Ep.#4 - "Freedom's Dawn" (The Frontiers Saga) (31 page)

There were two more flashes, followed by the thunder claps and shock waves, and then two more after that. His head rang and his body felt numb, the shock wave nearly knocked him over. If he hadn’t been holding onto the counter, he would’ve gone down for sure.

In the face of flying debris, Enrique ran around the left side of the counter and charged forward toward the port staircase. Willard and Weatherly, from opposite sides of the room, were firing madly. The few remaining volunteers left alive stepped out into the line of fire to join them. Three more of them were cut down almost immediately. Enrique fired both boomers at the same time. The sound was nearly as horrendous as the stun grenades, but by now his hearing was so muffled that he hardly noticed. He continued running forward with all his strength as energy bolts struck the floor to his left and the center counter to his right. He could feel the heat of every bolt that flew past him, though they made no sound and moved so quickly that he could not see them as they streamed by.

An energy bolt caught his right foot, blowing it clean off the end of his leg. He stumbled forward, screaming, even though he still heard nothing more than a low constant rumble. He hit the deck face first, bloodying his nose if not breaking it.

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. His vision was blurred now, probably from the blow to his nose, and he could feel something wet and hot in his mouth and throat; probably blood. He was pretty sure he was sliding along the floor now. The slide seemed to last forever, but eventually it stopped. He rolled over, his senses reeling, his vision still blurry, and his hearing all but gone. It was darker here, and there was something over him, above him. It was the balcony.

Enrique lifted both arms, looking at his hands. They were both still holding the boomers. He looked upward at the dark shadowy object above him. There were flashes of light coming from the outer edge. He was sure now; it was the balcony from where the enemy was cutting down his men, his friends. He took aim as best he could and fired. Not once; not twice; three times. There were huge flashes of light, and he could feel millions of tiny, burning hot things hitting his body, his arms, his face. Then the light was replaced by something dark coming toward him rapidly.

“NO!” Sergeant Weatherly called out as the balcony collapsed.

Ensign Willard watched in horror from the other side as the balcony fell, landing directly on top of Enrique. The firing stopped. There was nothing left but the sound of bits and pieces of the balcony still falling.

Sergeant Weatherly immediately came rushing out from cover, trying to get to Enrique, but it was no use. That entire section of the balcony had broken apart and come down in several large sections, undoubtedly crushing the brave Ensign. The rest of the balcony had come loose and fallen, hanging now at a forty-five degree angle. The sudden blast had knocked the only remaining member of the Takaran boarding party off the balcony to where he now lay, moaning in pain.

Weatherly stood there for nearly a minute, staring at the pile of rubble that had just crushed his friend. When he finally realized that the last enemy was still alive and lying next to the heroic ensign, he simply pulled his handgun out and shot the injured Takaran officer several times in the head, all without even looking at him.

Marcus, Loki, and two more volunteers came running out from the corridor. They were nearly out of breath after running all the way from the hangar deck.

“Holy shit,” Loki said as he came to a halt. Marcus and the other two were speechless. Loki looked around. Eighteen men had originally gone to fight this battle. Now there were only four of them left alive. “Where’s Ensign Mendez?” Loki asked.

“He’s dead,” Willard answered.

“What?” Loki couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Willard looked at Loki and the others. “Why are you here?”

“We captured a medevac shuttle on the hangar deck. They brought those guys here. They said they left twelve guys on the Aurora, dressed as doctors or something.”

Weatherly immediately turned his head toward Loki, whose words pulled him from his grief and snapped him back to reality. “What did you say?”

“The Aurora has been boarded,” Loki told him. “We’ve got to do something.”

“Damn right we do,” Sergeant Weatherly announced as he headed back toward the corridor. “Let’s move!”

* * *

“Did you get it to work?” Deliza asked. She had been holding the flashlight for what seemed like forever, providing light for Vladimir to see what he was doing in the dark tunnel.

“Nyet. I cannot get the routing node to reroute priority data streams to my pad. I cannot convince it that the data pad is a console.”

