Far From Home: The Complete Series (19 page)

“Get these doors sealed!” he yelled.

* * *

Hawk ran with the kataan in hand. Whilst he was extremely skilled in its use, he still had to be careful. The blade could pierce skin at just a touch.

He saw Carn cut to the right, through a dark doorway. Hawk followed.

It was some kind of maintenance section, full of pipes. Dull green light filtered through from above and gave limited illumination. Hot steam billowed up from grates in the floor.

Hawk proceeded with caution, his blade in front of him.

“I know you’re in here, General,” he said.

A sound to his right. He spun about, raised his blade in time to clash against Carn’s as it came striking down from above. The two different metals sparked against each other.

“Correct!” Carn quipped.

His blade squeaked against the edges of Hawk’s as he withdrew and struck lower. Hawk swung to block. Carn pushed against him. Hawk glared into his own reflection in Carn’s mask.

Hawk kicked out. Carn stepped back to avoid him. Hawk jabbed at empty air as Carn moved to the side and hacked down. Hawk bent out of the way of Carn’s sword just in time.

“You still move pretty quick for an eighty-year-old,” Carn said.

They circled each other, blades raised. The steam billowed up around them, hot against their backs. The General drew a defensive stance as Hawk moved in to attack again.

“You’ll find I’m full of surprises …” he said as metal exploded against metal in a burst of sparks.

* * *

The emergency lighting swamped the bridge in a sea of blood.

“Damage status!” King demanded.

“Multiple hits, forty percent damage to the outer hull. One engine down. Engineering is compensating by directing additional power to the remaining engines,” Chang reported.

That was good enough. They were flying.

Up ahead the nebula changed. They were entering the debris field. Massive chunks of battered rock drifted past at deceptively lazy speeds. But they weren’t to be underestimated. If any of them hit the
Defiant
it was game over.

“Cut back on it now, Lieutenant,” she said.

Banks nodded. He concentrated too hard to answer any other way. All of their lives literally rested in his hands, at the mercy of his fingertips. The
Defiant
braked, and its highly skilled helmsman rolled them out of the way of several jagged asteroids. He dipped the ship’s nose a little which allowed it to slide beneath a spinning peanut-shaped meteor that seemed certain to cleave the ship in two. They passed beneath it with mere feet to spare.

“
Inflictor
slowing,” Chang said.

“Is she still following?” Jessica asked.

Chang watched her sensor screens. She spun about in her seat. “Yes. But slowly.”

Captain King couldn’t keep the smirk from making its way to her lips.

“Okay. Let’s swing things in our favour for once,” she said. “Olivia, get ready to fire. Lieutenant Banks, bring us about and use the debris as cover.”

This time Banks answered with a loud “Aye, Cap!”

He brought the
Defiant
about. A sudden explosion below decks made the ship shake. Jessica turned to Chang. “Lieutenant?”

“Minor asteroid impact to our port side,” Chang said. “Repair team attending.”

“Well, it won’t be the last. We can’t get around all of them,” Jessica said. “Okay, ladies and gents. Let’s do some damage.”

The
Defiant
drew up behind an island that looked like a pulled-tooth; smooth on top, tapering down to a jagged end below. The
Inflictor
loomed into view on the other side of it. Banks dropped their speed to a near crawl, and they practically drifted behind the rock.

“We’re in position,” Banks reported.

“Very good. Ensign Rayne, prepare to fire on my command,” King said.

Rayne shifted in her seat. “I’m ready Captain,” she said.

Banks nudged the
Defiant
forward, and it coasted from the protection of the asteroid. The
Inflictor
was late to react to the Union vessel’s sudden appearance in front of them.

“Fire!” King bellowed.

Rayne let loose the main guns, and they peppered the face of the
Inflictor
with hit after hit. The Draxx vessel turned sluggishly to starboard and returned fire. Its warheads skimmed past the
Defiant’s
back end as it slid behind another giant rock.

“Very well done” King said. “Now let’s get ourselves around them again for another pass. Try and kick ‘em in the rear this time.”

