Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon (29 page)

“Even if the Werikosa break through?” asked Lilli sarcastically.

Chase gave an exasperated sigh. “If you need to do something … send a copy up to the flight deck and tell the crew we're onboard. Tell them we're going to end this.” Before she could say another word, he gave her what he hoped was a stern look and jogged out the door.

A focused calm filled him as soon as he was back in the hallway. The red lights were flashing, the siren droned overhead, but he no longer needed to worry about making sure that the others were safe. He felt fast and strong and invincible. At the stairwell, he started running up the stairs, racing past the civilian and soldiers' levels.

He paused at the flight deck level, wondering if he should go help the crew, but Maurus and Vidal had been tasked with that. Part of him wanted to stick his head out in the hall, to see if they were okay, if he could hear any sounds of a fight, but he pushed onward. If anything was going to save the
Kuyddestor
, it was stopping the Werikosa who were attacking the bridge. And if Asa hadn't made it there yet, it was all up to him.

He got out on the bridge level, jogging past the elevator and the captain's quarters. When he came to the bridge, he leapt at the door without slowing down, tensed to jump right back out if need be, but what he saw when he got there stopped him cold.

The room was completely empty, all the tiers and chairs unoccupied. He frowned, panting as he looked around. Where was everyone? The only place on the ship to fire the ship's external missiles was here, so who was firing at Storros?

After a few seconds, he noticed a different kind of movement: the screens. On all the different screens were radar maps, moving targets, images of space and explosions, and the decimated Storrian Fleet. Thin white words appeared on one of the screens: ACQUIRING TARGET. Someone was using the ship's weapons, just not from the bridge. He had to get back to Parker and tell him what he'd seen.

Chase jumped back into the hallway. He was halfway to the stairs when Ksenia walked out of a conference room with Petrod at her side. The leader of the hijackers looked oddly meek in her presence.

Chase spoke before she'd even noticed him. “What is going on? Who's launching the attack on Storros?”

Ksenia turned to face him, and a smile stretched across her face.

“I'd like to know that myself,” whined Petrod at her side. “We had no intention of actually attacking Storros!”

Ksenia laughed. “Well, I'm sorry, Petrod, the Fleet made that decision for you.” Before he could react, she casually lifted a handblaster at her side and blasted him in the chest. He flew back against the wall and collapsed.

“The Fleet is trying to destroy Storros?” Chase asked in astonishment. It was Trucon all over again—the Fleet annihilating an entire world for no reason that made any sense.

Ksenia looked surprised. “Destroy? Never.”

Just then Asa came walking around the corner. “Never, Ms. Oriolo? No—just hurt it enough that the Storrians will need Federation funding and infrastructure to get back on their feet, isn't that right? With just enough oversight that the Federation can worm its way into their rhenium trade.”

Chase dropped his jaw, flabbergasted. “This was all for a
metal
?”

“A very rare and essential one, Chase,” said Ksenia. “It's dangerous to allow one planet to have control over ninety percent of the known deposits of such an important resource. If they ever decide to withhold supply, they could hurt billions of people.”

“Although they've never given any indication that they would,” said Asa, moving a step closer to her. “But you're willing to stage a hijacking to prevent this possibility.”

“It won't look that way from the outside.” Ksenia tightened her grip on her blaster. “And soon all the people who know the truth will be dead.”

“I won't be,” said Chase. “I'll tell.”

“Tell who?” She gave him a slick smile. “You'll be coming with me. There are people waiting for you.”

This made no sense. “What?”

“The people who've been looking for you aren't dumb, Chase. They knew it was likely that you were on the
Kuyddestor
. I was told to keep an eye out for you.”

“They won't lay a finger on him,” said Asa fiercely. “And you're not going anywhere.”

Ksenia pointed her blaster at him, but suddenly her right knee went out and she stumbled to the floor, revealing the copy of Lilli who had kicked the back of her knee. It was just enough time for Asa to leap forward and deliver a heavy blow that knocked her to the floor. He crouched over her body and seized her head violently.

