Skirmishes (17 page)

Neither did the
Shadow
.

Plus with the kind of weaponry this imperial vessel had, it also had to have extremely fine-tuned sensors. It already knew the
Ivoire
and the
Shadow
were here.

“They’re probably noticing us right now,” Coop said. “We can leave before this gets messy.”

Maybe this would convince Boss. A lot of people would die today if she didn’t abandon this plan now.

“What’s messy?” she asked, her voice small.

He felt frustration yet again at her lack of military savvy. “We were prepared for a well-guarded science station that has no exterior defensive capability. We weren’t prepared to meet a battleship.”

“Meaning?” she asked.

He took a deep breath to get his emotions in check. This was a mission. He had to treat it that way. She was.

“Meaning we take it out now, before you go in.” He had warned her that he would be destroying the station. But she probably had hopes everyone could evacuate first.

She stiffened. She clearly wasn’t prepared for a first strike, destroying hundreds of lives without a declaration of war.

“We’d take it out with the full crew on board?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. If she wanted to play this like a mission, then he would treat it that way. Either she ordered the death of hundreds to rescue her friend or she backed out.

Now.

“Are there other options?” She seemed even paler.

He wished he had foreseen this. He wished he had prepared her for it, so they wouldn’t be wasting precious time arguing about it now.

He said, “We try limited strikes, but I don’t know what we’re up against here. That might not be effective.”

“Won’t a full shot on the vessel destroy the landing bay?” she asked “Won’t it hurt the station?”

“We’re here to destroy the station,” Coop said. “It either begins now, or we abort. Attacking that vessel is an act of war.”

“So’s attacking the station,” she said, her voice surprisingly calm. “We’re not going to abort. Do what you need to, Captain.”

And she left the bridge.

Coop stared at the closed door for half a moment, then realized why he was surprised. He’d been having one conversation. She’d been having another.

He thought she cared about the blood that would be on her hands.

She just wanted to make sure the station would remain intact while the assault teams went in to rescue Squishy.

He whirled.

“All right,” he said to his team. “Let’s get to that ship before she gets to us.”

TWENTY-FOUR

THE SHOT WAS TRICKIER than he expected because of the location of the military vessel. Boss had seen something Coop hadn’t initially seen. The imperial battleship was too centrally located. An explosion at the location of that ship would have a strong impact on the structural integrity of the entire station.

Below decks, his fighter ships were gearing up to escort the transports to the station. The same things were happening on the
Shadow
. The launch of the assault teams would happen in less than three minutes.

“Can that ship fire its weapons from its location?” he asked Anita.

Yash responded. “Not without causing the station some damage. However, the station itself does have defensive capability.”

“From everything I see,” Anita said, “its defensive capability is no match for our shields.”

Or their weaponry. But that part went without saying.

“So the ship will launch before firing,” Coop said, maintaining his focus as best he could. He didn’t want to think about Boss getting on one of those transports, then accompanying her team into the station itself.

“It’s already gearing up,” Anita said. “It should separate in less than a minute.”

“The moment it detaches, hit it with all that we have,” Coop said. “I don’t want it to get a shot off, particularly against one of our fighters.”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

Yash didn’t disagree, and she would have if she felt strongly enough. He probably should have made her first officer instead of Kravchenko because he trusted her more than anyone else on this ship. But he also needed Yash in engineering, and he knew she couldn’t do both jobs.

In the situation they were in, he needed a good engineer more than he needed a first officer.

“The ship’s shields are up, sir,” Kravchenko said, as if she knew he was thinking about her.

“Is that going to be an issue?” he asked.

“No, sir. They’re a little stronger than the ones Boss has on the
Two
, but not much.”

He didn’t consider the shields that Boss had on the
Two
worthy of the name, even though he didn’t tell her that. He had asked Yash to reinforce them before Boss took that ship anywhere again.

If she got out of this, that is.

“The battleship’s away, sir,” Kravchenko said.

“Our transports?” he asked.

“Not quite out yet,” Anita said.

“Warn them there will be debris, Kjersti,” he said to Perkins. Then he nodded at Yash and said, “Fire!”

She did. She aimed more weaponry at that battleship than he expected, probably to make sure she got it in one shot.

The weapons streamed toward the ship almost instantaneously. The images on the screens blurred, leaving little afterimages in his eyes. Something moved in one of the station rings—more weaponry, he guessed, targeting the
Ivoire
—but just as he was about to give the order to destroy that as well, the battleship blew up.

It exploded into a million pieces, many of which were large enough to damage his fighters, which had launched just a moment ago. But the fighter pilots were nimble: they avoided everything.

The transports headed into that mess as well, flying like an entire squadron was behind them and space was littered with bombs before them. Maybe, technically, it was. Those pieces could damage anything.

“I saw something aim toward us on the station,” he said, unable to call it up on the sensors.

“Me, too,” Perkins said.

“I think they were aiming at us, but now they’re trying to shoot some of those pieces away from the station,” Kravchenko said. “The station either didn’t have shields or couldn’t put them up in time.”

The damage to the station would be profound.

He almost asked the crew how far Boss had to go to get to Squishy, but he didn’t. He looked it up for himself.

Boss had a good run ahead of her after landing. Longer than he had realized.

He cursed silently, then shook it off. He was doing all he could. He was here, wasn’t he?

“The transports are landing,” Anita said. “Assault teams already on the ground.”

And so they were.

