Smuggler's Dilemma (23 page)

I grabbed the last person, looking at her through her helmet. It was Belta Goise. She wasn't a miner anymore, but did odd jobs around the station. "There should be one more, do you know who we're missing?"

"Austin Blathers. He's gone. Dead," she said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Mouthed off one too many times. Couldn't figure out they were just going to kill us anyway. I think he thought they'd want to keep him alive," she explained. I remembered Austin. He wasn't that old, but had been injured in a mining accident where he'd lost his right arm.

"We're clear, Dad," I said as I helped Belta down the hallway. We were moving too slowly, but I had to remind myself that we were escorting a group of older people. I could cut them some slack, they had all given up their escape so that others could go.

Pete didn't turn around, but asked, "How's our count?"

"Got 'em all," I said.

He launched a fusillade of grenades at the end of the hallway and turned to follow us out. When we finally made it to the docking bay and closed the door, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ada, we're in, let's get out of here," I said and started filling the hold with atmo. Then I spoke out loud to the group. "I need you all to listen up. We're not really set up for a large number of guests, but Silver will organize care for you all. If you need something, please talk to her." I seriously couldn't get out of that hold quickly enough.

"Chicken," Marny said as she joined me on the lift.

"Any status?" I asked Nick.

"The main fight is taking place three thousand kilometers out. Best I can tell, M-Pro showed up with two corvettes and three destroyers. Red Houzi is getting thrashed," he answered.

"It's about time," I said. "Which destroyers? I wondered if Tabby was in the area and if I'd ever know."

"
Walter Sydney Adams
,
Theodore Dunham
, and the
Hipparchus
," Nick replied.

"Tabby's on the
Dunham
."

"They launched fighters about five minutes ago."

"Let's bring up full sensors."

"Agreed," Nick answered and we dropped out of silent running mode. It felt weird to see screens with data being displayed.

"Ahead slow, Ada. Let's not get in this, but we need to know how it's going to end."

With a full sensor package running, the holos displayed the battle in front of us and it was going very poorly for the Red Houzi. Their destroyers were all that remained and they were holding off the Navy fleet primarily because the Navy hadn't fully opened up on them. Maybe the Navy was attempting to negotiate a surrender instead of outright destroying them.

"What could they be thinking? Pirates aren't normally suicidal are they?" I asked.

"It is strange behavior," Marny acknowledge. "Something else is going on."

It was then that Ada saved all of us.
Emergency combat burn
, she yelled and pushed the throttle forward fully and pulled the flight stick up. I was grateful to have been seated as the g-force in the cockpit exceeded four gs for a moment and my vision started to grey out.

Something struck the starboard side of the ship and we violently cartwheeled. I hadn't pulled my combat harness on and was thrown into the ceiling. Between the grey out and contact, I lost consciousness, coming to as the gravity generator restored the .6g we were accustomed to and Ada corrected our spin.

"Status," I grunted, crumpled on the stairs. My head was spinning. We'd struck something large and it seemed like Ada had run into it with a combat maneuver.

"We've restored stable flight but the starboard engine is not responding. We've got damage to a number of systems, and we're sailing dark again," Ada said.

"Starboard wing and engine have been ripped off, along with the top turrets," Nick reported.

"What the frak happened?" I asked pulling on the combat harness that would have saved me so much pain only a few minutes before.

Ada pointed out the cockpit window. "That," she said.

A giant warship sailed in front of us on our starboard side.

"What the frak is that?" I asked. It was bigger even than the battleship we'd seen.

Titan class dreadnaught
, my AI responded.

"That's why those destroyers were holding out," Marny said. "M-Pro needs to get out of there, they could be in trouble."

"They can't. The
Adams
has taken too much damage. If the others take off, it'll be a sitting duck," Nick said.

