Echo of Tomorrow: Book Two (The Drake Chronicles) (45 page)

“I’m going to try to bring us hull-to-hull with the enemy battleship,” Scott barked. “Starboard side. So you’re going to need something to punch a hole in his side and seal the breach for the boarding party.”

“You get us there, skipper, and we’ll take care of it.”

“Semper Gumby, Bill.”

“Ain’t that the truth, sir.” Bill Armstrong laughed and saluted before cutting the circuit.

“Helm, bring us round on a parallel course with the enemy, match speed and heading, and close in on the bastard.”

“Aye-aye, sir.”

“Attention all hands, we’re about to close with the alien’s main battleship and try to board her. All combat personnel close up.”

Slowly they matched course and speed with the other ship, both pounding away at each other. Through the small gaps in the shield, Scott could see great chunks flying off the alien’s hull, and beams of energy eating their way deep into its heart, and wondered for a moment what their weapons were doing to his, then decided he didn’t want to think about.

“Helm, drift her to starboard.”

“Aye-aye, skipper.” The distance between the two massive ships closed until their shields interlaced, setting of a spectacular fireworks display.

“Got her, sir!” the operations officer yelled.

“Pull her in!” Scott called. “All hands stand by for boarding!”

With a teeth-rattling jolt, the massive tractor beams locked onto the alien hull and slowly drew the two ships together. At that point the captain of the other ship realized what was happening, and tried to escape by going to full power. The two ships swung around each other in a tight circle, one at full power, the other in reverse, silently pirouetting in a dance of death. The new power plant in Scott’s ship now proved its worth, and slowly the two vessels came together. Everyone felt the hulls meet, and a small cheer went up. Now it was up to the marines to breach it and get aboard.

Scott checked the battle board and let out a small sigh of relief, seeing the rest of his fleet chasing individual alien ships, or demolishing the last cluster. The major part of the battle was over, and he sat back with a sigh. There was little for him to do now but sit back and watch. He’d done his job, for now. The battle board was clear out to the maximum range, with no additional enemy forces about to pounce on them. It was now clean-up time, and up to individual ship captains to finish the job.

“Thank god for that,” he muttered. “You have the bridge, Number One.” Scott eyed the lizard battleship, his eyes alight.

“Aye, sir. I have the bridge.” Akira replied, for once forgetting to bow.

“I’m off to freshen up,” he said, and as he turned to leave he saw Devon and the president sitting behind him.

“You still here, Devon?” He’d completely forgotten about his guests.

“Wouldn’t have missed this for all the tea in China.” But Devon’s expression lacked its usual cheer, and Scott could hear the fear in his voice.

Scott thought CPO Hardwick would have found a safer place for them, since they each only had on semi-hard suits. President Westwood was mute and looked to be in shock, and together he and Devon guided him off the bridge and into Scott’s day cabin. Hardwick was there immediately with a brandy for each, and they lifted their glasses in a silent toast, or at least he and Devon did; Westwood gulped his down, his eyes still glazed, hands shaking.

“I think I’ll go have a look round, see how she stood up to her first battle,” Scott announced offhandedly, and headed toward the hatchway. He didn’t get far before he was surrounded by ten people in full combat armor and armed to the teeth.

“Going for a walk, Admiral?” Janet Page asked in a sweet voice.

“Um, yes. Thought I’d have a look around the ship and see how she stood up,” he murmured, getting a little red around the ears.

“Aye, Admiral, we’ll just tag along to see that you don’t run … um … into any trouble,” she chuckled. “You never know if you might run into some nasty aliens.”

Scott gave her a sharp look, but nothing of her face showed through the polarized faceplate of her helmet. He wondered if there wasn’t just a touch of sarcasm in her words. He gave her what he hoped was a chilling look, and stomped huffily off down the companionway with his helmet under his arm. His first stop was the point defense CIC, to congratulate them for the great job they’d done. It was then that he found out about the children, something he’d totally forgotten.

“They just took over the empty pods, Admiral, and oh my god they’re good.” Charlotte sighed, looking drained as she tried to explain.

“They took over the pods?” Scott was stunned. His one reservation about taking them in the beginning was that they’d be in harm’s way. If any of them were killed, it would be on his head.

“We took a hit on the starboard side, Admiral, and it damaged the point defense weapons deck, sir.” There was a sad note in her voice as she said it, and Scott knew they’d taken causalities.

“How many?” he asked after taking a deep breath.

“Four dead, eight injured. Three of the dead were children and five of them were injured.” A tear ran down her cheek as she said it. Scott gritted his teeth.

“Those kids, sir. Even after they took the hit, the deck was hot with radiation. They still refused to quit, sir. They stayed at their posts until the battle was over.”

Scott closed his eyes for a moment and pushed his emotions to the back of his mind. There would be time for tears later, and the condemnation. “And the parents?” he said at length, a shiver running up his spine.

“They were there, sir, in each one of the gun decks. And if you can believe it, they helped too.”

Scott tapped his wrist. “CPO Hardwick! I want all the children rounded up and taken back to Alpha base as soon as possible. Use the gateway.”

“Sir!” the CPO’s shocked voice came back over his wrist comm. “The gateways, sir?”

“At this point in time, it’s a moot point that they, or the council members know about them,” he snapped. “I want to get those injured children under the care of Doc Chase as soon as possible.”

