Beyond Mars Crimson Fleet (50 page)

“OH, GOD!” Richard
shrieked, and franticly he began moving and throwing the pieces off
of Jim’s body and legs while disregarding his own pain.

“Don’t bother,” Jim said
weakly smiling. “I can’t feel them anyway.”

But Richard ignored Jim’s
request, fanatically shoving and moving every object off the trap
man’s body. Only when he threw the last piece into a growing heap
beside them did he stop to rest.

James then coughed a little
as he spat up some more blood, which hit and dripped down the
inside of his visor. Richard then saw the fear in his friend’s
eyes.

“Please—hold me!” pleaded
the dying man.

Richard knelt down and
pulled his friend’s torso up. He then put his good arm tightly
around the man. “What have I done?” Richard realized the price of
what his unthinking actions had rendered to his crew and
ship.

Jim coughed a little more.
“Rich, it wasn’t your fault! You didn’t kill us—they
did!”

Jim paused to get a breath
of air. “You did what you were supposed to do,” his voice became
softer and weaker. “It damn well was a good day! You stopped them
dead in their tracks! And you gave that last big bastard a good
pasting!” he nearly laughed. “He’s not going to make it
home.”

But
Richard was unconcerned about the damage to the
Ruthann
. “Jim, don’t do this to me!
Please, don’t die!” Richard begged as his tired arm cradled his
friend.

“Ruins my day too!” he
smiled painfully. “But you better get out of here now. In a few
minutes, they’re going to finish us off. Blow the hatch. Get to the
pod on the other side. It may be okay. You should be able to get
safely away in time.”

“And what about you?”
Richard asked.

“I’m not going anywhere,”
James accepted his fate. “If you try to move me, I’ll break apart!”
he choked back his torment and suffering.

Richard, however, squared
his jaw and then plopped his butt down next to his friend. “I’m not
leaving you—or my ship!”

Jim grabbed at Richard’s
hand. “Don’t be a fool! Get the hell out here while you can! Don’t
die with us!” he pleaded.

Richard tiredly smiled.
“No,” he stated firmly as he shook his head. “I will not desert my
crew. We all came here together—we’ll all leave here
together!”

And with that, Wakinyan
propped his friend against his own body and held him across the
shoulders with his left arm. He felt Jim’s hand tighten around his
in both fear and in gratitude. The two friends then waited for the
end.

* * * * *

“That’s
far enough!” O’Donald ordered as he eyed the
Crazy Horse
some distance
away.

The
Ruthann
then halted.

“Target that destroyer and
prepare to fire all remaining batteries,” he said
contemptuously.

“By your command,” the hovering computer
responded to its master.

O’Donald’s eyes raked over the
Crazy
Horse
as the
Ruthann’s
laser cannons locked on to
the helpless ship. The muscles around the admiral’s cold ocular
receptors tightened as he licked his lips in anticipation of the
sweet taste of victory and revenge. The Earth officer wanted to
savor the moment for as long as possible while hoping that the
survivors of the Martian destroyer were squirming in the wreak,
knowing they were about to die. So he deliberately dragged out time
until he felt the moment was right. However, he didn’t realize that
he had missed his one and only opportunity to kill his immobile
foe.

As he was about to mouth
the word to “fire” to the hovering computer ball, without warning,
it shorted out and dropped like a rock unto the deck, spewing a
trail of noxious smoke as it fell. It splattered apart with a loud
“crunch” into a flaming mess of metal and plastic. The lights then
flickered ominously on and off several times, while equipment
mysteriously began whirring to a shutdown. And through it all,
strange sounds echoed eerily throughout the bridge from different
directions.

It was then that something
came like a specter, fluttering in and out of the chamber. It
haunted the very air around them in bursts of light and shadow.
They all seen and felt it, a presence that invaded the
ship.

Every cyborg stood up and
nervously looked about, their vision receptors scanning in alarm
for the enigmatic phantom that swelled in strength. Even the
hardened Admiral O’Donald was unnerved by the phantom. He bit his
lip in uneasiness as the specter finally revealed
itself.

“NO!” a woman’s voice
reverberated loudly and ruffled deeply throughout the bridge. “You
will not hurt him!” the voice proclaimed in a menacing and greatly
angered resonance.

Captain Lunda gathered what
the voice meant and made a leap for the weapon’s console. But as
she grabbed the controls, it shorted out in sizzling blue arcs of
electricity that traveled up her arms and into her body. Lunda was
lit in blue neon, as overwhelming pain and electricity drowned her
body. As the smell of burning circuits and flesh permeated the air,
she was frozen, unable even to scream. A second later, the female
cyborg fell over the disabled console quite dead, her body
twitching and smoking.

* * * * *

The
bridge of the
Ariana
was bathed in a weird luminescent glow that was more powerful
than a row of searchlights. It nearly blinded all the crewmen in
the compartment, forcing them to place their visors at the darkest
level settings. Yet, still the light penetrated.

To the Martians serving
aboard the freighter, the source of the light was frightening and
incomprehensible. To mutant starfarers, however, it was not. They
had witnessed the extraordinary power of Tara Nargis times
before.

As her
eyes radiated the entire bridge, Tara’s body was soaked in her own
sweat as she tried to steady herself against a wall. She panted
hard while her chest heaved as she continued to focus her mind on
the
Ruthann
.

“NOW, MARTIN!” Tara yelled
over her microphone as she summoned up the last of her mental
strength.

* * * * *

Aboard
the bridge of the
Ruthann
, the specter had receded back
into the shadows, but it had left death and inoperable control
systems behind.