“Aye Ma’am,” Banks and Rayne said in unison.

10.

Sepix grimaced as the
Inflictor
was dealt another series of blows. Even for a ship of her immense size, she couldn’t take hits like that forever. Already they were down to fifty percent power.

“We can’t move in this debris field!” his helmsman said.

Sepix strode forward and pulled the other out of his seat. He landed on the deck with his arms up to shield himself. Sepix stomped down on the Draxx’s head. With every ounce of force he could muster, the helmsman’s head popped beneath his boot. He kicked the reptile’s body across the bridge.

“Fill his position!” he screamed. He stood to the side with his arms crossed as another Draxx hurriedly sat down at the helm console. “Fire at the asteroids. Obliterate them. Give the human pests nowhere to hide!”

* * *

Carn backed him into a corner with the ferocity of his attacks. Hawk felt the sweat running in rivers down his back. He panted, his eyesight foggy.

The General, meanwhile, was as enthusiastic as ever, with no sign of flagging.

“You grow tired, Captain,” Carn hissed. He advanced with his blade outstretched as Hawk walked backwards. “Why not surrender to me? I will make your death clean.”

“An honourable death, General?” Hawk said. He glanced about, frantic for a way to regain the upper hand.

He spotted it.

Carn cocked his head to one side. “I still believe in honour on the battlefield.”

Hawk lifted his sword, swung to the side at a thin pipe. He hoped he’d hit the right one. A second later a jet of boiling hot steam burst free from it and hit Carn in the face. With his mask it did no damage, but it was enough of a distraction to allow Hawk to go back on the offensive. He swung at Carn who recovered from the steam just in time to parry the attacks and step out of the way. Hawk pursued him across the room.

The
Inflictor
rumbled beneath their feet.

King’s getting a few hits in,
Hawk thought.
Now it’s my turn.

“You talk of honour, General,” he said. He jabbed at him. Carn swept his blade to one side and backed out of the door. Hawk pressed him down the hallway, attacking the whole time. “Tell me: was there honour in your actions on Minich VI? Did an entire race have to die? Where was your so-called honour then?”

With unbelievable strength and conviction in his own swordsmanship, Carn whacked Hawk’s blade to the right, and pinned it there against the wall.

“There are always sacrifices,” he said.

Hawk stared into Carn’s mirrored mask. He hoped that behind it there were eyes, and that he was locked right on them.

The
Inflictor
rocked from a hit somewhere. The lights flickered out, and in that moment Hawk raised his boot and kicked his adversary in his centre. The General reeled backwards, caught unawares.

The lights came back to life.

“You’ll regret that,” Carn said.

* * *

The
Inflictor
fired another swarm of warheads their way. They sparkled like newborn suns before striking the other side of the rock they’d taken cover behind. The asteroid cracked open right down the middle. Banks did an about face and took them back behind a similarly large mountain of rock they’d only left minutes before. As he did, the
Inflictor
and the
Defiant
exchanged blows. Hits registered on both vessels.

The
Defiant
threatened to shake apart around her.

Hold it together old girl
, Jessica thought.

“Any word from our team yet?” she asked.

“They’ve nearly secured the reactor chamber, but they’re still meeting some resistance,” Boi reported.

Good job they got some of those doors closed or they’d have been ripped apart by now,
Jessica thought.

“And what about Captain Nowlan?” she asked.

Boi shook his head. “No word. Hawk is still AWOL.”

King looked dead ahead. Out there, on that other ship, her people were fighting an impossible fight.

“Banks, try to keep us as close to that thing as possible without getting blown up,” Jessica said. “I want us in a position to collect our people and get the hell out of here.”

Come on boys,
she thought.

If they didn’t make contact, then she’d have no choice but the inevitable - launch several nukes the old fashioned way. Blow the
Inflictor
and its diabolical crew straight into the afterlife … if they even believed in such a thing.

11.

They fought their way along a walkway through a huge hydroponics section. Dense with vegetation and dripping with humidity. Large plants grew on either side, and on some Hawk noticed sticky egg sacks glued to the underside of the leaves.