Parts of the station vibrated as pieces of the ship hit it. He could see atmosphere venting into space in other sections, and he prayed that the station had good environmental lock-down procedures.

The part of the station that Boss and the assault teams had entered seemed stable. No vibrations, no venting environment, nothing.

“We have reports of fighting in the station,” Anita said. “We’re making progress.”

She’d reported previous battles for him, and knew he didn’t want a casualty list until everything was finished.

“Time it,” Coop said. “This entire mission shouldn’t take longer than thirty.”

And he knew that these thirty minutes would be the longest of his new life.

TWENTY-FIVE

“THE EVAC NOTICE has started station wide.” This information came from Lynda Rooney on the
Shadow
. She and Coop had been monitoring the situation from their two ships as the transports remained on the research station.

The fighters circled, but so far, no one from the station had shot at them. The station’s weapons had fired on the debris, and then stopped altogether, and Coop didn’t know why.

He assumed it was because his people had shut down the weapons system and had taken control of the entire station, but he didn’t know for certain yet. That wasn’t their mission. Their mission was to get Squishy, guard the exits, start an evacuation, and made sure no scientist left with their research. No evacuee could take information chips or luggage of any kind. If anyone balked, orders were to shoot them. If anyone seemed shifty, orders were to shoot them.

If no one made it off the station before the assault teams, then the entire population of the station would be destroyed.

“You’re listening to that notice?” Coop asked.

“I am too,” Perkins said on his bridge.

“We have the notice, and we have movement inside. I’m told we have two minutes until launch.” That from Lynda. “We also have casualties.”

Apparently she had no qualms about hearing the list during the mission. He knew that there would be casualties among his people. He just didn’t want any. He selfishly hoped that Boss wasn’t among the dead.

“I know,” he said, shutting off that discussion.

He watched the sensors and kept an eye on the screens. The fighters were moving back into position, readying for that moment that the transports lifted off.

His people’s orders were to hit the evacuation alarm as they started to leave the station. So they were on the last part of this mission.

And so far, no other ships had arrived in the area. If there were other battleships in the region, they weren’t close enough to come quickly.

They probably assumed this station was too far inside the secure area for some kind of attack.

Just like that commander had assumed no one had gotten into her sensor blanket around Starbase Kappa. Coop would have thought the Empire would learn that they should retire failed methods.

“Transports launched, sir,” Kravchenko said.

He nodded. If they launched, then the assault teams—or what was left of them—had returned. He would find out soon enough what happened to everyone, who survived and who he lost.

He needed to focus on the rest of this mission.

“Have other ships launched?” he asked.

“Every transport the empire has on the station is launching now,” Anita said. “They don’t seem to have weapons.”

“I see some life pods from areas without emergency bays or nearby ships,” Yash said.

He knew better than to ask how many people remained on the station. He didn’t want to know.

“The minute our transports are on board and the bays are closed, I want that station destroyed,” Coop said.

“Yes, sir,” Anita said.

“Lynda?” he said. “Got that?”

“Copy that, sir,” she said sounding more cheerful than he would have liked. “You still want us to head back first?”

“Yes, I do,” he said. “Fire and then activate your
anacapa
. Get the hell out of here.”

Her pause was long enough for him to sense her disagreement. She had fought him hard on this part of the mission at the briefing. But, in the end, she had listened.

And he knew she would now.

“All of our transports are returning.” Kravchenko looked a little relieved. He had forgotten that this was her first mission as first officer. She must have felt some pressure on that.

“They should dock shortly,” Anita said.

“Good,” he said.

He didn’t ask about Boss. He didn’t scan her transport.

He couldn’t show favoritism, even when she wasn’t part of his crew. He wouldn’t allow that of himself, even though everyone on the crew would understand it.

He sat down in his chair and monitored the screens. He couldn’t see the fighters or his transports. He saw the unwieldy ships the Empire used for transporting people and materiel. He saw some smaller ships as well, probably private ships, moving away from the station as fast as possible. He couldn’t see the life pods, but then he hadn’t magnified any imagery.

“Transports back,” Yash said. “Bays closing.”

“Lynda?” he asked.

“Our ships are back too,” Lynda said. “You ready, Coop?”

“I am,” he said. “Let’s destroy this son of a bitch.”

TWENTY-SIX

LYNDA FIRED FIRST, sending everything she had at that damn station. Then she activated her
anacapa
as per Coop’s instructions and vanished so fast that he couldn’t even tell her she had done a good job.

Her shots hit the station dead center. He had his crew fire as well, hitting the outer rims. He wanted nothing left of this place.

“Make sure it’s destroyed,” he said to Yash.

She nodded.

The crew fired more weaponry than needed. The station bloomed into light as shots hit targets dead on.

“It’s coming apart,” Kravchenko said.

“I want to see it disintegrate,” he said. “Move back just a little.”

The ship moved. He watched as every part of the station shattered. Debris headed like missiles toward his vessel.

“Coop, if we stay longer, we’re in trouble,” Yash said.

“Then get us out of here,” he said as if she were the one delaying.

She hit the
anacapa
drive, and the
Ivoire
shuddered. Then its screens blackened for a moment.

His stomach clenched as he remembered this same feeling just before the
Ivoire
went into foldspace for two long and life-changing weeks. Then he looked at the screens.

He recognized the area of foldspace they were in. It was the same one they’d been in on the way out. He wasn’t sure what that meant—it didn’t always happen that way—but it reassured him.

“I want a casualty report,” he said, getting back to the business of command.