It was obvious to Collin the principessa would rather forgo these formalities that came with her royal standing. She politely nodded and smiled. “I’m happy to see you again, Ammiraglio di divisione Zumpanno. It has been a long time.”
The admiral glanced at Collin and then to the captain, who said, “This is the young man I spoke to you about, who came to us from the frontier, Ammiraglio.”
“Yes, he and his Chain have started Brotherhood basic. I look forward to speaking with you more, Commander Frost … when time allows.” The admiral brought his attention quickly back to the captain. “Capitano, you will take leave of us now. The principessa and I have much to discuss. Rest assured, Principessa, you are safe and in no way a prisoner here. You may leave Nero Station at your will. But I want to hear everything you’ve told Capitano Primo and then, perhaps, we can formulate a plan.”
* * *
By the time Captain Primo had escorted Collin back to the barracks, the teen was exhausted and couldn’t wait to get into his bunk. In the dim light, he moved silently between pods until he found his own. He was pulling off his uniform when he looked over to see the outline of someone lying on his bunk. He took a tentative step closer and squinted his eyes. “Lydia?”
He heard her stir and sit up. She’d fallen asleep there.
“What are you doing here?” he whispered, sitting down next to her.
“We heard the
Helix
was destroyed by a Kardon Guard ship. That you’d been killed. Later, we heard that maybe you’d survived. Nobody would give us a straight answer. I … I wanted to be here if … when … you returned.” She put her arms around him and buried her head into his chest. He felt her begin to shake, quiet sobs racking her body.
“Hey, I’m fine. Don’t cry … everything’s … good.”
She sniffled. When she looked up, he wiped her tears with his thumbs. She brought her arms up, taking his face in her hands, her face only inches from his own. Then she kissed him. He tasted the salt from her tears. The tip of her tongue found his as their breaths quickened. His mind was whirling—
how is this possible that this perfect person is
here in my
arms
? Together, they slid down the surface of the pod until they were lying down together, facing each other. She pulled her face away and brought her lips close to his ear. He felt her soft breath as she spoke, “Don’t ever leave me like that, Collin. Without you here … God … I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
Someone nearby cleared his throat in an exaggerated manner that said
hey … you’re not alone here
.
To Collin’s surprise the barracks lights were on and a small crowd had formed at the opening to his pod. Bubba and DiMaggio were looking down at them—both smiling. Then Collin saw that the person standing directly behind them was Darren. He wasn’t smiling.
Chapter 33
The piercing sound of an alarm klaxon filled the barracks. Collin and Lydia rose to their feet. Whatever was happening was
big
. In the distance he heard multiple warnings and announcements coming over the PA. A commotion at the entrance to the barracks was followed by the unmistakable voice of Chief-in-Command Bragg.
“Everyone front and center. Move it!”
Collin reached for his uniform jacket and, along with the others, hurried to get into formation.
Bragg looked as though he’d just awakened. His hair was uncombed and his wrinkled uniform had obviously been on since yesterday. He didn’t wait for the Lone Stars to get into proper formation.
“Nero Station is under attack. Thirty-four Marauders are already engaging our Vanguard warships. Four heavily armored bulk carriers, typically used to transport and deploy troops, are approaching fast. There’s only one reason for those ships to come here … The Kardon Guard is looking to infiltrate and take control of this station.”
Humphrey interjected, “Let us fight, Chief … we’ll show them how Texans kick ass—”
“This station has a highly-trained Brotherhood force of four thousand men. They’ll be doing the fighting, if it comes to that. With that said, you still may be called upon to support our forces.”
“Why are they attacking? Why now?” Darren asked.
“We believe it has something to do with the queen’s daughter, the principessa … she may have been followed … she may have led them here.”
“No … she came here to reach out to us. They’re starting to realize the Kardon Guard’s true motives,” Collin told him.
“That’s not for any of us to determine, Mr. Frost. Stay here and be prepared to do what’s asked of you when the time comes. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Chief.” Collin nodded his head.
The chief abruptly turned on his heels and headed out of the barracks.
“So what do we do now? We can’t just stand around here with our thumbs up our asses while the station’s being infiltrated,” Humphrey said. “I say we go see what’s happening.”