He barely had time to dodge the carpet of bugs scattering their way across the walkway.

General Carn spun on the spot, whirling his sword. Hawk stopped in his tracks and lean back away from the deathly blade. It whooshed past his head.

As Carn regained his footing, Hawk went in and swung as hard as he could from the left. The General’s weapon flew out of his hand and clattered against the deck. Hawk held him under arrest with his blade levelled at what he still took to be Carn’s throat.

“Stay right there, General,” he ordered. He was out of breath, his heart hammering in his ears. But, God, did he feel alive.

“Fool,” Carn spat.

He did the unthinkable. He reached out with his gloved hand and took hold of the blade of the kataan. Hawk was too shocked to withdraw. Carn gripped the blade tight in his fist and yanked it out of Hawk’s hand. He launched it back over his shoulder.

“Now we are equal,” Carn said.

Hawk jumped back. At the same time he yanked the Oberon from its holster.

“Not quite!” he yelled.

Carn chuckled. “Even after all this time fighting each other, you don’t understand.”

Hawk frowned as Carn turned his back to him and walked away. He fired.

They struck him square in the back, knocked him forward several feet. Carn looked behind him, wagged his finger at him. “Bad form to shoot a man in the back.”

The General ran. Hawk fired after him, still in disbelief of the way his shots had little effect. Carn disappeared into the thick, soupy mists ahead.

The decking shuddered beneath his feet as Hawk collected his kataan off the floor along with Carn’s. “Next time, General,” he said to himself as he ran back to the reactor chamber.

12.

“Turn the top of the cone … careful …” Swogger said. He sat propped against a nearby bulkhead and instructed Greene in how to access the timer control on the nuclear warhead. “That’s it. Now pull her out … slowly, slowly, that’s it …”

Greene wiped the sweat running down his forehead with the back of his free hand. His hands were clammy and he blinked away the terror he felt in handling the device in this way.

Kaminsky, Hunter and White stood point at the entrances. One of the sealed doors had Draxx working on it. Soon they’d be through. Sparks flew at the bottom as they cut around the edges, working their way up.

Swogger craned forward to see the timer control. Greene looked up at him, took note of the change in his expression.

“What? What is it?” he asked frantically, looking from Swogger to the weapon of mass destruction in his hands.

“It’s damaged. The control board is blown. You see? It’s all black. Must’ve short-circuited somehow …” Swogger said.

Greene hung his head. “So where does that leave us?”

Swogger looked from one to the other then back to Greene. “High and dry.”

“Commander! Movement down the corridor!” Hunter shouted.

Hunter held his weapon at the ready, then when the approaching figure emerged from the atmospheric haze, he relaxed.

Hawk ran into the reactor chamber, dripping sweat. He looked about at them all.

“Where are we?”

“Sunk,” Greene said. He set the cone of the warhead back in place and sat back on the deck, defeated.

The
Inflictor
shuddered around them.

“What?” Hawk asked.

“The timer circuit is blown. Without it, we can’t set a countdown sequence,” Swogger explained.

Hawk noticed Swogger’s pale, ashen face. His eyes drifted down to the wound in the Lieutenant’s side from the Draxx fire. “Hey, are yuh okay fella?”

“At the minute,” Swogger winced.

Hawk looked to the other door, where the sparks rained down from the Draxx’s efforts to cut through.

Swogger said: “We could detonate it manually.”

Greene looked up.

“Just a minute -” he said.

“Commander, let the man speak,” Hawk said. “Go on.”

“The circuit is fried, but further down there is a detonation trigger. I could stay behind and fire it manually. Might give you enough time to get back to the transport and get away from this thing before she blows …” Swogger said.

“I won’t allow it,” Greene said, his temper up. “No way.”

“Commander, I want to,” Swogger said. He looked down at the wound in his side. Blood gushed through his fingers. “Besides, I’m done for anyway. Let’s face it.”

Green shook his head indignantly, got to his feet. Hawk rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Commander, listen to the man. He’s volunteering. And to be honest, I don’t see any other option. Unless yuh wanna stay and do it yuhself?”