Voyage of the Sanguine Shadow 1: Shadow Galactic (25 page)

The crew burst into cheers and applause.

In time, they fell to quiet chatter as they
dispersed to man their stations.

Dryden lingered and called Zerki, Valerie and
Gavin to his side.  “Good luck, all of you.”  He released a steady breath.  “I
mean to congratulate you personally upon your return.”  With a snappy salute,
he crossed the cargo hold to the bulkhead at the far end and disappeared beyond
it.

“
But if
the vision is strong enough, and your goals are steady, and you believe, pretty
soon you bring other people with you.
” –Mike Rounds

Gavin sat inside the
starboard shuttle hangar, dressed in his black uniform.  He stared absently at
the shower of sparks raining down from the transport as a flight crew performed
basic maintenance.  Below him, the heavy plastic crate on which he rested began
to bite into his legs, and he shifted his weight.  It had little effect.

He heard Valerie say, “There you are.  I’ve been
looking everywhere for you.”

Without facing her, he asked, “Oh?  You couldn’t
just sense where I was?”

“I can, but I can’t find my way around this
place.”  She heaved against another crate, but it hardly moved at all.  Huffing
and puffing, she strained against its weight, but only budged it slightly. 
Winded, she stood straight with arms akimbo and shook her head.  Turning about,
she stepped to Gavin’s seat and plopped down on the deck, rubbing her hands. 
“Anyway, I’m glad I found you.”  She took off her cap and set it down in her
lap, letting her pink hair tumble free.

He smiled distantly and looked her way.  “Are we
still fighting?”

She shook her head.  “Definitely not.”

“That’s good,” he muttered, and he slid down off
the crate to join her on the deck.  “We’re almost there.  Another few hours,
and all hell breaks loose, according to Admiral Decker.  I don’t think I’m
ready for it.”

“Why’s that?”

He leaned back against the crate.  “I mean, I
don’t think I’ll ever be ready for it.  Do you know what they want me to do? 
Did they ever tell you?”

Solemnly, she nodded.  “I know.  They didn’t tell
me, but I know.”  She reached for his hand and slid her fingers into his.  “If
there was any other way, I’m sure someone would’ve thought of it by now.”  She
kissed his hand, and her lips lingered upon his skin.

Dryly, he laughed.  “I’m sure there’s another way,
and I’m sure someone’s thought of it, but this is what we do.  We kill, and we
don’t stop killing until we’ve conquered.  And then we just keep on killing.” 
He closed his eyes, tilting his head back as he wrapped his other hand around
hers.  “What’s going to happen to me when the ithirals are gone?”

“A long and glorious career with the Union Navy
Star Fleet, right?”  She squinted playfully.  “Isn’t that what always you
wanted?”

He opened his eyes and leaned forward. 
“Definitely not.”

She gazed upon him, rubbing her thumb over his
knuckles.  “You don’t want to be the sabre they rattle?”

“I really don’t!  It makes me sick to my stomach
to think of all the lives that’ll be lost.  I accept that it has to be done to
buy our survival, but you saw those people on the
Draconian
!  They
weren’t that different from us.  Men and women with lives and… photo albums,
and chess boards.”  His shoulders sagged.  “Half a million of them on each of
those battle stations.”

She traced his cheeks and jaw with her
fingertips.  “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” he whispered, and he rested his forehead
against hers.  She embraced him, holding him close.

“Aren’t you supposed to be planning an attack?” he
teased, pulling away, and he gazed into her ice blue eyes.

“Attack’s planned.  My team’s hanging out in the
mess hall, doing their best not to think about what’s right around the corner.” 
She tugged on one of his epaulettes.  “Some of the guys are a little bitter
about me being appointed to the rank of officer, but they’re getting used to me. 
I try to salute when I’m supposed to, stand straight when I’m supposed to, and
that helps.”

He kissed the tip of her nose.  “You’re amazing,
you know that?”

She stole a quick kiss upon his lips.  “Yeah, I
know.”  Valerie pushed away and stood up tall.  “I better get back to my team. 
I just wanted to see you again, in case I don’t get another chance.”

Slowly, Gavin got to his feet.  “You’re secretly
an optimist.  You can’t hide it from everyone, you know.”

Valerie beamed.  “Maybe one day.”  She blew him a
kiss.  “See you after.”

“You know you will.”  He watched her exit the
hangar, vanishing around the corner.  Blowing into his hands, he plopped back
down on the crate and watched the sparks as they rained down upon the deck.  In
time, he found his way to his quarters.

