Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi (27 page)

“Arm the remaining nukes,” she ordered, her voice quavering. “Target Cenar’s primary reactor clusters. We’ve got our people out and the other prisoners have escaped. Let’s blow the whole fucking place sky high." She took a breath. "Then plot a course out of here, Mister Dao, and step on it.”

Kamal leaned in close to her, his hand still resting on her shoulder. “Captain, we don’t know if everyone got away. Some of those may be our people, or other species, or those too sick or hurt to move, or any number of things. Destroying this facility isn’t part of our mission.
We don’t have
to do it, and perhaps we should’t. If we leave now, perhaps we can come back, we can strike again—”

“Our ‘go anywhere’ jump drive is gone,” she reminded him, squeezing her hand into a fist so tight her nails dragged against the palm of her skin, scratching it until it drew blood. “We relied on that and the advantage of surprise. If we leave now, they’ll rebuild—better and stronger than before. But now they’re weakened. They’re
exposed
. If we capitalize on this, we can destroy this godforsaken place and make sure nobody is harmed by it ever
again.”

She wouldn’t cry. She forced herself, somehow, to not cry, her voice coming out as a choked whimper. “I won’t have James die for nothing.”

With their strike craft in formation, the
Tehran
and the
Hirakan
making their way towards the jump point and freedom, and alien ships of all descriptions breaking free of their moorings and flying off in all directions, the
TFR Beijing
launched the last of its missiles, striking at the centre of Cenar and igniting its primary power reactors. As the
Triumph
-
class vessel sped away with a sizable Toralii fleet in screaming hot pursuit of all of them, the centuries-old fortress of Cenar was enveloped from within by a bright, impossibly white light and utterly obliterated.

Chapter XII

“
Beyond the Impossible”

Operations

Liao watched the station explode with a sense of finality. It was done, and there was nothing to do but focus on the business of escaping.

She would soon have a child to care for, after all, who would die with her if they didn’t make it. That was a motivating thought, something to break her out of her stunned grief. There would be time enough for tears, but the moment called for action.

Liao looked her XO in the eyes, her tone hardening, the weakness in her voice stripped away by the reality of their situation. “Commander Iraj.”

The Iranian man released her shoulder, his gaze meeting hers and holding firm. “Captain.”

Liao took a breath. “Coordinate with the
Sydney
. We’re going to be coming in hot, and we don’t have a jump drive. We’re going to need some cover as we approach and while we dock and transfer the crew. Verify the integrity of the scuttling charges and prepare to evacuate the ship when we arrive.”

Recognising the gravity of her order, Kamal gave a slow nod. “Right away, Captain.” He stepped over to Jiang’s console, speaking to her in hushed tones.

Liao watched them for a moment, then turned her head to Dao.

“Lieutenant Dao, time to arrive at the rendezvous?”

“Eight minutes, Captain.”

She frowned. “Eight minutes? It was six minutes two minutes ago.”

“Aye, Captain. The
Hirakan
is not accelerating as fast as our ships—they are falling behind. This is probably a result of the significant mass difference between us.”

Liao gritted her teeth. “Slow our acceleration to match. We’re a
fleet
, dammit, and we’re going to stay with them as long as possible. I don’t want to give the impression we’re leaving them to die.” She gestured to the long-range communications headset. “In fact, let me talk to them.”

Hsin nodded and patched in the two ships. “Channel open, Captain.”

Liao touched the talk key. “
Beijing
to
Hirakan
, this is
Beijing
actual. Report.”

The sound that came back was a combination of a guttural roar and a snarl, but it was clearly Garn’s voice. [“What in the almighty stars art thou doing,
Captain
? Art thou trying to steal our glory?”]

Liao blinked in confusion. “Steal your glory?” Realization dawned. “You’re
deliberately
slowing down to let them catch you?”

[“Nay, not quite deliberately,”] the Kel-Voranian man admitted. [“The starboard section of our ship has experienced a significant breach–I believe it is due to starting our reactors too rapidly–and I doubt it will be able to jump.
We are in the process of abandoning that section, with the remains of my crew transferring to the port side.”] He roared triumphantly into whatever passed for his microphone. [“Still, this is a welcome development. Our beam arrays will roast the Toralii dogs alive, and we shall bathe in their blood!”]

