Terminus (Fringe Worlds #1) (27 page)

Chapter 41

Wearing his jetpack and a waist pack around his midriff, Maker rocketed across the space separating the
Mantis
from the Vacra ship. He had wasted valuable time dealing with the guards (including that douche Kepler) and then having to don his armor again.

He was a little miffed at having to activate the nova bomb; that was supposed to be a last resort. (To be honest, he hadn’t even been sure the trigger would work – it wasn’t the kind of thing you could test out – even though Wayne had built it exactly in line with the specs Maker had provided.) However, it was pretty clear that the Vacra would have blasted through their shields and destroyed them while everyone on the bridge of the
Mantis
debated the situation. Besides, it was actually a pretty weak EMP; twenty minutes should be plenty of time to get the relevant systems (specifically, the jump drive) back up and running. The real question was whether he’d make it back in time.

As he closed in on the Vacra vessel, passing the dropship en route, Maker reflected back on what Planck had whispered to him on the bridge. In essence, Planck had told him that – if Erlen was indeed on the Vacra ship – he’d most likely be in the insectoid version of the brig, located at the port bow. Maker headed there.

Off to one side, Maker noticed a gun turret, which seemed dead (courtesy of the EMP). Nevertheless, he prudently skirted the weapon, taking a path that would make it impossible for the gun to get a firing resolution on him if it did happen to be active. A few moments later he arrived at an area that – as best he could determine from the alien design – was his destination.

Maker turned his body, angling so that his feet would hit the hull of the ship, and then slowed his momentum with the jets. Still, he struck a little harder than he intended, and he imagined the sound of his landing echoing inside the ship.

His magnetic boots locked onto the hull, stabilizing him. Having safely arrived, he unzipped the waist pack and reached inside. A moment later, he pulled out a long coil of what appeared to be wire with a bunch of small black squares attached.

Maker scanned the hull, looking for an ideal location for what he needed to do. The outside of the ship was mostly sleek and smooth, with an occasional man-sized block of metal sticking out. Finally he shrugged, thinking that one spot was as good as another. Kneeling, he laid the wire down in a circle about two feet in diameter. The undersides of the small black squares, magnetic in nature, stuck to the metal hull. Satisfied, Maker grabbed the end of the wire that ran through the squares and pulled hard. The wire whipped smoothly out of the squares, which began blinking red.

Maker jumped, breaking contact with the ship, and then hit his jets, moving towards a square hunk of metal that stuck out of the hull. He zipped behind it and then hunkered down, waiting.

The little black squares were shaped charges. They were designed to blow inwards, but he wasn’t taking any chances. The last thing he needed was for the explosives to misfire and send a bunch of shrapnel his way.

Fortunately, the charges worked as intended, blasting a hole inward into the ship. A second later, however, all manner of items from the interior of the vessel began flying out of the hole like shot from a gun. Maker realized that it was the pressure equalizing between the interior of the alien craft and outer space.

Even the Vacra themselves weren’t spared, as at least half a dozen of them came blasting out of the hole, limbs flailing. (Several seemingly empty Vacra battle suits flew out as well.) Dying in space would not be an easy way to go, but – bearing in mind the insectoids’ treatment of Planck and the fact that they’d kidnapped Erlen – it was hard to feel sorry for them.

When it seemed that nothing else was going to come out, Maker headed to the hole and went inside. The interior was filled with floating debris, much of it alien to Maker in terms of appearance and function.

He did see one thing he recognized: a suit of Vacra battle armor. It seemed to be wedged into a corner between something like a desk and what was apparently a bed. The sight of it put him on edge, making him suddenly wonder how he’d managed to get this far without the Vacra trying to engage him. Surely they had seen him coming.

As he thought about the situation, Maker realized that there was something wrong about the armor. He went over to inspect it, and got an unexpected surprise.

There was a Vacra inside it, apparently alive.

Instinctively, Maker drew his weapon. The Vacra, however, never moved. Maker frowned, trying to make sense of the situation. Maybe the Vacra in the armor was stunned in some way.

He didn’t have time to try to figure the mystery out. He needed to find Erlen.

He went to the door of the room he was in, intending to head out and search this region of the ship. If Planck were to be believed, Erlen would be somewhere close by. Maker began fiddling around the door, looking for the manual controls since the automatic functions were not working. He had been in a number of insectoid compounds before, so he had an idea of what he was looking for, and after a few seconds he found the crank handle. Shortly thereafter, he got the door open and left.

***************************************

The murky interior of the ship had an atmosphere and gravity, but beyond that only seemed capable of supporting dim, flashing lights every few feet. Still, it only took him about five minutes to find Erlen, whom he located about three levels down from where he’d entered. Along the way, he’d encountered numerous other Vacra, all immobile in their battle armor. It wasn’t until he found the third one that he realized what was going on, and as the realization hit him, he had laughed.