Clifford Bosh, Owen Platt, and Garry Hurst all enthusiastically voiced their agreement.
“Our orders are to stay put,” Collin said. “Let’s just see what happens—”
“You know, Sticks … I always knew you were a pussy. This proves it,” Humphrey said, striding up to Collin and standing eye to eye. “You’re no leader … you’re a pussy coward.”
“You don’t want to push me, Humph. Not now. Back off and cool down,” Collin replied evenly.
Both Bubba and DiMaggio, moving in behind Collin, were staying unusually quiet. He wondered if they thought he was being a pussy as well.
“We need a leader with some guts. I say we vote again.” Humphrey turned toward Darren. “We all know who should be leading us.”
“That’s not going to happen. I told you, back off and cool down. Let’s just see—”
The punch came out of nowhere. Collin felt the blow hit his left cheek, snapping his head around to the right. It was enough for him to momentarily see stars but not enough to bring him down.
Humphrey, smiling, stood with his fists balled up. “It’s about time someone put you in your place, Sticks. I don’t mind that it’s me.”
Collin was ready for the next punch, which was a wide haymaker—Humphrey’s full weight behind it. Collin caught it mid-flight with his left hand. He wanted to punch back—wanted to pummel Humphrey into ground beef. But without those minimizer bands on, he had little doubt he could kill Humphrey with one punch. So he continued to hold Humphrey’s fist in his own while slowly increasing the pressure of his grip. The first thing to go was Humphrey’s smile. His full attention was focused on his hand and the increasing amount of pain emanating from it. Collin maintained his grip and Humphrey’s legs went wiry. He tried to pry Collin’s fingers away from his fist … crying out, “Let go! Please … let go … it hurts!”
Collin stepped in closer to Humphrey, bringing his face close to his. “You need to stop screwing with me.”
“I will … I promise. Just let go.”
Collin let go and watched Humphrey as he fell to his knees, cradling his bruised hand into his stomach. He noticed Bubba and DiMaggio were no longer behind him; instead, they were nose-to-nose with Darren, Bosh, Platt, and Hurst. Collin was relieved—the two did have his back after all. Then he saw the three Daccians hovering in the background—they too looked ready to step in.
The first incoming enemy fire shook the barracks so violently everyone was thrown to the deck. Sounds of thunderous explosions hitting nearby, one right after another, caused Collin to flinch.
Commander Fico Lucan of the Brave Hearts, and Rocco Puma, commander of the Righteous Warriors, ran into the barracks. Both looked like they’d run a mile and were breathing hard.
“Half the station … is gone … totally destroyed,” Lucan said, gasping. “They must have known where the troops were being deployed from. Where the Brotherhood barracks were located.”
“Is the station going to blow up?” Tink asked.
“I don’t know … No … probably not,” Rocco Puma replied. “Two of their bulk carriers have come alongside the main station hub. They’re deploying their troops. Thousands of Kardon Guard forces. We need to surrender. That’s the only way we survive—”
“That’s not going to happen,” Collin said back. “Surrendering to the Kardon Guard would mean our instant death or being held captive indefinitely.”
Either way
, he thought,
we’d never
get home again
. “Where did you get your weapons? Are there more?”
“The Chief left us with these. This is all we have.”
Collin felt momentarily humiliated that the chief didn’t have the same confidence in him as he did in these two Chain commanders to leave him a weapon as well. “Give me your Ponge for a second.”
Puma shook his head. “Like hell …”
“I’ll give it back. I promise.”
Bubba grabbed the recruit commander’s wrist while pulling the handgun free of its holster. Lucan moved to pull his weapon, but Darren moved in and wrapped his arms around him—trapping his arms in a clamp.
“What are you doing? We can’t win against their forces,” Lucan protested.
Bubba handed Collin the Ponge 412. Collin sat down on the deck and pulled up his left pant leg. He changed the power setting to the fifth position, pulled the minimizer band as far away from his skin as possible, and fired once. “Shit!” The heat scorched his leg. It hurt more than he wanted to let on so he took a little more time with the minimizer band on his other ankle. He rubbed both ankles and stood up quickly. Without the diminishing effects of minimizer bands, Collin’s feet left the ground. DiMaggio grabbed for his arm and brought him back to the deck.
