Tundran Space, Standard Year 404 after founding

  “Gray Serpent moving in to attack.” Captain Arden’s voice came in over the speakers of their tiny shuttle.

  “Sicaro here, standing by.” Tony acknowledged. He gave Alanna a brief nod before putting on his helmet, watching her do the same. Their small shuttle was coming in just behind the Grey Serpent, waiting for the big ship to disable the Sarayan station’s sensors before they moved in.

  So easy to simply miss, Alanna thought as the light of battle flashed on their viewscreen. So easy to leave the Sarayan sensors intact and let the Sarayans take care of one annoying little problem. Their small shuttle had no shields to speak of. If the Sarayans saw them coming, they would take out the shuttle with a single shot. But she didn’t think the captain would do it. The draw of disabling Sarayan guns before sending in her crew would be too great. The captain wanted her people safe.

  “Move in now.” Captain Arden’s voice came through again.

  Alanna nodded to Tony as he flew unnoticed past the station’s defenses, positioning the tiny shuttle directly over the Sarayan station and keying the doors to open. Which they didn’t. “Oh hell.” Tony muttered. He planted his magnetized boots as best he could and shoved harder, moving aside slightly to leave room for Alanna to do the same. About ninety tense seconds later, the doors opened enough for them both to slip out, followed by the drones.

  ---

  “Captain, a bomb just went off in the breakroom. And…” Bernard Bernhard’s second in command gestured mutely at the viewscreen, where the Tundran battle cruiser had just come into view.

  Captain Bernhard nodded calmly. “Find Danil and arrest him. Now.” There was only one man on his ship, that he suspected of colluding with the Tundrans and setting a bomb to distract his people during a Tundran attack. And that man, was Danil Kai.

  “Yes, captain.” The other man said automatically. When Captain Bernhard gave an order, it was the only possible response. He hesitated for the briefest of moments before leaving the bridge in the midst of a battle. “Will there be anything else?”

  “Danil must be questioned, Commander. And our time is limited. Aster may yet be of some use.”

  “Understood, captain.”

  ---

  “It’s taking too long.” Tony said. They had fully disabled three turret guns, with three more to go. For the larger Tundran shuttle to go in without taking a hit, they needed at least six guns disabled. And they lost precious time prying open the shuttle doors. Tony knew the captain well enough to realize she would be getting impatient. “I’m going to ask for more time.” He opened the channel, prepared to provide the update… and heard nothing but static.

  “He’s jammed our comms.” Alanna said, her voice barely legible. Even short range comms was barely operational, which was unheard of. Jamming long distance signals was possible. Jamming something at this close range took incredible power. And yet, it was happening. And just like that, the reality that was Bernard Bernhard was upon them. “We don’t have time to disable the other guns, just smash into them as hard as you can!”

  “What?”

  “Smash into them!” Alanna repeated, setting an example. All they could do now was try to shift the gun’s positions far enough to disrupt their aim. Tony backed her, Alanna saw with relief. He always did. Together they shifted three more guns. It would have to be enough. “This way!” Alanna shouted, grabbing his arm in her bulky space suit and pulling him away.

  “Drones!” Tony shouted, scooping up four as best he could before following Alanna. With their comms being jammed, the drones weren’t following his commands, they were a deadweight.

  Alanna grabbed the other two drones and ran. A flash of the Gray Serpent’s guns illuminated the spot where they had just stood, shaking the metal shell of the station under their feet. Hands trembling, Alanna pulled at the hatch she knew was there as the Gray Serpent continued to fire.

  “It’s locked.” Tony said. “Alanna, it’s locked.” He repeated, pressing his helmet to hers to get the signal to come through as clearly as he could.

  Alanna gasped. Code, she thought, ignoring the blaze of fire coming from the Gray Serpent’s guns and trusting the magnetized surface of her boots to keep her from flying off the station and down towards Titan, forever. Code. She knew Captain Cyrus Mace’s code. It seemed an eternity had passed. Would it work? Could she even remember it? She had practiced this once. Letting her fingers remember for her, she entered the code, holding her breath for one long moment.

