The Rings of Haven (21 page)

The squad leader smiled, confident that his bluff would work. Jalea was the first out, her hand gun held high pointed at the soldiers. Nathan was next, his automatic close-quarters weapon held high and tight against his shoulder, aimed at his assigned target, the soldier on the left. “What’s our signal to shoot?” Nathan whispered.

“My count guys. On three, repeat, on three.”

“Much better,” the squad leader said. “Now lower your weapons?”

“One,”
Jessica started calmly.

“That would be unwise on our part,” Jalea responded.

“Two.”

“Not doing so would be equally unwise,” the squad leader argued. “Lower them, or he dies now.”

“Three.”

All three shots rang out simultaneously. Jessica’s round entered the back of the squad leader’s head, passed through his brain, and came out the front, bringing most of his face with it. Vladimir’s shot entered his target in the neck, just below the jaw under his helmet line, severing his carotid artery before it exploded his cervical vertebrae spewing blood, tissue, and bone fragments all over Tug and the squad leader standing behind him. Nathan’s shot, much to his own surprise, entered dead in the center of his targets face shield, shattering the bridge of his nose as it entered his brain, passed through and exploded the back side of his helmet, which was not designed to protect against objects trying to get out. All three soldiers dropped to the porch in dead heaps, the squad leader most dramatically as his lifeless body tumbled forward over the still kneeling farmer.

The compound became eerily still, the only sounds being the idling engines of Tobin’s ship and the hum of the overhead shield. To that was soon added the sound of Deliza’s cries as she ran across the compound to be by her father’s side, despite the blood and bodies.

“
Are we clear?
” Jessica’s voice asked over Nathan’s comm-set. “
Nathan?
” she repeated. “
Are we clear?
” Nathan lowered his weapon as Deliza fell into Tug’s arms, weeping.

“Yeah, we’re clear,” Nathan answered. “All three targets are down. Tug’s fine.”

Jalea placed her hand on Nathan’s shoulder as she holstered her weapon. “The best of men are sometimes called upon to do the worst of things,” she told him before she walked away to join Tug and Deliza.

Nathan watched her walk to the porch, where she met Jessica and took Tug’s youngest daughter into her arms. Nathan could see the anguish in Tug’s face, and knew that his wife had not survived.

Vladimir walked past the bodies, taking note of their wounds as he passed them on his way to Nathan. “Nice shot, Nathan. To be honest, I did not think you had it in you.”

“Neither did I,” he admitted.

Suddenly, there was a loud
crack
that caused the ground to shake and the overhead shield to flash a blinding yellow-white. Nathan and the others instinctively ducked, as if they were expecting the very sky to come crashing down upon them. The noise came again and again, each time nearly knocking them off their feet as the blinding flashes repeated above them.

Another ship, dark gray with black trim and no markings flew over their heads less than one hundred meters above them as it continued bombarding them from above.

“They’re trying to drain the shields!” Vladimir yelled above the din.

“They cannot,” Tug assured them as he got to his feet. “They can fire a thousand times, it will not weaken.”

The enemy ship, satisfied that no one was returning fire, began to hover a hundred meters above the shield as it continued its bombardment.

“Maybe not!” Nathan said. “But as long as that ship is up there, we’re not getting out of here either!”

The ship, realizing the futility of its efforts to break the shield, instead turned its fire toward the edges of the sinkhole, pounding away at the ground. The walls of the sinkhole shook violently with each blast. Soon, large chunks began to shake free, falling onto the greenhouses below and shattering their glass roofs.

“What are they doing?” Nathan asked.

“They’re trying to collapse the walls!” Jessica cried out.

“If they collapse the right sections, they will take out some of the emitters!” Tug warned. “When enough of them are gone, the shield will lose its integrity and collapse!”

“We’ve gotta get outta here!” Nathan ordered. “Everyone into the ship!”

“That ship will blast us out of the air the minute we take off!” Jessica objected.

“On the ground we’ve got zero chance! Up there, well, it’s better than nothing!” he pleaded.

“All right, you heard the captain! Everybody on board!” Jessica barked.

