Far From Home: The Complete Second Series (Far From Home 13-15) (26 page)

31.

Metal locked onto metal. The
Jandala
and the
Defiant
held together, the two ships caught in the same dance.

The
Defiant
was a ship of the night. Jessica felt for the buckle of her safety harness, unclipped herself and stood. The air was close, warm. Around her the
Defiant
remained still.

"How's about everyone else. You all okay?" she asked. Her voice sounded too loud in there, too abrupt in the way it shattered the stillness of the dark.

"Yeah," Commander Greene said with a groan. "I guess."

"Well you're answering, so
. . ." King said. The tortured sigh of metal came from several decks away, still audible all the way up on the bridge. It was the
Defiant
's hull itself, torn open in the impact. Ripped away like skin from flesh.

How many times are we going to break today?
she asked herself.
Well you will insist on ramming the enemy. And maybe this time will be the last . . .

"Emergency lights," Jessica said as she unclipped herself. The deck shifted beneath her, the ship's artificial gravity struggling to compensate.

"I don't think that's going to happen," Greene said, activating a small light from a compartment next to his chair, handing one to Jessica.

She turned it on. "You still with me Chang?"

"I'm still with it, Captain, yes," Chang said. She flicked her own light on, unclipped herself and checked on Banks and Rayne.

Jessica walked over to Jackson. "How 'bout you?"

She turned him around. Her breath caught in her throat. She shone her light up at the ceiling, where a tangle of broken wires and power cables hung from a blown bulkhead. They had fallen on Jackson, electrocuting him. The scattered debris littered his body, polymer fragments and fine white dust. His face was charred, burned, locked in an expression of complete horror. Eyes bulging from their sockets.

Now she noticed his hands. Locked into tight fists as he fought the massive charge that had killed him – fried him from the inside out.

"Jess?" Greene asked. He drew nearer, saw Jackson, then steered her away from him. "Come on. You don't need to see that any longer."

She shrugged him off, stood over at the rear of the bridge, her hand over her mouth. "I just need a moment," she said, choking back the urge to vomit.

It was eerily silent on the bridge right then, as if a funeral shroud blanketed the room.

Greene nodded, went to the others. She heard him get them into a group, get them coordinated.

She'd seen people die. But it was the unexpected nature of it that shocked her.

Jessica turned back around, used the light to survey the whole bridge. A huge crack ran across the ceiling, and it showed real signs of spreading. The
Defiant
groaned, the sound of metal straining from a great weight. Or two starships, entangled, spinning out of control in the backwash of a gigantic comet.

"It's too dangerous to stay here," she said. All eyes fell on her. She did what she did best. Sucked it up, buried it deep down inside. Until later. Until she could have privacy to let it loose, get rid of it. Cry and scream and moan. Until then
. . .

"We need to regroup elsewhere," she said, her voice full of steely resolve. "Follow me."

32.

A chunk of debris had fallen, destroying the holodisplay and in the process pinning her to the floor. Cessqa breathed. In and out, in and out. She tried to move her arms and to her surprise they worked. Next, her legs. The
y moved but she could not shift them.

Stuck.

She craned her head around, looked at the section of bulkhead that had her held in place, and the rage boiled over. She screamed, something that sounded awful and stretched coming from her. Her hands found the edge of the chunk of heavy material, and she strained to lift it.

Nothing.

Cessqa drew a deep breath, tried again. It shifted a little, then settled back onto her legs. The pain was excruciating.

Feet padded into the devastated command deck, and Cessqa turned her head in time to see Risa run in. She immediately came to her aid, but Cessqa waved her off.

"No."

"But Cessqa–"

"I SAID NO!"

She took another breath, held it and with every ounce of strength in her body Cessqa hefted the piece of debris up off of her legs. She propelled it off to the right, where it clattered against the deck. She got up, her limbs wobbly but still operable. She felt sore all over. But that was nothing to what she felt inside. Deep down, where the fire burned more than ever. Where it threatened to come streaming out of every crevice in bursts of intense flame.

"Get your weapons. We are going over there to end this."

*

The secondary command deck was in darkness, like the rest of the ship. But at least it was in one piece and did not contain any recently killed crew members.