  It was Tony who saw the slight lift of the hatch against the station’s surface and pushed it upwards, pushing her and the drones into the airlock and shutting the hatch. Alanna smashed the familiar button she knew would open the airlock, dropping them both into the station’s corridor as the metal above twisted and bent behind them, permanently damaged by the Gray Serepent’s attack. Without missing a beat, Tony turned to take out two shocked Sarayans at the other end of the hallway, staring at them as they dropped out of the airlock. “Danil’s not here.” He tried saying. Shaking his head at Alanna’s incomprehensible response, he took off his helmet and dropped it. “Danil’s not here.” He repeated.

  Alanna took off her own helmet and grabbed Tony’s, tossing both into the mangled airlock behind them and removing the most obvious evidence of Tundran presence on the station. The six drones lay in the airlock, still intact but useless unless they found an open channel they could use to send orders to the drones. “Bernard has Danil.” She said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. Bernard had Danil. Bernard was coming for her. He was coming for all of them. Her hands tightened on her gun. “Let him come.” She whispered under her breath, hearing James’s voice in her head. Alanna took a breath, trying not to choke on the stale stench of de-oxygenated, recycled station air. “We need to get Danil.” She said.

  Tony grabbed her by the shoulder and pressed his back against the wall of the corridor, giving him visibility in both directions. There was no cover. “Why?” He asked shortly.

  “They’re not jamming their own comms.” Alanna said. “We need access to their comm channel. You can use it to command the drones.”

  “Don’t you have it? Your access code worked on that door.”

  “No one ever changes those. Tundrans tend to make their own doors, so no one bothers. But the comms channel codes get changed all the time.”

  “How about we get the next Sarayan we see and I get them to cooperate? I could do it in record time.”

  “Danil will be faster.” Alanna said, shaking off his hand and heading down the hallway. “And we need more people. You want to liberate? We’re going to start with the brig.”

  “You think there might be other people in the brig?”

  “Oh yeah, there’ll be other people in the brig.” Alanna said, her voice coming out oddly as she gasped for breath. The air quality was hitting her hard. Was the air on D12 this bad? Whether the people in the brig would be in any condition to help, was another matter entirely.

  “You have your oxygenator on?” Tony asked softly.

  “My what?”

  “Switch around your neck, left hand side. Flip it on.”

  “I have it.” Alanna breathed in, feeling her head clear.

  Tony gestured for her to take the front while he took the rear. “Move.” He said softly.

  They took out six more Sarayans on their way to the brig, but the halls were relatively deserted. So far, no one seemed to be particularly organized or alert. No one knew they were on board. Not yet. The brig was in the lowermost section of the station, furthest from the bridge. With the Tundran battle cruiser within shooting range, most of the crew was on the upper level, manning the battle stations. The ground shook periodically under their feet but as they drew closer to the brig, everything appeared entirely deserted.

  Alanna held out her hand, stopping Tony from continuing to move forward. “It’s just around the corner.” She said softly. “If they arrested Danil, he won’t be alone. Someone will be there to question him.”

  “How do we get in?” Tony asked.

  “Shit.” Alanna muttered under her breath. “Will a grenade do it?”

  “It might.” Tony said with some reluctance. He was thinking of that thirty foot hallway on their way to the bridge. They needed those grenades.

  Alanna nodded, acknowledging his reluctance. “Let’s see if it’s locked first.” She said optimistically. Oddly, she was feeling better. The luxury of oxygenated air was giving her a much needed boost of confidence.

  Tony opened his mouth to point out that no one would be stupid enough to leave the brig unlocked, not even from the outside. And promptly shut it, bringing his gun to bear as the door opened in front of them. There were two guards, and Alanna shot them both before either had time to reach for their guns. “Guard the door.” She said shortly, moving towards Danil. His face was bruised but he appeared to still be intact, unlike the others in the room. Alanna moved to unlock the cuffs from his arms and tossed him a gun from one of the fallen guards.

  “Aster.” Danil gasped, his eyes on one of the other people in the room.

  Alanna turned. She did not recognize Aster. The woman… she thought it was a woman. Her face was gone and she appeared to be trying to scream, but there was no sound. The lurch in her stomach caught her completely by surprise. Alanna retched. And then she threw up, putting her head down just in time.

  “Jesus.” Tony said in disgust, grabbing her by the shoulder. “You watch the door.”