I cheered silently as one of the Red Houzi destroyers exploded. The gloves were off and time for negotiations had ended. The wounded
Walter Sydney Adams
with its limited mobility pushed toward the final destroyer and opened up. It was obvious that Commander Alto meant to eliminate that enemy before the dreadnaught came into range. With the concentrated firepower of the five ships the pirate's final destroyer sagged, then tore apart as the
Adams
plowed through the very center of it.

The small Navy fleet consisting of three destroyers and two corvettes formed up and prepared to meet the dreadnaught. From our range it was difficult to track the squadrons of fighters orbiting the intrepid fleet, but it was clear when the order to attack came. From fifty different points in space, brilliant blue streamers could be seen as the fighters mounted their opening gambit, streaking into combat. To me it appeared that it was an all-in approach, to pour all possible fire onto the behemoth before it started trading salvos with the smaller, but determined ships.

A burst of unhelpful adrenaline soured my stomach as we helplessly watched squadron after squadron of fighters pour out from the pirate's ship. Even with the dreadnaught in my sight, I'd underestimated the scope of the Red Houzi's resources. To date, we'd only run into comparatively pathetic teams, sailing beat up old warships. It was unimaginable to me that pirates could field this many ships.

When the two groups of fighters met in the middle, it was a slaughterhouse. Red Houzi fighters were blinking out of existence at an incredible rate. The difference in the fighter's skills was apparent. Every Navy fighter obliterated at least five pirates before succumbing to the horde. Even so, the mismatch in numbers took its toll and the Navy had to pull their fighters back as more and more pirates slipped past them, harrying the corvettes.

The pirate's strategy became clear - take out the corvettes with fighters and have the dreadnaught duke it out with the destroyers.

"We need to take cover," Marny said, breaking my reverie.

"What?" I asked.

"Those destroyers are going to be launching some big rounds. If just one of them comes our way, we're done. You need to get behind something big," she said.

I felt guilty hiding. Tabby might be on one of those ships and it went against my being to turn away from the fight. Marny was right, though, we had nothing to contribute.

"Understood." I grudgingly swung the ship around and sailed toward a large asteroid that would provide more than sufficient shield.

Just as we dropped out of visual sensor contact, I saw the
Theodore Dunham
explode under a heavy fusillade. I felt like someone had ripped my heart from my chest and I gasped. Tabby couldn't be on that ship. Surely there wasn't enough time for her to have transferred from Mars to the ship. It was horrific, but Tabby would be okay.

We sat behind the asteroid in stunned silence trying to process what we'd just seen. I thought I might throw up. I'd seen a lot of bad things in the last months, but we'd just witnessed the lives of several thousand people end in the blink of an eye. I shut down all but essential power and we quietly sat next to the asteroid. My mind reeled with the events we'd just witnessed, I fought the urge to scream. I'd never felt so helpless.

"Enemy vessel off port side," Nick said.

The dreadnaught was sailing past us slowly, close enough that if it could distinguish us from the asteroid, and if it had any desire, it could end us without a second thought. I should have run - we weren't on the winning side. Battle scars were evident as it sailed past. Large gashes had been rent from its side and a trail of debris marked its path. The only positive that I could see was that it was burning on a heading that wouldn't take it past the station. They would leave the station alone for now.

I waited half an hour for the ship to sail out of range and then slowly pulled out of our hiding spot. As the sensors gathered information on the debris field, the finality of the battle became clear. Not a single ship remained in any recognizable form. It had been a complete rout.

"Liam, I've got a fix on our wing and engine. I know it's hard to think about but I think we should recover them," Nick said.

My mind flashed back to Tabby. What if she was on that ship? She'd be gone.

"Liam?" Nick pushed. I ignored him and half walked, half jogged back to the office and sat down.

"
Kuznetsov
, this is
Hotspur
, please answer," I said. I could barely breathe.

"Captain. Where are you?" It was Sterra's voice.

"They're all gone," I said.

"Who's gone?"

"All of them," I replied.

"Liam focus. Get hold of yourself. I need you to be more specific. Please describe what you saw," she said.

"Was Tabby on the
Dunham
? Tell me she wasn't on the ship." I pled.