Liao pressed the talk key, her tone dry. “Why don’t we save the blood-bathing until we’re all safe, mmm?”

[“Bah, those art not the words of a true warrior! What kind of soldier would I be if I were to avoid honourable death fighting hated enemies?”]

“One who can live to fight another day?” she suggested, and then a thought struck–sudden and powerful, like a punch to the head. “Garn. The starboard side of your ship—how badly damaged is it?”

[“So badly we are abandoning it, Captain. That should tell you everything thou need to know, I would have thought.”]

She shook her head. “No, I mean, you mentioned your ship had multiple redundant systems, are any of your reactors still online? And does your jump drive still work?”

There was a pause as, presumably, the Kel-Voranian man consulted his systems. [“The voidwarp device is functional,”] he admitted, [“along with the attached reactor. What good will that
do?”] His tone grew ominous. [“I’m not
using it to escape, if that’s what thou art implying.”]

“Nothing of the sort,” she admitted. “I promise. I was curious–you said it has an
attached
reactor?”

Garn’s voice betrayed his confusion. [“Yes
?
The whole system is designed to be extracted at a moment’s notice, in case the other hull needs it. Why?”]

“Well, Garn, our jump drive is currently–uhh–
offline
. I was wondering if we could borrow
the one from your starboard section, especially if you’re just going to throw it away?”

He gave a low chuckle through the communications line, and Liao could almost picture his scaled and menacing form shaking his head. [“Captain, I hath already promised thee that I would burn in thy service, so I hardly think thou shouldst need to ask
to borrow a piece of technology that I am prepared to discard.”]

Liao bit her tongue, wincing as she tried to explain to the Kel-Voranian man the next part of her plan. “Understood, and that’s very welcome news, but transferring the reactor core and jump drive over will take some time, I imagine. I doubt we can last that long without your vessel covering us, so I need you to hold off on your—” she almost said suicidal, but caught herself. The Ken-Voran had strong opinions on the subject. “
Heroic
last stand until we can get the device inside our ship.”

[“I’m unsure we’ll have time to move the whole assembly into your ship before the Toralii dogs arrive, Captain.”]

Liao was thinking the same thing. “What if we just bolt it to the side and jump? If it has its own self-contained power source, so I’d guess it doesn’t need to be
inside
to work.”

Summer spoke over her. “Captain, that is beyond the impossible. You realize that, right? Right?
You’re suggesting that we take a possibly damaged alien jump drive that we have absolutely no idea how to operate, provided by people we just met,
and just attach
it to the outer hull of the ship in the middle of a
pitched battle
?
All the while having no idea if, at any stage, the whole thing is just going to blow us all to atoms?”

Liao gave the engineer a cocky grin, moving over to Rowe’s console. “That’s basically the gist of the plan, yes. Thank you, Summer. Now, if I give you whatever manpower resources you need and enough spacesuits to go around, do you think you can do it?”

Summer balked, then made a weird half-strangled noise in the back of her throat. “You want
me
to do it? You want
me
to bolt that damn thing to the hull?”

“It has to be outside the ship, Summer, and I’m going to need your skill to make it work.”

Although she was a civilian, Liao could still order Summer to do it. But Liao had learned that the redhead worked best when she was doing things her
way.

Rowe looked understandably reluctant, so Liao tried a different approach. “I mean, could you imagine the look on Alex’s face when he hears about your thrilling heroics?”

Liao could see Rowe was still hesitant. She leaned over the redhead’s console, giving a low chuckle. “And, of course, there’s the fact that if you don’t, he and all of us will probably die. Just something to think about.”

“You should have led with that one,” Rowe snorted, groaning and easing herself out of her chair. “Gimme a suit and fifteen minutes. If I die, I hate you all and blame you for everything.”

“Noted,” Liao said, giving Summer a playful clap on the shoulder as she left.