  Tony switched his setting to killing rounds and killed the other five people in the room, then turned and took out the two guards, for good measure. None of the prisoners were in any condition to survive being POWs, and the Tundrans didn’t have the medical supplies to spare. He turned back towards Danil and the other woman in the room, who appeared to be relatively intact apart from her face, to find himself staring into the barrel of Danil’s gun. “Uh. Alanna.” Tony said carefully, his eyes focused on Danil’s gun, and the killing round setting he could see so clearly from the short distance between them.

  “Danil, no!” Alanna ran back into the room, placing herself between Tony and Danil. “No!” She repeated, reaching out without hesitation and turning the barrel of the gun away from herself and Tony. “Put it down, Danil.”

  “He killed them!” Danil yelled, in the harsh voice of a man holding on to sanity by a very thin thread.

  “I would have killed them, Danil.” Alanna said without hesitation. “If you thought about it for half a minute, so would you.”

  “Stay away from Aster. Stay the fuck away from her!”

  “I wasn’t going to kill her.” Tony said over Alanna’s shoulder. “She’s in better condition than the others. And if you give me half a minute, I’ll find the pain meds she desperately needs.”

  “Danil?” Alanna said, her hand still on the barrel of his gun, her eyes searching his. “Danil, I got this. I need you to follow orders. Are you with me?”

  “I…”

  “Danil.” Alanna snapped. “Gun down.”

  “Yes, lieutenant.” Danil said automatically.

  “Lieutenant commander.” Tony corrected him, moving towards the medical supplies. “Alanna, go back and watch the door.”

  “What are you giving her?” Danil’s shaking voice echoed through the room.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Quiet.” Alanna hissed. She was standing in the open doorway to the brig, and she didn’t want to shut it. It would limit her visibility if anyone approached. But the opened door meant their voices carried, potentially attracting unwanted attention.

  “Pain meds and steroids.” Tony’s calm voice responded softly, ignoring the soft, guttural sounds the woman made as he worked.

  “Gun.” Alanna said from the doorway. “No.” She shook her head as Tony came to her side, ready to shoot whatever was coming down the hallway. “Aster, she’s asking for a gun.”

  “Is that such a great idea?” Tony asked, lowering his voice further.

  “Give her the gun.” Alanna said shortly.

  “Yeah well, she’s not shooting you.”

  “No one here is shooting any of us.” Alanna said, raising her voice slightly. “Because we’re all going to take the bridge, shoot Bernard, and put his goddamn head on a spike. Does anyone have any questions? No? I didn’t think so. Give her the gun and move.”

  “You and Danil take the front, Aster and I take the rear.” Tony said shortly, moving in behind her a moment later. “Danil, if Aster can’t keep up, we leave her. If we survive this we can come back and get her later, but now is not the time. Clear?”

  Danil hesitated.

  “Danil.” Alanna snapped. “That is an order.”

  “Clear.” Danil said in a half whisper.

  “We need the code to access station comms.” Alanna said, trying to mask her nervousness about Danil’s mental state. Whatever they needed from the man, best to get it out of him sooner rather than later.

  “Yes.” Danil said vaguely.

  “Now.” Alanna reminded him. And to her eternal relief, Danil read out the code, his voice devoid of any emotion, his eyes glazed.

  “I have it.” Tony said at her back. “The drones are on their way. We move.”

  “We move.” Alanna echoed.

  This time, someone did know they were coming. The ambush was well planned, coming at them from around a corner as they made their way back towards the bridge. Unfortunately for the Sarayans, they didn’t know about the Tundran drones. Alanna took out the first attacker, a perfect headshot as he came at them from behind the corner. The drones took care of the rest.

  “We’re clearing out half the damn crew before Gregory’s team even get here.” Tony said behind her, a degree of satisfaction in his voice. “Good shot.”

  “It’s what I do.” Alanna said.

  “It’s what she does.” Danil echoed unexpectedly.

  “Keep moving.” Alanna said, ignoring the praise. Tony’s words were a reminder that Gregory’s shuttle had likely already landed. Time was short. They needed to take the bridge now, or it would be too late. For all of them.

  ---

  “The boarding shuttle has landed.”

  Bernard nodded in acknowledgement. His second in command was gone, and he was eagerly awaiting the results of Danil’s interrogation. Fortunately, the rest of the crew on the bridge was equally loyal and well trained. “Did we get a hit before they landed?” He asked calmly.