"Cadet Tabitha Masters? Your friend. Yes, Liam. Tell me what happened," she said.

"Was she on it?" I needed to know, nothing else mattered.

"Yes, Liam, she was on the
Theodore Dunham
."

The rushing sound in my ears grew to the point where I couldn't hear anything else and sweat broke out on my forehead. I stumbled to the head and threw up. Nothing mattered. I heard Nick enter the room and pick up the receiver.

STAY IN THE MOMENT

"Cap..."

"Cap…"

I felt Marny's strong hands pull me off the floor.

"She was on the ship, Marny," I said. Grief threatened to overwhelm me, I could barely get my legs underneath me.

"Sac up, Hoffen, you've got a ship full of people who are depending on you. We're deep in enemy territory. Do you want the same to happen to your Mom, your Dad?"

I closed my eyes, I knew what she was saying made sense, but I didn't know how to get it together.

"You've got to put that feeling in a deep dark place and get in the moment. The hold door is jammed and your parents were in there when that ship ran over the top of us."

"Shite!" I tried to pull away but she held on.

"Hold on." She ran some water in the sink and brushed off the front of my suit.

I looked down. I was a mess.

"You have a concussion from getting thrown around in the cockpit. Change into your normal vac-suit. If we get that dreadnaught's attention we won't need the armor," she said.

I nodded grimly and pulled off the suit I was wearing. My mind started clearing as the reality of our collision-induced tumble started to filter in.

"Frak. The crates were loose in the hold!" I said.

"Nick's working on getting the door open," Marny answered.

"What about the dreadnaught?" I asked. "Is it still local?"

"We could catch it, but it's on a burn for the outer reaches." The outer reaches was spacer talk for beyond the main asteroid belt.

"Ada, set a course for the wreckage. We're looking for survivors," I said.

"Aye," she responded over the comm.

Track wreckage of all Mars Protectorate Fighter craft. Search for survivors
.

"Nick, what is M-Pro's ETA?" I asked over the comm.

"Thirty five hours for fast response from Terrence," he said.

I stepped off of the lift onto the berth deck. Nick had the door open but crates were blocking our way in.

"Mom? Dad?" I said. They'd been agonizingly quiet.

"We're here, Liam. Jack is fine, but we've got injured and casualties. Did we hit something?" Mom asked.

I couldn't begin to describe what had just happened, so I simply answered, "Yes."

"You locked us out of the command channel once you engaged the combat controls."

She was right, we'd made the change when we brought the survivors in from the station.

Just then an idea struck me hard and I knew I had to act. "Ada, burn as hard as you can for the station."

"Dad, what shape are you in?" I asked.

"Fully functional, why? What's changed?"

Grant access to external video feeds to all occupants of ship
.

"Everything. Too much to explain, I'll summarize. Both fleets have been destroyed. Hostile dreadnaught is outbound. We need to search for survivors. You have access to the video," I said.

"Got it. Good plan," he said.

All ship announcement
, "We'll be landing at P-Zero in a few minutes. There are still hostiles on station and Big Pete will be securing it. If you are able bodied, we need your help. When we land, we need to unload all crates into the docking bay to make room for survivors. If you want to participate in search and rescue, we'd welcome your help. But know this, the debris field is not secure."

"Did I miss anything?" I asked Nick.

"I don't know," he said. It was an odd response for him and I noticed that he was favoring his right arm.

"What's going on with that?" I pointed at his arm.

"I think it's broken. There's more pressing issues."

"Adrenaline will only get you so far, Nick," Marny said from around the corner. She was apparently in the galley.

He slumped against the wall and slid down, his eyes fluttering. I leaned over and picked him up, he wasn't heavy in the .6g environment. His weight caused me to wonder why we weren't running at 1g, which was normal for a hard burn, until I realized we were down to a single engine.

"Marny. Nick's down, I'm going to the forward bunk with him."

I slung his legs through the door and laid him gently on the bed. Marny sat a medical kit next to him.