The EMP! It didn’t just affect ship systems (which explained the flashing low-wattage bulbs), it affected battle armor, too. The Vacra – at least a great majority of them – had been in their battle gear when their ship was firing on the
Mantis
. Now, with their armor lacking power, they were immobile and helpless.

Not for the first time, Maker was grateful for the investment he’d made in customizing his own armor, which was not only spaceworthy but also shielded against things like EMPs. He probably had the only suit of working armor between the two ships.

After that, he’d practically run through the Vacra vessel, heedless of caution, looking for Erlen. He only came across a few unarmored Vacra during that time, all of whom he shot and killed. The others he left unmolested in their armor. Shooting them while they were like this would just be…criminal. Erlen, however, took a different view of the matter.

When Maker finally came across the Niotan, he was in a large chamber that looked like some kind of operating room or lab. In Maker’s eyes, it was a scene of carnage. The room was filled with the torn-apart bodies of Vacra – most of whom were still in their armor.

From all appearances, the Vacra had barely been able to hold and subdue Erlen while their armor was functional. Once those shut down, the insectoids were severely outclassed.

Maker activated his suit’s external audio. “Let’s go.” He turned and left the room, with Erlen following.

They hustled back double-time, with Maker’s intent being to exit via the same hole that he’d entered. By his estimate, they still had close to ten minutes to get back to the
Mantis
.

They were in a large area stocked with numerous Vacra in armor, just about to enter the final passageway leading to the first room Maker had entered, when a shadow came through it from the other side. Maker knew instinctively who it was.

He took a few steps back as Skullcap, recognizable by his deformed arm, exited the hallway. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t wearing any kind of protective gear. However, what he lacked in armor he made up for in armaments: he was holding a gun that looked capable of punching a hole in a tank.

With virtually no hesitation, Skullcap fired in Maker’s direction. Although there wasn’t much distance between him and his adversary, Maker reacted quickly, reaching for a nearby, immobilized Vacra and yanking it in front of him. A metallic shell struck the Vacra that Maker was using as a shield, the force of it lifting both human and insectoid off their feet and slamming them into the far wall.

Maker, stunned, wondered how he was even alive. At the range the Vacra had fired and the power of the weapon, it should have drilled a hole through both him and his living shield.

He had no time to dwell on it, however, choosing to focus his efforts on diving aside as Skullcap fired at him again. The projectile – about the size of Maker’s hand – hit the wall, embedding itself roughly halfway through. An odd hissing sound began around the edges of the lodged shell, and Maker knew that it had penetrated the hull.

Now he knew why the shell hadn’t killed him. Skullcap wasn’t firing at full power, nor was he shooting any kind of explosive round. The room they were in had an exterior wall. If the Vacra got too crazy with the weapon he was holding, he could blast a hole in the ship and get himself sucked into space.

At the moment, however, Skullcap had his hands full trying to keep Erlen back. The Vacra was using the long barrel of his weapon to ward off the Niotan. As a clear indication of how nervous he must have been, Skullcap fired twice at Erlen from point blank range and still missed.

As Maker observed this, the lights flickered wildly, then came fully on. In addition, the armor of the Vacra in the room began to flash, coming to life.

The Vacra systems were coming back online. Skullcap had probably just been stalling them.

Maker reached into his waist sack and pulled three black cubes out. Freed of the string they had been on, they were already flashing, indicating activation. Maker smacked them on the wall next to the embedded shell, where they stuck.

“Erlen!” he shouted, as he grabbed the insectoid he’d used to block Skullcap’s shot. “Fire in the hole!”

He looked back to see the Niotan heading towards him. Then the black squares exploded.

There was a sound like a typhoon, and all the air suddenly began rushing from the room as if sucked out by a vacuum cleaner. Everything not nailed down was soon flying out the ship – including a number of armored Vacra.

Maker had released his living shield, letting it get sucked into space as he grabbed a nearby column that ran from the floor to the ceiling of the room they were in.

Skullcap, having let go of his weapon, had his arms around a similar column and was hanging on for dear life. Erlen had found purchase by digging his powerful claws into the floor.

“Erlen!” Maker screamed. “Let go!”

Maker knew Erlen trusted him completely, but the Niotan seemed to hesitate momentarily. Then it retracted its claws and practically went bounding out through the hole. Maker said a quick prayer, then let go of the column and, after banging against one side of the ragged hole made by the explosion, was sucked out into the void as well.