“Thanks, man. Here … be careful not to shoot yourself.” He handed DiMaggio the Ponge. “Darren, take Lucan’s weapon and go to work on your own bands.”
It took another ten minutes to shoot everyone’s minimizer bands off. Collin retrieved his rucksack from his pod and was just strapping on the Glock’s holster when Humphrey walked into the confined space.
Not knowing what his intentions were, Collin continued to strap on the holster and didn’t say anything.
“You want to keep this?” Humphrey asked, holding the weapon out in front of him.
“No. We said we’d give them their weapons back. But thanks.”
“Any idea how we’re going to take on a few thousand Kardon Guard troops?”
“We’ll need to arm ourselves. Let’s hope the lifts still work so we can get down to the rifle range and armory.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Collin heard Humphrey say as he rushed out from the pod.
By the time Collin reached the others, they were getting familiar with their newfound strength. Lucan took back his weapon from Humphrey and both he and Puma left to return to their Chains.
DiMaggio, now floating five feet high in the air, waved his arms at Collin. Tink was elevated too, even five feet higher up. This could be a problem: the diminished effects of gravity’s pull and how their physiology interacted in this alien environment. Their molecular structure being so different was both a blessing and a curse. A curse, if they didn’t learn to control their movements.
Collin watched as both Tink and DiMaggio settled onto the deck. “Watch your movements. Running the way you normally do will send you into the air like you’re on the moon. In the meantime, let’s all keep our eyes on the person next to us. Have each other’s back.”
“So what are we doing?” Bubba asked.
“We’re arming ourselves. Heading to the armory, down on deck one.” His words were drowned out by the sound of nearby weaponry fire.
Chapter 34
“Let’s move fast and stay together,” Collin said. He looked around and did a mental head count. Including himself, they were still at twenty. He was surprised to see the cheerleaders standing together nearby, at the front of the group. Lydia looked back at him. “Are we going to do this or what?”
He smiled at her gumption, turned, and headed out of the Lone Stars’ barracks. DiMaggio and Bubba were next to him, on either side. They passed through next-door-neighbor Brave Hearts’ area, which was totally empty, and continued on through the Righteous Warriors’ barracks. These were empty as well.
“Maybe they went to surrender,” DiMaggio said.
They exited the barracks into a frenzy of activity. People were running, mostly in one direction. Some were clothed in Brotherhood uniforms; others wore regular civilian clothes. Bubba took up the lead and headed right into the oncoming masses. A Brotherhood soldier slowed and put up his hands. “You’re going the wrong way … transport is this way.” He didn’t wait for an answer, just kept on running, along with the hundreds of others trying to flee.
The team reached the large elevator they’d used previously to descend to the station’s lower decks. As they approached, the doors opened and no less than thirty people, tightly packed together, emerged at a dead run. The Lone Stars took their place within the elevator car and waited for the doors to close. DiMaggio was quick to figure out the controls and immediately Collin felt the G-forces as they descended.
“Um … are we sure we’re doing the right thing? What did that Brotherhood guy say about a transport?” Royce White asked. Before Collin could answer, Darren said, “I wouldn’t be so sure they’ll ever make it. If Kardon Guard forces are infiltrating, they may be running to their own executions. Anyway, we already talked about this … we’re not running from this fight.”
“Don’t worry, Royce, I’ll protect you,” Tink said, standing to the big Lone Star center’s right. That brought a few nervous chuckles. At half his size, she had to crane her neck to look up at him. The interior elevator lights started to blink and then went out completely. The darkness was absolute. Fortunately, the lift was still descending at a high rate of speed. Collin briefly wondered if the car was simply free-falling down the shaft and would soon careen headlong at its bottom. But the car began to slow and everyone let out a collective breath. Apparently Collin wasn’t the only one visualizing the same scenario.
The doors opened to Level 1, which was only marginally more illuminated than the elevator. The smell of smoke billowed into the car. Stepping out, there was something profoundly different about the lowest deck on the space station. As if it had been put into a massive vice, the outer bulkheads were now bowed inward. Fallen pipes and conduits blocked every corridor and numerous sparks flashed outwardly, without any regularity, in each direction.