"Okay. Commander Greene, you will go to the engineering section with Banks and Rayne and assist the Chief in getting us some power back. Chang, you will stay here with me. We'll get a team together, ready to defend this ship," Jessica said.

"You really think they'll attempt to come over?" Chang asked.

"I'd bet on it if I were you," Greene said. "If they're still alive, I'd count on them making an attempt to breach the
Defiant
and take us by force. It's what I'd do in her situation."

"We'll deal with that," Jessica said. "You three get moving. Tell the Chief to do whatever she can. Best of luck."

"Come on, you two, you heard the lady," Greene said and led them out into the dark corridor.

Chang turned to her. "So how do we go about this?"

"Find Hawk. That's our best option," Jessica said.

"Hawk?" Chang asked, utterly confused.

She had to backtrack to realise her mistake. "I mean Dollar. We need to find Dollar."

With that they were off, running. "Captain, what about the secondary command deck? There's nobody there," Chang asked next to her.

"Lisa, without power we don't have anything to command."

"Good point."

33.

The vacuum clutched at them, its penetrating freeze
, cold enough to boil their bodily fluids in seconds. A human would not have lasted long in the extremities of open space. Yet the Namar were made of tougher stuff. Cessqa merely grimaced at the lack of oxygen, the immense radiation and deep, dark cold. It was an irritation, an inconvenience, little more.

Unlike a human, both she and Risa could last a short while exposed to the void before their bodies succumbed to its harsh nature. More than enough time to breach a starship.

They stood outside the
Jandala
, on a ledge intended for maintenance when under power. Now it served as their launch. The
Defiant
had ploughed into them, embedding itself, and at the same, leaving an open gash. It looked like a fallen skyscraper without a sky to point to.

The comet had more or less left them behind, though in its wake
, both vessels were still bombarded with ice crystals and micrometeors. The stars spun around them, both vessels locked in a tango of colossal proportions.

Risa looked at her for direction. Cessqa pointed at an opening in the
Defiant
's hull, like the claw mark of a huge monster that had left the Union vessel vulnerable. Risa nodded her understanding.

Cessqa went first. She pushed herself off, her momentum giving her enough thrust, however small, to bridge the gap between her ship and Captain King's.

Her,
she thought as she fell toward the
Defiant
.
Her.
I will find her on there. Kill her with my bare hands. Watch as the life flees her body, then kill the others. All of them. She had her chance to surrender.

The battered hull rushed up to meet her. She braced for impact, ready to grab whatever she could to stabilize herself. It came, her body took the hit, her fingers dragged on the tortured metal until they closed around a small square that jutted out. The housing of a component.

She hung there, hands on the box, getting ready to claw her way back toward the gash. Back to the opening. It would not take long. She gave Risa the signal and watched her follow, leaping from the
Jandala
's edge.

Captain King I am coming for you.

*

Dollar was already on his way out the door. "The thought occur
red to me, too."

Jessica and Chang struggled to keep up with the lively Texan as he bounded ahead of them.

"Where are we going exactly?" Chang asked.

"The cargo hold. I've got somethin' in storage."

"Ah yes.
That,
" King said. "Your kataan. That's pretty much a collectible antique, you know."

Chang tugged at King's elbow. "Are you saying he's got a kataan aboard?"

"Course I got one," Dollar said, as if it were an everyday occurrence, retrieving your sword from storage.

Chang stopped. Jessica stopped a few feet ahead
while Dollar continued on. "Commander, what is it?"

"First you tripped up and called him Hawk. Now you're telling me he's got a kataan. It's all too much of a coincidence," Chang said.

Jessica sighed.

I don't have time for this. Nor do I have time for these goddamned secrets, either.

"Look, he's really Hawk. You know, Gerard Nowlan. Captain Nowlan. Whatever you want to call him. It's all true. Commander Greene is the only other person who knows."

"How
. . . How does that . . . Huh? . . . I mean . . ." Chang took a deep breath. "Let's get this straight. Dollar, who we've all served with for over a year, is really a long lost hero of the Union? Am I right? How are you even keeping this a secret?"