  “Hard to say Captain, they blinded our sensors with the first attack but the short range sensors are back online now. If they pierce our hull, we’ll know it.”

  “Very good. Let me know if anything changes.” He opened a channel to the brig. “Commander, were you able to get anything from Danil?” He asked.

  On the other end of the line, there was only silence.

  “Commander?” Bernard Bernhard repeated. The silence stretched on. His eyes narrowed. Allowing for one more brief pause, he switched on the channel that would send his words across the entire station. “Crew, we may have an incursion near the brig. Danil and anyone with him is to be shot on sight. Shoot to kill.” His eyes turned to the viewscreen as he watched the Tundran battle cruiser pull back, allowing the small boarding shuttle to do the work for them, protecting the all precious ship. Battles were won with ships. Whoever had the most ships won the battle, unless human ingenuity found a way to even the odds. The Tundrans were good at ingenuity. Today they would discover, Sarayans had a few tricks of their own. Quietly, he keyed his own personal code onto his command control console, and loaded a program that would change the course of history. Not just for their Sarayan station and the Tundran battle cruiser, but for the entire solar system. When the time came, all he had to do, was activate. And then he sat back in his chair, waiting. “Any updates on the boarding shuttle?” He asked.

  “Captain, based on the historic temperature scans, there was an explosion on board.”

  “Oh well done lieutenant.” Captain Bernhard said approvingly.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Not that was interesting, Bernard thought. By all appearances, the Tundran shuttle was dead in space, unable to complete the boarding process. “Unload a round from one of the turret guns.” He said. “Technological limitations prevent us from hitting a shuttle once it’s this close to our hull, but we can bring the ammo to them. This battle” he smiled slightly “this battle is far from lost.”

  “Yes, captain!”

  ---

  “That bitch.” Gregory yelled, smashing a fist into the melted door of their boarding shuttle. “That traitorous, insane, bitch. When I get my hands on her I will take her apart piece by tiny piece.”

  “She was nowhere near the shuttle.” One of his men pointed out.

  “Sicaro?” Gregory asked, taking a calming breath as he stared at the melted shuttle door in front of him. “We cut it open carefully, around the edges.” He added, his voice slightly calmer as he looked at the door. “And prepare the supplies to patch the damage. Can’t ruin the shuttle, we may yet need it to get the hell out.”

  “Are we still going in?” Someone asked.

  Gregory paused, staring at the melted doors in front of him in utter frustration. “Comms are still jammed?” He asked.

  “Yeah, nothing’s getting through.”

  “And she was nowhere near the shuttle?”

  His crew nodded. No one had seen Alanna near the shuttle.

  “I saw Sicaro near the shuttle.” One of them volunteered hesitantly.

  “Damn.” Gregory said with a sigh. He didn’t know Tony personally. But he knew his record. He respected the man. Tony Sicaro must have had his reasons, mad as it all seemed to him. And now, traitorous bitch aside, one of their own was on that Sarayan station. There was no way to know what Tony and Alanna had done, or why they had done it. Sicaro may already be dead. But whatever else Alanna might be, she wasn’t stupid. She would go in with a plan. What the hell was her plan? “Let’s get these doors open and ready to patch if we need to.” He said shortly. “We’ll decide what to do once we’re ready.”

  ---

  Alanna breathed in, grateful once again for the supplementary oxygen. That last ambush had been a close one, and the Sarayans were shooting to kill. One of the drones took damage, but the rest of them remained unharmed. And miracle of miracles, Danil had woken up, raised his gun, and done some shooting. More miraculous yet, Aster had done the same. And then they arrived, the turn before the thirty foot corridor leading to the bridge, open in front of them. Alanna paused, looking at her people.

  “I’ll go first.” Danil offered.

  “No.” Tony placed a hand in warning on Alanna’s shoulder, reminding her to keep silent. “She goes first.” He said, nodding towards Aster.

  Danil opened his mouth, his eyes wild, when Aster stepped forward. She placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head slightly, her bloodied face staring back at all of them. Without another word, she picked up her gun and walked towards the opened hallway.