Chapter 42

Upon being blown out of the ship, tumbling end over end, Maker immediately activated his jets. He was thus able to stop his wild flight and bring himself under control. Upon doing so, he noticed a red light flashing in a corner of his visor.

“Warning,” said a seductive female voice. “Oxygen leak detec–”

Maker turned the voice off so he could think. According to the gauge, he was losing oxygen – fast. When he’d banged against the side of the hole he must have damaged his suit (or at least the air tank).

He immediately began scanning the area for Erlen, almost in a panic. Apparently more crap than he realized had gotten suctioned from the alien vessel, and it was difficult to visually sort through it all. (One thing he took particular note of, however, was the dropship, which had moved a lot closer to the Vacra ship.)

He hadn’t been exceptionally worried at first because he knew from experience that Erlen could survive the vacuum of space. What he didn’t know, however, was for how long, and his own oxygen problems were exacerbating the issue. After what seemed like a lifetime (but was in truth only a few seconds), he spied the Niotan spinning away from him at an angle. He turned the jets on full and went roaring after him.

Maker didn’t really slow down; he just kind of went in, hooked the Niotan on his shoulder, and then arced towards the
Mantis
. He risked a single glance back and didn’t like what he saw. The Vacra ship was lighting up, regaining power. They’d recovered from the EMP. Even worse, he saw the gun turrets begin to move.

A second later, little flashes of light danced around them, which Maker recognized as weapons fire. Thankfully, they made a pretty small target – especially considering that the guns were used to engaging spacecraft of some sort. He checked his gauge and saw that he was down to about fifty percent oxygen.

Maker did his best to forget about the shots, zigzagging slightly to throw off any potential targeting the Vacra might try to do. His main focus, however, was on the
Mantis
. She needed to come alive in the next few minutes if they were to have any hope of surviving.

As if on cue, lights on the
Mantis
began to come on, indicating that some – if not all – of the ship’s power was back to normal.

“Woo-hoo!” Maker screamed giddily. “We’re going to make it!”

An odd glistening appeared around the
Mantis
, then disappeared. It had only been there for a nanosecond, but it left a bad taste in Maker’s mouth.

“Oh no,” he whispered, realizing what had happened.

He changed the view in his visor, switching over to a different wavelength of light, and then he saw it. The
Mantis
’ shields had activated, creating a globe of soft, white light around the ship. Maker and Erlen wouldn’t be able to get through it, and if they could get through, they’d probably be stranded if the ship went to hyperspace. (Which it would definitely do to get away from the nova bomb.)

Maker opened a channel on his comm and began frantically hailing the
Mantis
. There was no answer. Trying to stay calm, his mind raced through the possibilities. The comm was typically only used to cover short distances, so maybe he was out of range. Maybe it had gotten damaged somehow when he was on board the Vacra ship. Maybe his armor wasn’t completely shielded from the EMP.

Maybe, maybe, maybe…

There were simply too many possibilities, and even if he knew what the problem was with the comm, he didn’t have time to fix it. No, he needed to focus on finding another solution. Unfortunately, as he and Erlen headed towards the shield (and his oxygen hit twenty-five percent), he couldn’t think of a single, solitary thing to save them.

As luck would have it, he didn’t have to. The Vacra came up with the solution.

Maker was scanning the shield around the
Mantis
, looking for any kind of weak spot that they might be able to penetrate. It took him more than a little by surprise when a bright beam of red light whizzed by him and struck the shield – and then continued through it and hit the
Mantis
, rocking the ship.

Of course! The Vacra weapon they had used when he was on the bridge! They were firing it again. More to the point, Maker could see where it had punched a hole in the shield – a hole that now appeared to be closing, as the shield was self-repairing to a certain extent.

Red lights started flashing on the interior of Maker’s armor.

“Warning,” said the female voice. “Oxygen depleted.”

Maker tried to discontinue the lights and voice a second time but couldn’t. Apparently this was a safety feature that couldn’t be overridden when something critical – like running completely out of oxygen – occurred.

He blasted ahead, oblivious of everything around him except the hole in the shield. He was only a hundred yards away when the voice in the suit interrupted its warning about the lack of oxygen to tell him of another threat.

“Warning,” the voice said. “Massive heat wave and shock wave detected.”

The nova bomb. It had exploded. And unlike the detonation of a conventional bomb in space, the force of the explosion wasn’t dissipating.

Maker felt his eyelids fluttering. The lack of oxygen was going to cause him to pass out soon. Then he’d die of asphyxiation. Erlen, however, might still live.

He fought to stay conscious, to stay on course. The hole in the shield was getting smaller – even now they might not be able to squeeze through. And they had the nova explosion at their back.

They were almost at the breach in the ship’s shield when Maker simply couldn’t keep his eyes open any more.