"You tell me. But it's worked up till now," King said and carried on in the direction Dollar had gone. "With all due respect, right this minute I don't have time to explain all this to you, Lisa. Later, I promise. You have my word."

"Hawk . . ." Chang said, falling into step with her. "Who'd believe it?"

*

Cessqa watched Risa dropped inside the hole. The deck was in darkness, devoid of atmosphere, warmth and light. Ice crystals glittered in all directions, as if the confines of the
Defiant
were strewn with diamonds.

Sealed from the rest of the ship,
Cessqa thought.
We need to find whatever means they've used to do so, and breach it.

She led the way, blade out of its sheath. Risa had done the same. Cessqa charged the blade – it would operate as a powerful energy weapon when the time came. Though for close quarter combat, she prefer
red it as a sword.

They stalked the exposed innards of the Union starship, weapons at the ready. Both of them, Cessqa and Risa, the finest warriors the Namar had ever seen. And both ready to spill as much human blood as possible in the name of what was once a great empire. In the hope – in the promise – that it would be great again.

*

Chief Gunn led the Commander, Ensign Rayne
, and Lieutenant Banks out of the engineering section, along with most of her team. She left only those needed for specific tasks. A dozen men and women she trusted to get their respective jobs done without her guidance.

"They'll be
all right in here on their own?" Greene asked.

"Sure. Don't sweat it. Right now we need to get these relays sorted. Get the
Defiant
back up and running best we can," Gunn explained as she led her team away from engineering. She had enough bodies to get the job done quickly. If they hurried.

It's always a rush,
she thought with disdain.
Always a last minute save-the-world job. Cut the blue wire, cut the red wire.Boom! Boom! B!.

"This way," she said, turning a corner. Had she turned the one opposite, she might have collided with the two Namarian warriors making their way toward engineering with their swords drawn.

They might have stopped what was to come. Or delayed it.

In either case, the continued toward the relays in the hopes of reviving the
Defiant
.

34.

Eisenhower handed them
each a rifle. Dollar had managed to rally together twenty men and women, some of them replicants. Captain King had led them to the hangar deck, where Master At Arms Eisenhower held the key to the best of the
Defiant
's weapons.

"I see you've got your trusty blade there, Dolarhyde," Eisenhower said as he handed
out the last rifle.

"Sure thing," Dollar said.

"Okay. Dollar and I will take the lead. Chang and Eisenhower at the rear. The rest of you will take the centre of our group, and carry the extra weapons. We'll sweep through the ship. Rally together everyone we meet. Lock the ship down section by section," King said.

"If they're here already, we'll find 'em," Dollar said.

"Right. Let's get on it. Quiet as you can everyone. If anyone from the
Jandala
is already aboard, we don't want to give them any kind of advantage. Now move."

*

Cessqa watched with relative detachment as the last engineer hung off the end of her blade, stuck through his middle, face twisted in agony as she lifted him off the deck. He slid down the length of the sword, blood gushing from his torso.

This is what I have craved,
she thought.
The killing. The sensation of carving through flesh with steel.

With one swift movement
. she flicked her sword to the side, sending him flying at the same time. Another flick of her wrist rid her blade of blood. It spattered up the side of a console in a bright red line.

The engineer
s' work lights had fallen around them, leaving haphazard pockets of illumination. Risa wasted no time in locating the
Defiant
's rapidly cooling reactor.

"Here it is," she said.

Cessqa went to her side, regarded the heart of the
Defiant
with her silvery eyes as if it were something from the stone ages.

"We have slept for a millennia, and this is the best they can do
. . ." she said.

Risa knelt on the floor, shrugged off a pack around her shoulder and opened it. Inside were the sort of explosives any terrorist in history would have recognised with ease. Small package
s of tightly-packed, moldable material. Bound in shiny polymer.

"Still, it will blow just as well as any other," Risa said, patting one of the explosives. "Like a sun."

An errant memory, of a sunset on their homeworld. It washed over her. She remembered the deep orange light. The warm air on her skin. How it had felt back then, many lifetimes ago.

"Do it," Cessqa ordered, returning to the present. "Blow them to whatever they think of as hell."