  Alanna’s eyes met Tony’s as Danil went after Aster. He nodded slightly. The drones moved into formation, leaving Alanna and finally Tony, their bodies protected by the dubious shelter of the bodies and drones in front of them.

  “Stop.” Alanna called out. “One more thing I have to do. We go on my mark.”

  Tony’s eyes narrowed in annoyance, but he stopped. Aster and Danil did as well, their empty, hollow eyes looking back at her. Alanna opened the channel Danil provided, letting her voice carry across the Sarayan station. “This is lieutenant commander Alanna Summers, of the Tundran navy. Surrender now. Surrender, or fight for the glory of Bernard Bernhard.”

  “Hey all, if you’re not sure which way to go on this one, leave it on stun and let the winners sort it out.” Tony’s dry voice came after hers, his bemused eyes looking back at her.

  Alanna grinned back at him. She was feeling suddenly, insanely, elated. Today, she was going after Bernard Bernhard. And tomorrow, she was putting his head on a goddamn pike. “Go.” She said. And then they ran.

  Four of the drones went first, flying down the hallway faster than any of them could run, aiming to take out some of the Sarayan crew before the humans were exposed to their fire. Aster followed, and she was the first to fall. But then, she was slowing them down. Danil kept pace, speeding up to make up the difference. When he went down, the last two drones came on, faster still. They went so fast Alanna couldn’t keep up but she ran, gasping in the extra oxygen as it flowed across her face. The grenades came next, shaking the floor under her feet as she ran. Alanna nearly stumbled but recovered her footing just in time. She saw the last two drones go down one by one. The Sarayans on the bridge had good cover while they had none, but the drones must have taken out some before they went down. The rate of shots coming at them slowed down. And then it was her turn. She took out at least two but even so close, it was taking her several shots to shoot them dead. They still had great cover. She kept running. The searing pain in her hip caused her to stumble and this time, she went down. The trembling floors beneath her feet made it harder to regain her footing. She forced herself back up. Putting pressure on her right foot was agony. She ran. She ran until she saw Bernard Bernhard on the bridge, saw him turning towards her in his command chair, saw his gun pointed at her face, his other hand hovering over the control panel. She fired her gun and launched herself at him at the same time, knocking his prone body off the command chair as she fell on top of him, her leg finally and completely giving out. The whole world was pain. Alanna screamed.

  Tony walked onto the bridge and looked around glumly. The screaming went on. “I’m going to shoot you.” He said. And then he did.

  With a sigh, he walked up to the control panel, closed out whatever the hell Bernard had programmed in and opened a channel to the Gray Serpent. “Hi there friends, anyone listening? We’ve done most of the work for you but sure could use some backup.”

  ---

  “The Sarayan station is opening a channel.” Sean called out from the pilot’s chair of the Gray Serpent. They were operating with a skeleton crew. Nearly everyone on the ship was in the boarding shuttle.

  Captain Tanya Arden frowned, puzzled. Based on Alanna’s description of Captain Bernard Bernhard, this was exceedingly out of character. But then, who the hell knew if any of what she said was actually true. She nodded to Sean. “Can’t wait to hear it.” She said, by all appearances completely unbothered by the communication blackout that caused her to lose contact with most of her crew. Gregory was a capable commander. He didn’t need her.

  “Anyone listening? We’ve done most of the work for you but sure could use some backup.”

  Captain Arden’s eyebrows climbed up as, against all expectations, the dry voice of lieutenant commander Tony Sicaro came over the speakers.

  “What the…”

  “She didn’t betray you.” Tony interrupted. “We took the bridge, Captain. She never betrayed you. None of them did.”

  “You have access to their comms channel. Do you have the code for us to access it as well? Send us the code to access their channel or unblock the jammer. Otherwise, I can’t help you.”

  “Shit. Shit. I don’t remember the code.” Tony admitted.

  “Then you’ll have to talk to Gregory all on your own” Captain Arden said sharply. “Now. You need backup, Sicaro. Now.”

  Tony winced, his eyes on the long, thankfully still empty hallway behind the bridge. Damn. With some reluctance, he opened a channel to the Gray Serpent’s boarding shuttle. “Uh, Gregory. The good news is Alanna didn’t betray you. And we have the bridge.”