Chase gasped. Pausing, Asa looked up and saw both him and Lilli watching. Without a word he let Ksenia's head drop to the floor and stood. “Let's get back to the engine room.” Lilli vanished, and Chase turned for the stairs, but the sound of distant running bootsteps made him look back. Asa was already starting toward the sound. “More Werikosa,” he called over his shoulder. “I'll handle them. Get back to the engine room, and I'll meet you there.”

Mina was waiting for Chase at the bottom of the stairs. “We have a problem.”

In the engine room, Parker leaned over the console, fingers flying. Analora hovered over his shoulder, and Lilli sat in a chair beside him like she hadn't just been on the bridge level. “We got the engine computer offline, and the commands started coming from navigation. Separate infection.”

“So turn off the navigation systems,” said Chase.

Eyes still locked on the screen, Parker made a face. “I could, but it'll take a while and I don't know how many backup trojan access points this person installed.”

“I went to the bridge and it was empty,” Chase said. “The screens are flashing a bunch of commands and stuff, but nobody's there running it.”

“What?” asked Parker. Chase quickly explained what he'd seen, and the interaction he'd had with Ksenia, learning that the Fleet was behind the entire attack on Storros.

Parker chewed his lip, thinking. “Wow. So the Werikosa were set up as a cover, and somebody's using the trojan to operate all the bridge controls from somewhere else. I'd say we look for the computer where the commands are originating from, but it might not even be on this ship. For all we know, somebody could be doing this from back at Fleet High Command.” He looked back at the console and began typing furiously. “If we can just find out who installed it … I can trace it back to whoever badged in when the first trojan was added, and use that to figure out how many places it was installed.” Parker stopped, frowning. “Whoa.”

“What is it?” asked Chase. “Do you know who it was?”

“First instance badged in under Corporal Liadan Lahey,” said Parker. “The teleport operator.”

“What?” said Analora. “How could she even have done that? She's only been on the ship for a year.”

Mina was already on a communicator, speaking to Maurus and Vidal. “When you get through, keep an eye out for a Corporal Liadan Lahey. Parker says she's the hacker.”

So the thin-lipped, sour-faced teleport operator was the culprit. “I always thought she seemed like a jerk,” said Chase.

“Parker, three minutes until the
Destrier
arrives,” said Mina. “Jericho is prepared to fold back to the thruster access hatch and suggests that we leave immediately.”

“Give me one more minute,” said Parker. “I just need to … ugh, no. This won't work. Not in three minutes.”

Chase thought about this. “We don't need to know who's running the
Kuyddestor
right now, do we? The ship is only in danger as long as it's still attacking Storros. So we just have to stop the attack. Can you get around the trojan and turn off the missile systems?”

Parker looked up at him. “No,” he said slowly. “But…” He turned back to the screens and frowned.

“What?”

“But I could override the safe detonation distance and set off one of missiles right inside the launch tube. That should destroy the tube enough so that the ship won't be able to fire any more missiles.”

Chase shook his head. It sounded like Parker wanted to blow up the
Kuyddestor
. “Won't that destroy the whole ship?”

“No,” cut in Analora. “This is a battle starship after all. One single missile shouldn't be enough to destroy the entire ship. Let's hope all it does is destroy the ship's weapon launching capabilities without setting off all the other missiles.”

Chase turned back to Parker, his heart racing. “You really think that's the only way?”

Parker nodded. “We'll stop the attack on Storros … and hopefully we won't blow ourselves up in the process.”

The three of them looked at one another. There really wasn't any choice.

Parker started entering something on the console while everyone watched. Mina stood behind them, looking at something on a communicator. “One minute left, Parker. We need to leave.”

“Hang on. I'm almost finished.” Finally Parker hit the last keystroke and leaned back, tapping his fingers against the edge of his seat. They stared at the screens, waiting.