He inhabited a Spartan chamber, painted black with
yellow trim.  It had a single porthole, a couch, a view screen, a bed, and an
end table.  A tall pane of smoky glass divided the living area from the
bathroom and his closet.  On the first night he spent there, Gavin had
downloaded an image of the
Sanguine Shadow
from the
Wraithfin
’s
starships registry, transferred it to a sheet of LED paper and affixed it to
the wall next to his bed.

With a woeful sigh, he paused briefly before
shedding his uniform and stepping to the far side of the smoky pane.  With a
heavy heart, he stood under the shower and ran steaming hot water over his
body.

·· • ··

Gavin’s door chimed and opened.  He shouted, “I’m
not dressed!”

“My apologies,” said Zerki.  “Gavin, it’s almost
go time.  We need you on the bridge.”

The pipes groaned as he slowly turned off the
water.  “I know.  I’ve been trying to memorize the location of that pulsar.  If
I can pull in the gravity a little ways out from the surface, it should be
enough to disable the ithiral starships without killing everybody aboard.”  He
toweled dry his body, his hair, and lastly his face.

“That’s not what Command wants.  Their science
teams already determined the minimum effective gravity threshold needed to
collapse those battle stations.  If you move it out even a little, that could
give the ithirals enough time to destroy us.”  She crossed her arms.  “Hey, I
can only imagine what you’re dealing with right now, but please—I beg you,
stick to the plan.”

Gavin exhaled deeply, and he hunched as he wrapped
himself.  “You’re right.”  He crossed from behind the smoky pane into view, his
gaze faraway.  “I wish I had more time.  I know I could get it right if I just
had some time to practice.”

Zerki nodded as she brought him his shirt,
undergarments and pants.  “Here,” she said, and she passed him his clothing. 
“Don’t torture yourself with maybes and what-ifs, and don’t doubt yourself or
the righteousness of our cause.  They brought this on themselves.”

“Don’t torture myself?  Stick to the plan?”  He
shook his head, his expression pained.  “Captain, in less than an hour, I’m
going to kill millions of people, partly because I never took the time to
master what I can do.  I had days to practice, and I didn’t do it!”  Clenching
his jaw, he wrung his shirt and hissed, “Why?  Why didn’t I do it?”

She rested her hands reassuringly upon his
shoulders.  “Let it go.  You have to let it go.”

Startling her, Gavin dropped his clothing and
embraced Zerki tightly.  “Did you know that today is Taryn’s birthday?  She’s
nineteen, today.  Did you know that?  I should be back on Afskya, celebrating
it with her and her mom.”  He pulled away.  “But I’m not.  I’m here, and I
didn’t even think about it when we said goodbye!  I didn’t even wish her a happy
birthday.”

Zerki bored into Gavin’s stare with her own. 
“Gavin, I need you to pull yourself together.  Right now.”

He exhaled audibly and nodded.  “I know.  I… I’ll
be fine in a minute.”  He picked up his clothing and eyed the door.  “Be right
out.”

For a moment more, she studied him, and she at
last nodded.  “See you on the bridge.”  She exited his quarters, and he
finished getting ready.

Gavin walked along the
Wraithfin
’s halls
and soon arrived at her command deck.  He stepped through the bulkhead, determined,
and his eyes befell Zerki.  “Captain,” he said and saluted.  Looking to Hull,
he added, “Captain,” and saluted him as well.

“Glad you could join us, Ensign Santiago,” said Hull. 
“We’ll be dropping out of warp shortly.”  Hovering in midair near the bridge’s
main view screen, holographic projectors displayed images of the battle fleet
in motion.  Every bridge station was manned, and he knew Valerie’s team was
waiting within the main cargo bay.

Designated Orion Fleet, a host of capital ships
composed the war group that the
Wraithfin
belonged to.  Nine battleships
moved into close formation.  Six times as long as the corvette, the fleet’s
most massive starships were built around a centerline gravity keel.  It allowed
for twelve main guns to be mounted, six dorsal and six ventral.  They bristled
with ball turrets, and their upper prow sections bore a strong resemblance to
the warships’ maritime predecessors.  Their hulls had been painted gunmetal
with brick red accents.

Three starship carriers accompanied the war fleet. 
Command towers rose high, mounted to starboard crew sections that ran the
length of each starship.  Heavily armored and fully enclosed, expansive fighter
hangars made up the port halves of the carriers.  All three wore coats of
metallic black, trimmed with matte green.