* * *

“We’re entering orbit around Haven now,” Cameron reported from the helm. “How far behind us is that warship?”

“By the time we come back around Haven, she’ll have guns on us,” Ensign Mendez advised from the tactical station.

“Comm, tell the surviving workers that if they want to return to Haven before we depart, they’d better do it quick.”

“Yes, sir,” the comm officer reported.

“Kaylah, any sign of Tobin’s ship?”

“No, sir, but we’re still a few minutes from line-of-sight with the landing party’s last known position.”

“Find them for me, Kaylah,” Cameron ordered. “And comm, keep trying to hail them. And don’t be afraid to use the wide band.”

- 9 -

Nathan dropped into the seat to the left of Jalea in the cockpit of Tobin’s ship.

“The walls are starting to come down!” Jessica yelled from the cargo door as she pushed Tobin’s corpse out the hatch.

Nathan looked out the windows and saw the wall to the left of him, toward the back corner, come apart under the force of the continuous barrage. Finally, a large section of it came crashing down, taking three emitters with it. The shield overhead flickered several times.

“It’s failing!” Tug yelled.

Another section of the wall, on the same side but nearer them also collapsed, burying the greenhouse below. The shields flickered a few more times then disappeared altogether.

“Get us in the air!” Nathan ordered.

Jalea pushed the lift throttles forward and the ship began to slowly rise. Rocks and debris fell off the crumbling walls and bounced off the ground, striking the side of the ship. They were only eight meters off the ground when the first salvo struck them in the aft port thrust pod. Their tail dropped sharply and the ship began to roll over to port.

“Compensate!” Nathan yelled.

Jalea tried to compensate by increasing the lift on the port side, but the thrust pod was damaged and not responding. Alarms began to sound as the ship rolled completely over, causing her still firing lift thrusters to drive her hard, upside-down, into the ground. A moment later, they all found themselves lying on the ceiling of the ship, alarms whooping away and the acrid smell of leaking propellant filling their nostrils.

Nathan shook his head, spitting dirt from his mouth. All the windows on his side of the cockpit had been shattered by the force of impact, and dirt had flown into the cockpit as they rolled over. Sections of the overhead control panel, which he was now laying on top of, dug into his side as he tried to get his feet under him. “Jalea!” he yelled. She wasn’t moving. “Jalea! Are you okay?” She began to stir, her consciousness returning. “Come on, we’ve gotta get outta here!”

Nathan grabbed Jalea and pulled her toward him. “Come on, come on,” he urged pushing her out in between the partitions toward the back of the ship. “Let’s go! Everybody out!”

Vladimir slid out of the ship, face first down onto the dirt two meters below. The ship was upside down, slightly on its starboard side. Dust and smoke was everywhere, making it hard to see more than a few feet in front of him. Alarms continued to warble and beep.

“Vlad!” Jessica called from above. “Catch her!” Vladimir extended his arms just in time to catch Tug’s youngest daughter as she fell from the ship. He set her down next to him.

“Do not move, little one,” he instructed. He reached up and grabbed Deliza by the waist as she tried to climb down from the ship, helping her down to the ground. “Grab your sister’s hand and do not let go, no matter what. And stay by my side!” Deliza nodded instant agreement.

Nathan jumped down to the ground, followed by Jalea. Suddenly, pinpoint blasts of energy from sniper-fire started striking the ship and the ground around them. The dust and smoke was still too thick to see very far, so the snipers were taking blind shots in the hopes of hitting something or someone.

“Son-of-a-bitch!” Nathan swore. “We’ve gotta get to cover!” Nathan spun around as shots struck the dirt on either side of him, as he tried to get his bearings. In the haze, he could barely make out the shape of the main house. “Over there!” he shouted. “Head for the house!”

Jalea ran for the house. Vladimir scooped up the little girl, and grabbed Deliza’s arm and followed.

“Jess! Let’s go!” Nathan ordered.

“Tug is hung up on something!” she yelled from inside the ship.

Nathan could hear the sound of the enemy ship that had shot them down before they could get airborne as it turned and headed back toward them. “They’re comin’ back around, Jess! You gotta get out now!”