“Aye-aye, sir.”

The time for a reckoning had to wait, since there were more important things to do. As Sensei Yamaguchi had said, Scott’s karma was great. Now he had the deaths of three more children on his soul.

He moved about the ship, checking on damage and congratulating people on a job well done, but it was inevitable that he’d end up on the marine deck. The place was a madhouse as he stepped in, with people running back and forth. Smoke filled the air, and here and there signs of damage could be seen.

“Janet! Find out where the Marine commander is,” he snapped over his shoulder. Just then, an explosion ripped through the hangar deck, knocking them all down, and alien combat troops came pouring through a massive hole.

Scott’s face shield snapped shut the moment the sensor detected the drop in air pressure, and air screaming out of the rupture gradually diminished as it bled into vacuum. Just then, a body sailed through the air, smashing into the bulkhead next to them before sliding to the floor. It was a marine. Scott simply grabbed the fallen’s rifle and switched it on.

“Forgot finding him, Janet, let’s kick ass.”

“Thought you’d never get around to saying that,” she shot back, letting rip. So did the rest of his security team, and with Scott in the center they rushed across the open deck and took the aliens on head-to-head, rallying the retreating marines as they went.

“Wrong way, Marine,” he shouted.

“How’s that, sir?” a corporal shouted back.

“You retreat toward the enemy, not the other way.” He switched ends on his rifle, using it as a club to beat an alien soldier to the deck, having no time to reload. It wasn’t that they were demoralized, just that there was no one to give them direction. By the look of it, the aliens had outflanked the marine boarding party and blown a hole into the marine landing bay—intent on bringing the fight to them.

It didn’t take long before the tide turned, and the aliens were retreating toward their ship. Until one of them realized that the human in the white spacesuit was the one organizing the resistance, and ordered a full-scale attack, thinking to neutralize him as a threat. The aliens found it was like walking into a steel wall. No matter how hard they tried, the humans fought harder. Then the wall of battle-suited marines began moving toward them. At this distance, rifles were useless, and were turned into clubs, using them to smash helmets and the heads inside. Three huge aliens hit Scott at the same time, all intent on doing him bodily harm as they pulled out wicked-looking hatchets and tried to cut into the joints of Scott’s suit. His rifle soon fell apart as he pounded away at their battle armor. Then it became a wrestling match and he was thrown against the bulkhead, and went down in a swirling mass of arms and legs. He deflected an arm coming at him with a hatchet aimed for his faceplate, but only slightly. The edge of the blade screeched off the armorglass, leaving a jagged scratch across the surface as fear sweat covered his face. Through the clear shield he saw the face of his enemy, seeing the snarling lizard face, teeth bared, mouthing something at him. He didn’t care what it was, and snarled back as he fought the arm holding the blade.

“Fucking lizard!” he screamed, bending the arm backward until it snapped.

He could see the look of shock, and the alien’s realization that this food animal was beating him. Before Scott could do much else, though, someone jerked the body off him and threw it aside.

The air was filled with sparks from ruptured conduits, and gore dripped from the deckhead and covered the floor, making it difficult to stand. Scott rolled over and came to his knees, looking around for a weapon. There wasn’t one, until he saw a short length of pipe with a coupling on the broken end. Grabbing it while getting to his feet, he looked around to see two more aliens charging at him. Surging erect, he struck out, using the pipe like a battle mace. Helmets dented and face shields cracked as they closed, spewing yellow-red blood in the vacuum his blows created.

Scott battered his way to the front of the melee and beat his way into the enemy ranks, driving them back. At close quarters, the heavy pipe proved more effective than side arms or rifles, and he didn’t have to worry about running out of ammo; it didn’t take long before the marines around him found their own lengths of pipe. The hangar deck turned into a struggling mass of humanity and aliens, all intent on killing each other. More aliens poured through the breach in the hull, but inch by inch, the marines drove them back. Scott found that these enemy combatants weren’t like the ones back in the prison compound. These were tough, hardened combat troops. He smashed another helmet and threw the alien aside, taking a quick look around. He and his fighters had almost reached the hull breach, now jammed with alien troops trying to get through, when he heard the cry.

“Hit the deck!”

Instinctively he and the others did, and something like a lightning bolt passed over his head. He looked up to see that someone had maneuvered a tank into position and fired the main gun. He stood, or tried to, finding the deck slick with a reddish-yellow liquid. It was only by virtue of the magnetic soles that he could stand at all, but he wasn’t about to let the advantage slip.

“Let’s go, people!” he yelled, and rushed toward the breach. At that moment, it was clear; the weapon had blown a hole through a number of bulkheads in the alien ship. Then the battle was on again, and the marines surged through the gap with Scott in the lead. Janet swore, gathered her people, and rushed after him.

“The fucking idiot is going to get himself killed!” she screamed, jammed her rifle’s barrel under the chin of an alien that got in front of her, and pulled the trigger. Five hundred rounds of 1 mm needles ripped through the soft seal and bounced around inside the helmet. The head inside turned to jelly and drained down into the suit as the alien fell.

She began her rush after Scott, muttering, “If he gets himself killed, I’m a dead woman.”

In a flying wedge, Scott’s security detail had torn through the alien troops and into the ship. Janet caught up with Scott and grabbed his arm.