  “You goddamn son of a bitch.” Gregory’s furious voice came through over the open channel, with regretful clarity. “I will go and rescue your ass now, just so I can testify at your court martial and personally visit your worthless ass in prison for the…”

  “Backup first, bitch me out later.” Tony suggested.

  “We’re on our way.”

  ---

  “It’s your third day without sleep.” Clara said as James leaned on her on his way back to his quarters. She had napped through the surgery but remained exhausted. James hadn’t slept at all. “You’ll start hallucinating soon.” She added.

  “We’re not out of contested space.” James said, his voice sounding hollow.

  “We have three ships. I don’t see Sarayans picking a random fight with three ships on the edge of their territory. You need to sleep.”

  James nodded vaguely, diligently putting one foot in front of the other. The doctor had released him from the medbay following the surgery, his face was back to its normal appearance and his arm was carefully bandaged, to stabilize the artificial skin that replaced the patch of dead black flesh. At least the fever had receded, and he was no longer shaking. They had better antibiotics on the ship, and whatever the doctor had given him was finally helping. Nothing but sleep would help with the exhaustion. Alanna was still on the Sarayan station, with no news. At Tony’s request, he left a message for Tanya Arden. He had to do it during the surgery, leaving the doctor less than pleased. If Tanya Arden received the message, he doubted she would ignore his words. He had made his views clear. But there was no way to know if the message had been received. He hadn’t heard back from anyone. Not Captain Arden, not Tony, and certainly not Alanna.

  ---

  “Captain James Hawk sent me a fairly strongly worded message while you were down there.” Captain Arden noted. It was later in the day, and she had switched from coffee to tea, enjoying the cup of steaming liquid as she looked out over the medbay. Tony had, with the utmost politeness, refused to leave Alanna and come into her office.

  “Yeah, he’s been known to do that.”

  “Of course, quite unnecessary in this case. I wasn’t aware of the sabotage of our shuttle. I had no reason to deny you the backup you requested.”

  “All glory to Captain Bernard Bernhard and his decision to jamm our comms.” Tony said drily.

  “So far, we’ve found no explosives on the Sarayan station.” Captain Arden noted.

  “She believed it, Captain.” Tony said with a shrug. “She believed it and she did what she promised to do. She handed you that station.” He frowned slightly. “And there was something Bernard had on his screen… I saw just a glimpse of it, before exiting the program and reaching out to the Gray Serpent.”

  “We will certainly be asking Bernard all about it. At length.”

  “I hope we get some answers.” Tony said quietly. Perhaps some of Alanna’s fear had infected him, after all. Alanna had been afraid of Bernard Bernhard. And she didn’t spook easily. “It’s good to have the opportunity.” He added, getting back on message. “Not a single death, minimal damage to your ship. And the station is yours. Just like she promised.” Tony picked up his own cup of steaming tea and raised it in a salute. “Victory is all.” He said.

  “Victory is all.” Captain Arden echoed with a slight smile. “And the damage to the shuttle?”

  “A small price to pay for victory, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I would be curious to hear Alanna’s role in that particular endeavor.” The Captain said with a raised eyebrow.

  “None whatsoever.” Tony responded without hesitation.

  “Is that so?”

  “It is so.”

  “And will that be so as a matter of official record, sworn under oath?”

  “You bet.” Tony said with a smile.

  “And your decision to take the bridge?”

  “Initiative in the heat of battle, Captain. The very backbone of the Tundran military, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I would, commander.” Tanya Arden said. “But there is one more thing I’m still curious about.”

  “Hmm.” Tony grunted noncommittally.

  “You see, the drones were supposed to be controlled by me. In fact, I never gave you the access codes to control the drones. And yet, when my crew came onto the bridge, they found six drones that appeared to have been used in the course of your attack. How did that happen, I wonder?”

  Tony shrugged. “You know captain, in the heat of battle, gotta tell you I don’t even recall what the hell happened with the drones. Where’d you find them again?”

  Captain Arden looked at him over the rim of her cup. They both knew that very few people had the access codes necessary to take control of her drones. Sicaro, was not one of those people. Only Captain Hawk’s access codes were high enough to override her commands.

  Tony looked back unflinchingly. “Anything else I can do to help, Captain? While I’m here supporting your crew over my time off? You just let me know.”

  “I’ll be sure to do that.”