Twelve heavy cruisers drifted closer, forming a
protective crescent around the carriers.  At four times the size of the
Wraithfin
,
they shared little else in common with their Terran-made fleet mates.  Ospyrean
in design, their wide, curved dual hulls were mounted to an ovoid central
weapons array, giving a hawk-like quality to their overall appearance.  Like
other Union starships, they had been painted gunmetal, and they were
distinguished by white and gold accents.

The battle group’s eight light cruisers originated
from the same ospyrean shipyards.  They looked similar to their sister starships
in all respects, save for their central weapons arrays.  Flatter in appearance
and proportionately much longer, the light cruisers’ weapons decks each gave
home to a pair of narrow turrets armed with extended-barrel gauss canons.  They
moved to join the bulk of the fleet, careful not to overlap any warp fields.

Fifty destroyers moved into position beneath the
carriers and cruisers.  They were noticeably shorter from stem to stern, but
otherwise looked similar in design to the battleships.  Missile turrets sprang
from the dorsal and ventral hulls, standing back-to-back with their forward
facing primary gun turrets.  Placed lower and farther out from the missiles and
main guns, secondary gun emplacements remained on standby, and the destroyers
were peppered with ball turrets.

Their numbers were bolstered by thirty-three corvettes. 
Similar in appearance to the
Wraithfin
, they housed all the same
weaponry but benefited from full-time shields.  What they lacked in stealth,
they made up for in armor.

Every one of the capital ships was dressed in
Union badges, their registry designations and their proper names.

One hundred heavy bombers formed up at the rearmost
ranks of the fleet.  Broad, rear-mounted wings reached out from their
fuselages, and tall stabilizers angled outwardly from each of their wingtips. 
They were squat in appearance, their canopies set back from their spade-like
noses.  Three long-barreled fixed guns faced forward, two turrets pointed out
from the flanks, and another turret faced rearward. Behind and above the cockpit,
two massive torpedo turrets rose as high as the stabilizers.

 “Where are the rest of the starships we saw at
Edenbridge?” Gavin quietly asked.  “There were four or five times as many in
harbor.”

Zerki said, “They’ve got their orders.”  She
nodded toward the main view screen.  “Focus on our part of the battle.”

“Right,” he whispered, and he walked to the
tactical station.  It was manned by a brightly-plumed ospyrean giant who nodded
his way as Gavin stepped close.  “Hey,” he muttered, but the ospyrean didn’t
reply.

After reviewing a message from the Orion Fleet
commander, Captain Hull announced ship-wide, “We will be engaging the enemy
directly.  All hands to Battle Stations!  I repeat, all hands to Battle
Stations!”  Klaxons blared throughout the starship.  Fleet captains checked
their synching, and the countdown commenced.

“Here we go,” said Zerki, and she gripped the rail
tightly.

“4… 3… 2… 1…”

The Union war fleet dropped out of warp, and the
ellogon home world raced up to meet them.  Thasad’s thick, cloudy atmosphere
blurred her aquamarine seas and verdant continents.  Scattered throughout her
thermosphere, city-sized vessels glinted, kissed by the light of Thasad’s
yellow sun.  Immediately, a trio of ithiral capital ships moved to engage Orion
Fleet, and her constituent vessels scattered.  At the same time, the Union’s
Hydra, Perseus, Cepheus and Pegasus Fleets dropped out of warp at various
points around the planet.

As one, every stardrome battle station moved,
adrift only for a moment before they formed groups of three and pursued the
Union fleets.  Carriers disgorged their starfighters, and they sped away from
the planet, each at a different angle.  Blue beams began to cut through the
void, tracking fighters as readily as the larger vessels.

The
Wraithfin
’s cloak engaged as she
rocketed toward an ithiral stardrome.  Her helm was blind in that state, but
the navigation computer projected most likely paths of travel for all
surrounding vessels.  When she uncloaked, she was right on top of a spaceborne
metropolis, arriving just as the enormous vessel was bringing its main gun to
bear on the
Puerto Rico
, one of Orion Fleet’s battleships.

Gavin closed his eyes and reached out.  He found
the pulsar, Centaurus X-3, and he found the battle station’s center of
gravity.  He didn’t look as the two points converged across spacetime, but he
heard the gasps as towers folded in on themselves, as entire decks were torn
apart, and he heard the cheers ring up from the bridge crew as the stardrome
imploded utterly and was gone.  His shoulders sagged as the woman manning
active defenses again cloaked the
Wraithfin
.