“That’s because it’s not.”

“Really?”

“Sorry,” Deliza apologized. “Why don’t you just ask it to send you copies of the data stream?”

“I cannot control anything with only copies of the data streams,” he told her.

“But at least you’d be able to see what is going on.”

Vladimir looked at her for a moment. “Good point.” He returned to his data pad and began tapping the on-screen keyboard furiously.

“Thank you.”

“Ah, it worked,” he said gleefully. “I can see everything: life support, propulsion, main power—” Vladimir suddenly stopped.

“What?”

“Oh bozhe,” Vladimir exclaimed.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Mister Musavi finished recalibrating the magnetic containment field emitters on the number one antimatter reactor.”

“But that’s a good thing, right?”

Vladimir looked at her. “He already initiated the automatic restart.”

“But that’s good. We’ll have light in here again—”

“Nyet, Deliza. You do not understand. When the reactor comes back online, they will have full power. They’ll be able to get underway. They could even jump the ship… all the way back to Takara.”

* * *

“Andre, I’m at the hangar bay now,” Bobby said over his comm-set. “I’ve disabled the jamming pod.”

“
Copy. Did you run into any of the crew along the way?
” Andre asked over the comms.

“Just two guys carrying some equipment. I took them both out and stowed them in a nearby cabin.”

“
Good. Avoid contact if you can, at least until you hook up with team two in engineering. Remember, our numbers are few, so don’t take any unnecessary chances now that we have the upper hand.
”

“Understood. Proceeding to engineering. Minimal contact.”

Bobby looked around the hangar bay. For a warship, it seemed odd to him that the hangar bay only had a single, outdated, Takaran deep space interceptor, an old cargo shuttle that had seen much better days, and a wrecked spacecraft that was so busted up he couldn’t quite tell what kind of ship it had once been. In addition to the odd collection of spacecraft in various stages of disrepair, the forward end of the hangar was filled with crates of varied size and shape. The place looked more like a cargo bay than a flight deck.

* * *

“Lieutenant Brayerton,” Captain de Winter’s voice called over the nobleman’s comm-set.

“Yes sir.”

“We have control of the bridge and engineering. What’s your status?”

“All quiet here, sir.”

“Good. We’ll be conducting a sweep of the ship shortly. When the others join you, eliminate all the prisoners in medical.”

The nobleman’s eyes widened slightly. He turned away from the prisoners, fearing that they would notice the change in his expression, thus discerning that something was wrong. “All of them, sir?” he said under his breath. “Even the medical staff?”

“All of them, Lieutenant. We haven’t the manpower to babysit prisoners whilst flying this ship back to Takara. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir.” The lieutenant tapped his comm-set to end the call. He hadn’t expected to have to kill everyone. In fact, he had expected that they would be released and allowed to return to the surface of Corinair in the same medevac shuttle that had brought them here. He saw no reason to murder the medical staff and the wounded. Surely they were no threat to them.

It wasn’t right, not even by Takaran practices, which at times could be quite ruthless. Much had changed under the rule of Caius. Those that were willing to do what must be done were rewarded. Those that did not were punished. His career thus far, while unblemished, had also been less than noteworthy. If they managed to get this ship, the magic
jump
ship, the one that destroyed the mighty Campaglia back to the home world, all of that would change. If he had to kill a dozen or so unarmed persons in order to achieve his own acclaims, then so be it. He only hoped that the others would reach him so that he wouldn’t have to do it alone.

The lieutenant’s thoughts were interrupted by a beeping sound coming from the bio-monitors on the bed in the far back corner of the treatment room. The ship’s doctor, a petite woman with short black hair and oriental features, started to rise from her seat against the back wall of the room as if to tend to the cause of the alarm. “What are you doing?” He asked her. “Sit back down!”

The doctor froze, saying something that he could not quite understand. Some of the words seemed familiar, yet incorrectly pronounced and in a strange order. She was pointing toward the sound as well.

