with two more of them. We’re up to five
now.”
“Can you hear what they’re saying?” she asked.
“I can hear them, but it’s a foreign language. I can’t make
sense of it.” This gave him an idea. He pulled out a small package that held a
listening speck covered with sticky goo. He poked his finger inside, and when
he pulled it out, the speck was stuck to the tip of his finger.
Cautiously, he edged near the one he judged to be the
leader. His heart raced as he reminded himself over and over that his ghost
suit was providing him cover. When he was as near as he dared approach, he
flicked his finger and watched the speck fly through the air and stick to the shoulder
of his quarry.
Backing away, he returned to his vantage point behind the
boxes. He prompted his com to begin recording the alien’s speech and start a
pattern analysis. In short order they should have the language decoded and be
able to translate the conversation of their abductors.
Three of the Kardish began scaling the cradle structure
while two hung back and watched.
“Here they come.”
* * *
Cheryl leaned against the wall and
waited. The anticipation had all her senses on edge. She took a deep breath,
exhaled, and willed herself to relax.
“They’re heading for the main hatch,” Jack said. “I suggest
you let them in. If you make them blow open the door, the
Alliance
will
never be flight worthy again. We’ll lose it as an escape option.”
“Please, Jack. Your two suggestions have been to hide from
them and greet them at the door. Promise me your next idea will be something I
can use.”
In spite of her outburst, Cheryl ran up and unsealed the
hatch. Jack’s observation about keeping the
Alliance
viable as an escape
vehicle made sense. Her crew was already wearing light-armor jackets, all had
hand weapons at the ready, and they were deployed in nooks and corners along
the route between the ship’s main hatch and the crystal housing where Defecto
was located. She ordered them to let the Kardish take the crystal unchallenged.
But if the aliens showed any signs of aggression, they all stood ready to give
back as good as they got.
Cheryl crouched as the first Kardish poked his head through
the main hatch. He glanced forward and backward to assess the situation, then stepped
onto the deck with confidence and even an air of entitlement. Cheryl appraised
the intruder and acknowledged that he was attractive in the human sense, though
she thought he dressed like a Shakespearean actor. The situation on the
Alliance
apparently met his approval because he waved for his companion to enter.
As the lead Kardish turned forward, her eyes were drawn to
the weapon in his hand. She’d placed herself at the first corner they would
pass, believing it was her duty to be out in front for her unit. Her Fleet
instructors had worked valiantly to get her to accept the idea that she should
hold herself back in such situations—she couldn’t lead if she were dead. She
understood this from an intellectual viewpoint, but when it came time to
execute the policy, she wasn’t willing to order someone else to risk their life
for hers.
“I saw two enter and a third guy is hanging outside the
door,” Jack whispered in her ear. “What’s going on?”
Remaining stock-still, she didn’t respond as the two Kardish
walked in her direction. Like trained soldiers, they continually scanned their
surroundings as they moved. The one in front saw her crouched at the corner,
and his eyes shifted to her weapon. She pressed back against the wall to reduce
her exposure.
His reflexes were excellent.
He lifted his arm and fired.
Bizt
. A luminous bolt flew
from his weapon, its radiant energy edging past Cheryl’s torso and hitting the
wall at her back. A portion of the dissipating energy leapt from the wall, and for
a brief moment, she was enveloped in a corona of light. She dropped limp to the
deck.
* * *
Jack heard an
oomph
, and then,
to his great anxiety, silence. He was frantic in his desire to get to her. But
he was also experienced enough to know that with several enemy soldiers standing
between him and her, he had no choice but to stay put and wait.
Time passed slowly, and he could do little but sit and fret.
Finally, the two Kardish who had entered the
Alliance
emerged. One held
the crystal case high above his head. Jack didn’t need an interpreter to
translate the whoops and cheers that came from the others.
Cradling their prize, they climbed down the structure and
placed it almost reverently in the back of the cart. Three climbed into the
cart and drove off the way they had come. Two remained behind and appeared to
be serving as guards.
Jack liked these new odds much better. He studied the guards
to identify predictable behaviors as they went about their business. Like most
anyone assigned to guard duty, the two drifted from vigilant to bored in short
order. One eventually reached into a pouch and pulled out some food. They sat
on the edge of the structure, ate their snack, and engaged in a debate. He was
familiar with enough languages to know that while the discussion was strident,
the overall tones were more what he would associate with enthusiasm and
excitement than unhappiness or anger.
After a time, the guards grew quiet. Jack decided this was
the best opportunity he would get. He considered that relief guards with a more
conscientious work ethic could arrive at any time, or a company of soldiers could
come to round up the prisoners and take them to a place that would be
inaccessible to him. He had to act.
Comforted by the concealment of his ghost suit, he walked
with measured steps to the structure and climbed up to the same hatch he’d used
to make his escape. The mechanism was quiet as he swung the hatch open. He
pulled himself up into the ship, closed the hatch, climbed the ladder outside
the pressure door, and stepped into the passageway.
He chose the command bridge as his destination and moved in
that direction. He saw something up ahead, realized it was a man lying
motionless, and rushed to his side. It was Freedman from communications. He
knelt down and used the fingers of one hand to feel for a pulse. With his other
hand, he prompted his com and activated its vital-signs function. Both his
fingers and com delivered the same grim news. Freedman was dead.
He wondered what happened to invite this lethal action. And
why had the rest of the crew left the man untended? The answer to that second
question was most worrisome because of what it implied for the others on the
ship. He resumed his journey to the bridge. At the next turn, he saw Yang
sprawled on the floor. He was dead as well.
Jack had dealt with fallen comrades before and was
emotionally prepared for death. But this was different. He didn’t want to acknowledge
the reason why, but his mind wouldn’t let him ignore the fact—he had developed
feelings for Cheryl. He’d admitted this to himself while back on Earth and concern
for her safety was now driving his thoughts and actions.
He hurried his pace, and when he stepped onto the command
bridge, he saw a scene of destruction that was so complete, it bordered on the
surreal. There were impact craters everywhere. An acrid burning smell
underscored the devastation. As he studied the scene, he imagined the two
Kardish working in a methodical sequence, firing their weapons over and over
until they hit every component on every bench, display panel, and wall plate in
the room. He could only speculate as to the motivation for such a rampage.
As he assessed the damage, he saw a pair of legs sticking
out from behind the engineering bench. He rushed over and recognized Parvin.
His body was in such gruesome condition that Jack didn’t need the gauge to know
the man was dead.
His search for Cheryl became single-minded. The ship’s main
hatch seemed like the next logical destination, and he took off at a run. He
reached the hatch with no new discoveries, and he turned back into the ship,
his desperation growing, when he saw her crumpled in the corner. Kneeling next
to her, he called her name and used his fingers to search for a pulse. He couldn’t
find one. His panic rising, he checked his com. Her vital-signs reading showed
she was alive. Moving more deliberately, he felt again for a pulse, and this
time detected a faint but regular beat.
He fumbled in his pack, found a battlefield ampule, and
infused her in the neck. The ampule held a cocktail of medicines that he’d seen
work miracles on several occasions. In fact, Sid had used one on him about a
year ago when he’d been caught in an exchange of fire with a group of
terrorists. The fact that he was alive now gave him hope for Cheryl’s future.
He wrapped Cheryl in the cape he’d used to cloak his packs,
cradled her in his arms, and moved as fast as he could to the bottom hatch. Opening
it slowly, he peeked out and saw that the guards were finished eating and now
appeared to be playing a game. He lowered himself to the beam, lifted Cheryl
out of the ship, and climbed down to the deck of the Kardish vessel.