Jessica struggled to free Tug’s leg, which was pinned between a twisted section of the bench seat and the wall. Somehow, as the ship had rolled over, the bench had pulled free. Tug’s leg had slid in between the bench and the wall, and when the ship came down, the bench folded back and trapped his leg between it and the bulkhead.

“Leave me!” Tug begged her.

“Oh, don’t be so fuckin’ dramatic!” she scolded.

“Come on, Jess!”
Nathan called from outside.

“Go, Nathan! We’ll catch up in a minute!”

“God damn it, Jess!”
Nathan swore as he departed, running for the cover of the house.

The ship began to shake with increasing violence as the salvos from the approaching enemy ship grew closer with each strike. Finally, the last two energy bolts struck the ship, chopping its rear section clean off. Ironically, the shearing force rocked the ship and freed Tug’s leg. Falling free of his entrapment, he landed on top of Jessica as they both fell against the far side of the upside-down ship.

“Well how about that?” Tug exclaimed.

Suddenly, flames ignited from the leaking fuel lines. Within seconds, the flames blocked the starboard cargo hatch, which had been their intended route of egress.

“This thing’s gonna blow!” Jessica exclaimed as she tried in vain to find a way past the flames.

Nathan finally reached the front steps of the porch when the sound of an explosion came from behind him. A searing hot shock wave launched him forward, crashing through the partially opened front door.

“Nathan! Are you all right?” Vladimir shouted as he ran to help his friend to his feet.

“Oh my God!” Nathan exclaimed as he realized what had happened. He spun around and tried to go back out the front door. “JESS!” Another explosion rocked the house, sending hundreds of small pieces of flaming debris showering in all directions. Nathan had to brush some of the burning fuel from his own clothing to avoid going up in flames himself. He turned to Vladimir, “Jessica and Tug! They were still in there!”

Vladimir grabbed Nathan and pulled him inside. “Come, my friend. There is nothing more you can do for them.”

* * *

Kaylah zoomed in on the landing party’s last reported location. As the small farm had just come over the horizon on the moon below, her observation angle was quite steep, making it difficult to see much of the compound contained within the sinkhole. But there was no doubt about what she did see—a large explosion followed by flame and smoke.

“Commander, something is happening at the landing party’s last reported location. There’s been an explosion,” Kaylah reported.

“Can you see the landing party?”

“No, sir, there’s too much smoke, and our angle is still too steep to get a good overhead.” Kaylah noticed movement above the smoke. “Standby, there’s something else.” She quickly changed sensor mode from visual to radar, allowing her to clearly track a small ship circling the sinkhole. “It’s a ship, sir. Same size and configuration as the one that tried to land on us earlier.”

Cameron didn’t like the sound of Ensign Yosef’s report. “Any sign of Tobin’s ship?”

“I’m not sure, sir.” Kaylah reset her sensors back to visual mode and applied various filters to try and discern the shape of the burning object. After keying in additional commands, information detailing the chemical properties of the smoke she was seeing began to list on one of her side screens. “I’m pretty sure that’s Tobin’s ship that’s burning. Its shape is very similar, but there’s no way to be sure. At least not until we get closer.”

“Any luck contacting them over comms?” she asked the communications officer.

“No, sir. And I’m trying all modes, even open channels on the wide band.”

“Damn it,” Cameron swore. “We’ve got less than half an hour to get them back, or we’re going to have to leave them behind. And for all we know that
is
Tobin’s ship burning down there. We need another ship.”

A smile formed on the face of Ensign Mendez as he stood at the tactical station. “Last I looked, there were two of them in the hangar bay.”

“Contact those ships,” she instructed the comm officer. “See if one of them is willing to fetch the landing party.”

“You think they’ll do it?” Mendez asked. “I mean, willingly?”

“Maybe, if we pay them enough,” Cameron mumbled.

“Commander,” the comm officer said. “The only one answering is the harvester pilot. Shall I transfer him to your comm-set?”

“Sure,” Cameron answered. She was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the constantly changing circumstances. It felt like every time she came up with a plan, something happened forcing her to change it. For someone who always liked to have a solid plan to follow, it was frustrating.