“I said sit down!” he reiterated, pointing his weapon at her to emphasize his point. The doctor’s hands went up in submission, and she again pleaded in her strange language. “I don’t understand what you’re saying!” he told her.

“She says she needs to tend to the patient,” the female Corinairan doctor explained, her hands also up to show that she wasn’t trying to present a threat.

“You speak their language?”

“They speak something very similar to Angla.”

“You speak Angla?”

“Yes, I learned it in my advanced studies.”

“It is a forbidden language,” he reminded her. “I could execute you based on your own admission of guilt.” He didn’t really have any desire to do so, but the excuse might ease his mind about having to execute her later. In fact, if they all spoke a forbidden language, it would give him an excuse under Takaran law.

“Then how would you understand what they’re saying?”

“One moment,” he instructed her as he activated his comm-set. “Captain, Brayerton.”

“Yes, what is it, Lieutenant?”

“The medical staff is requesting permission to tend to a patient. I believe it is the same patient that the Corinairans were intending on treating.”

There was a pause before Captain de Winter responded. “
Allow them to treat whomever they need. If you do not, they may become fearful for their lives and attempt escape. And you are but one man.
”

The lieutenant turned away again before speaking. “I am armed, sir, and I’m quite certain I can handle a bunch of doctors.”

“
Just see that you do, Lieutenant,
” the captain said before ending the communication.

The Takaran lieutenant turned back to the doctors. “You may treat the patient. But I shall be watching.”

“Thank you,” the Corinairan doctor said.

* * *

“The static is gone,” Willard exclaimed as they jogged through the corridors of the Yamaro on their way from the command center to the port hangar bay. “The comms are working,” he added as he tapped his comm-set to open a call. “Corporal Eckert, can you hear me?”

“
Yes, I hear you,
” Eckert answered over the comms. “
What’s your status?
”

“We stopped them before they got into command. We are safe for now. And you?”

“
We have secured a medevac shuttle
—”

“Yes, we heard. We are headed your way now. How many men do you have?”

“
There are six of us here.
”

“We have eight, including the four you sent.” There was a pause. Ensign Willard knew that Corporal Eckert was probably shocked that so few had survived the battle.

“
Sir, that means we are down to fourteen total
.”

“There are two more of our guys guarding the prisoners in the cargo bays,” Sergeant Weatherly reminded Ensign Willard as they continued their jog back to the port hangar bay.

“They will need to remain at their posts,” Willard said. “There will be many among the remaining prisoners who will not be so willing to fight to save the lives of those they were recently trying to kill.”

“Wait a minute,” Weatherly demanded, grabbing Ensign Willard from behind. The entire group suddenly stopped their jog. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“We need more men if we hope to regain control of your ship,” Willard insisted. “Those are the only men at our disposal.”

“The pilot said there were twelve of them,” Loki added.

“That we know of,” Willard corrected. “They may already have been reinforced. Even if they haven’t, they are undoubtedly well armed, and perhaps even well trained. And we will not have the element of surprise on our side. They will see us coming.”

“I suppose you’ve got more Corinairans mixed in with the rest of them down there.” Sergeant Weatherly challenged him.

“Perhaps. I do not personally know every Corinairan on board.”

“Then how can you trust them to fight with us?” Weatherly asked.

It was a reasonable question, one to which Ensign Willard had a reasonable answer.

“If the Ta’Akar take control of the Aurora, they will surely blast this ship and everyone on her to hell. If they fight, at least they have a chance. We have been under the foot of the Ta’Akar for too many decades. Perhaps this is the moment when everything changes.”

Sergeant Weatherly looked Ensign Willard in the eyes for several long seconds. He had come to trust this man, as had Enrique, as he suspected Captain Scott would as well. “You’d better be right about this.”

“I watched a man I met only an hour ago give his life to save everything and everyone on this ship, on the world below, and on your home world. Now it’s our turn.” Ensign Willard keyed his comm-set again. “Corporal Eckert. Go to the cargo bays and call for all men who wish to fight for their freedom.”