“Look!” yelled out a cyborg
crewman as he pointed to the viewer.

As the
entire bridge crew turned, they fearfully watched a ship rising
majestically from behind a large meteoroid just in front of the
dreadnought. It was not a warship, but an old freighter with the
name
Ariana
stenciled on her bow. As she gained height, the cyborgs saw
that all of her cargo bay doors were still
opened.

Unexpectedly, about twenty large dark and round objects began
flying out of ship’s bays and headed directly for
Ruthann
.

“MINES!” screamed another
female cyborg recoiling in horror. “ADMIRAL, WHAT DO WE DO?” she
yelled, looking for any reassurance and a chance for
life.

O’Donald, however, was petrified and did not
hear her words. As the mines rushed forward, he was mesmerized by
the vision of the end of both him and his ship.

Seconds
later, the high explosives slammed into the
Ruthann
. Every mine detonated upon
impact, blowing huge holes into the hull that rocked the enormous
ship. The
Ruthann
then became a blazing infernal, a great torch lit from bow to
stern. A minute later, her surviving engine fired-up one last time,
and the Earth dreadnought’s nose dipped downward towards the
cauldron of floating rocks. She then descended in a spiral dive,
where she then vanished into the asteroid field. Disappearing
behind a planetoid, she became a sudden and bright flare among the
floating tombstones.

With the
enemy now vanquished, the
Ariana
then turned and headed towards the
Crazy Horse
. Closing all
of her bay doors, the freighter’s air pumps and oxygen regeneration
units began to work in earnest to restore a breathable atmosphere
to the ship. The wounded surviving mariners of the doomed Martian
destroyer were in desperate need of medical
attention.

* * * * *

The
Mariner
ran out of targets as the Martian fleet quickly decimated the
disorganized rabble that once was the most powerful Earth armada in
existence. As the
Mariner
journeyed through the last embers of the battle,
she gathered to her all available ships and reassembled them for
the final drive. But something was missing, however, and Deputy
Commander Winslow became extremely anxious because of
it.

“How long has it been?”
Winslow asked his new captain for a count.

“It’s
been over fifteen minutes, Sir, since we lost contact with
the
Crazy Horse
,”
Captain Jessica Landorf informed the man. “By Wakinyan’s own
orders, that makes you the Fleet Commander,” the blonde woman
pointed out.

“I know,” Winslow spoke in
a low sad tone.

There was
a long pause as he bowed his head in respect, for he thought
the
Crazy Horse
was
lost. Then slowly, he looked up. His face was filled with both ire
and determination.

Suddenly,
the
Mariner’s
communication’s crewman cried out, “SIR, CRUISER GEMINI
REPORTS THAT REMNANTS OF ENEMY FLEET HAS BROKEN OUT AND ARE MAKING
A RUN FOR IT!”

“Then we end it now!”
Winslow snarled. “BROADCAST TO ALL SHIPS!” he pointed at the
communication’s crewman, “GO TO FLANK SPEED! PURSUE, OVER TAKE, AND
DESTROY!”

And by their new
commander’s mandate, the Martian fleet stormed after the last of
the crimson ships.

* * * * *

The Martians weren’t the
only ones to take notice of the hurried retreat of the Earth
vessels. The Indra perceived that the time of reckoning was now at
hand. In an instant, the alien warship among the Martian transports
winked out into hyperspace.

* * * * *

Out of
the five thousand ships Selena had brought into battle, less than a
fifty now remained. Darius’ own ship, the
Quinton
, was damaged in the worse way.
Although the dreadnought’s main engines were untouched, its jump
engine, however, was wrecked by the last salvos from the
Mir
. Repair teams were
furiously trying to restore them to operational status, but with
every passing second, hope was waning. Without escape to
hyperspace, there was no reprieve from the vengeful Martians that
followed.

Selena
speculated that stragglers with sub-light engine trouble might
provide a convenient rear guard action and slow the Martians down,
but she wasn’t about to count on it. Her plan was clear, the
vestiges of her fleet were to stay with her until the
Quinton’s
jump drive was
restored.

Still
using the asteroid field as cover, the Earth ships sped close to
the tumbling rocks. The field at least provided some concealment
and possible interference, should Selena be forced to order the
last of her rabble to fight while she abandoned them. But she did
not know that the Indra had made
other
arrangements
.

As the crimson ships slowly
pulled away from their Martian pursuers, a pulsing white star
appeared directly in front of the red ships. For a moment, Selena
thought her scanners were malfunctioning, but another one appeared
next to it—and then a third. Selena’s mouth dropped open in horror
as she finally grasped that a large fleet of Indra warships had
just jumped out of hyperspace and were cutting off her
retreat.

“TARGET THOSE SHIPS AND
FIRE!” she howled to her surviving command.

In seconds, the Earth
ships’ weapons bombarded the alien armada, but their fire was
uncoordinated and ineffective. The individual laser bolts were
easily absorbed by the targeted Indra vessels and harmlessly
expelled across their outer skins.

Salvo after salvo was
discharged at the aliens, but to no avail. The Indra ships
withstood the barrage without any losses.

“CEASE FIRE!” Selena saw
that the attack was a waste of effort. “I WANT A WEDGE FORMATION,
RIGHT NOW!” she ranted at the top of her lungs to the computer.
“WE’LL RAM OUR WAY THROUGH!”

But as the Earth Fleet
reformed, the pulsing of the alien vessels quickened and
synchronized. As the Earth fleet closed, their instruments began
registering a strange abnormally.