Liao pulled out her radio. “Captain Liao to Saara.
Please report to Operations.”

She had instructed the Toralii pilot to remain in the hangar bay in
case her ability to speak Toralii was needed by the Marine boarding parties, but Liao was glad that it had not been. Now she had someone to cover Rowe’s position at the engineering console.

She had other engineers, yes, but Saara was different; she was more familiar with alien technology because she was Toralii. Summer was different because, well, because she was Summer.

[“Of course, Captain. I will be with you momentarily.”]

“Thank you.”

Liao moved back to the command console, closing her eyes, inhaling, and slowly letting the breath out in one long motion.

“Okay. Round the room. Mister Dao, how far are we away from the jump point?"

The blue-eyed Tibetan man looked up. “Four minutes, Captain. We’ve nearly completed our deceleration.
The
Tehran
has kept pace with us the whole way, and the
Sydney
is standing by for fire missions.”

Liao found she was building a new respect for the crew of the
Tehran
. They’d
been prisoners only a half-hour ago–tortured, abused, and starved,
according to the reports that had already begun to filter their way to her–but they had responded to the call of duty admirably. While the badly damaged
Tehran
would not be able to contribute much to the coming battle, for now they were far from a burden.

If they survived, Liao would pin a medal on every last one of the surviving crew’s chests.

“Good. How long until the Toralii vessels have us in weapons range?”

“Approximately ten minutes, Captain, but possibly less. They’re decelerating beyond the halfway point, which suggests they’re planning to overshoot slightly.”

“Let’s be gone before they get here.” She looked expectantly at the tactical console. “Mister Jiang, tactical report.”

Jiang twisted in her seat, glancing over her shoulder. “All five Broadswords are currently in formation with us, Captain. Four have reported in; the
Archangel
has a damaged radio and is silent, but otherwise combat effective. Strike craft are ready to launch once again.”

Liao nodded. “Good. When we’re in the jump point, launch ‘em. Be prepared to retrieve them at a moment’s notice, though—combat landings.”

Her gaze turned to Hsin. “Communications?”

“Our targeting computers are linked with the ones from the
Sydney
.
We can commence coordinated barrages to try to dissuade the Toralii from coming in so fast.”

Liao grinned crookedly. “That’s what I like to hear. Hit them with whatever we have.
Try to cripple one of their ships if possible; the more we stop out there, the less we have to fight when we’re trying to jump.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “Mister Ling, coordinate with the
Sydney
. I want our rounds to fly right down their throats.”

“I was going to aim for the eyes, ma’am.”

“Also good. There are five of them, but we’ll do what we can.”

She felt a wild surge of adrenaline course through her as she contemplated their situation. Cenar was gone, almost certainly taking James with it, and now she had five Toralii cruisers heading directly for her. If their insane plan to borrow the
Hirakan’s
jump drive didn’t work, or if there was even the slightest delay, the three Human ships and their Kel-Voranian allies would be swiftly and sharply annihilated.

In Liao's first battle with a Toralii cruiser her enemies had boarded the
Beijing
despite having the tactical advantage in space. Saara explained that this was because the Toralii wanted to take them alive–as slaves, they now knew–but after what Liao had just done to Cenar, she fully expected that such a measure would not be taken this time.

The Toralii Alliance was out for blood, and she knew nothing less than their blasted, frozen bodies floating in space would satisfy them.

“How long until the
Hirakan
arrives and jettisons their starboard-side jump drive?”

“Four minutes, Captain. They should be pulling up right beside us.”

Liao did some swift mental calculations. “That’s not going to give us much time to rig the thing up. We’re probably going to be in weapons range for a minute or so, at least. Can we hold out that long against five of them?”

Jiang nodded. “The
Sydney
and the
Beijing
, certainly. We don’t know enough about the Kel-Voran to know for certain what their capabilities are, but I can guess well enough. They’ll be fine.”

“Good. Get the
Tehran
to jump as soon as they’re ready.
With their ship and crew in that state, I want them safe as soon as possible. Mister Hsin, signal Commander Sabeen and tell her to jump away.”