A shudder shook the ship like a distant earthquake, a low, long vibration that came through the walls and the floor. Parker looked back at the screen. “Done. Launch tube has been destroyed.”

Chase sat down in one of the crew seats, placing his head in his hands. They'd done it. They'd saved the ship. Now they would just need to—

BOOM!

The explosion shook the room hard, sending Chase flying out of the chair to his knees. His first thought was that Analora had been wrong, and they'd just set off the rest of the missiles and secured their own death sentence. “What was that?” he yelled. “More missiles?”

Parker stared at the screen, eyes wild. “No. Oh lords. No. It was the
Destrier
. It's here. They're firing on us.”

Asa came flying around the corner into the engine room just as another explosion hit. He lost his footing and fell, smashing his face on the corner of a console and splitting his lip. “It's time to go, now!” he shouted, wiping the blood away with his sleeve.

Parker drew up a comm screen on the console, hailing the
Destrier
even as Asa tried to draw him away from the screens. “Enough, Parker. The crew is coming out of the flight deck—let them handle this.”

“They won't do this in time,” snapped Parker, pulling away his arm. “
Destrier
, this is the IFF
Kuyddestor
. We have regained control of the ship, please hold your fire.”

Another explosion hit, shaking them so violently Chase was certain the ship had been split in two. “But we're not firing on Storros anymore!” cried Parker. “
Destrier
, hold your fire!” He looked back at the others, his face frozen in terror. “I made the connection—why aren't they answering me?”

“Because they don't care, Parker!” shouted Asa. “They're just here to destroy the ship! We have to leave!”

This was it. This was the trap Chase had feared. Maybe it hadn't been set for them, not originally, but someone in the Fleet had seen the opportunity and placed the
Kuyddestor
in a position where it could not escape defeat. The
Destrier
's attack had nothing to do with saving Storros.

This was about destroying the
Kuyddestor
.

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Another explosion hit the ship, and a sound of groaning metal followed, ringing through the framework from somewhere above them. Parker opened another screen on the communication console, but Asa yanked him away from it. “We're leaving now!”

“Just let me try once more on a public distress band!” shouted Parker, struggling against him. “If the Fleet won't listen, someone else will hear us. We have to try!”

But Asa kept a solid grip on Parker's arm, and Mina had both girls waiting by the doorframe already. With his other hand, Asa took Chase's arm and pulled them toward the hall.

Parker turned to Chase, his expression frantic. “Please.”

With a nod, Chase yanked his arm free and dashed back to the console, hitting the send button the way he'd seen Parker do. “This is an SOS, is anyone out there? This is the IFF
Kuyddestor
and we've regained control of the ship, but we're under attack by the
Destrier
. Please, somebody help!”

Asa came charging back, brutally yanking Parker along with him. “The ship is lost, Chase,” he snarled. “Stop this idiocy and come with us now before it's too late! Do you want to watch your sister die here?”

Lilli stood in the doorframe looking frightened out of her wits, her wrist locked in Mina's hand. Analora was there too, tears running down her face.

Asa was right; they had to leave. Chase rose and walked out of the engine room, apologizing in his head to all the crew of the
Kuyddestor
who were being left behind to their deaths as he walked down the hall. The captain, Forquera, Dr. Bishallany, even Maurus … He stopped and covered his face with his hands, feeling dizzy and sick at the thought.

A voice crackled incoherently back in the engine room, echoing off the walls to reach them. Chase looked up, locked eyes with Parker, and knew he was thinking the same thing.
No more explosions …

With a roar, Parker wrenched free of Asa and ran back to the engine room, Chase right beside him. A trim, hammer-jawed man with silver hair had appeared on the comm screen. “Hello, is anyone there?
Kuyddestor
, please respond.”

Parker hit the send button. “Who is this?”

“This is Admiral Peter Shaw of the IFF
Atreus
. What in blazes is going on over there?”