Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (88 page)

              He allowed himself a small smile.  “An excellent choice.  All right, everyone look sharp.  Blaavis, Usten, you’re with me.  The rest of you, hold tight.”  The two indicated soldiers turned toward him, their weapons trained on the hatch.  A second later it slid open.  Glacis and his two fellows rushed inside. 

              The workers inside had risen up from their consoles, hands raised, terror on all of their faces.  Except one.  One woman was still seated at a console, and signed off from whatever she was doing. 

              “Get up!” Glacis demanded, walking over and showing his rifle in her face.

              She swallowed hard, her face pale, and raised her hands.  But darting her hand out, she slammed down on a large black button and all the computer displays changed from active screens to displaying the word “lockdown” in blood red lettering.  She turned back to face him, with a look of smug triumph and without a word, Glacis smashed his rifle butt into her face.  The woman crashed to the deck, after first bouncing off the control console and thrashed there as blood fountained from her face. 

              “You’re a fool,” he told her, as she thrashed in pain, clamping a hand over her broken jaw and shattered teeth.  “A stupid fool.”  He gestured to one of his men.  “Blaavis, get on it.  See what you can do to get around the lockout.”

              “On it, sir,” the man said, pulling out a datapad and connecting it to the console.  Glacis turned away, and saw that Usten had rounded the workers and shoved them against the far hatch of the Operations control compartment.  The control panel to the other hatch was disabled so that they couldn’t escape that way.

              Blaavis was still working on his datapad when Verone called out from the corridor.  “Boss!  The wolf is back, she’s hiding around the corner and keeps popping off shots at us.  Should we hold or pull back?”

              The mercenary commander considered this for just a moment.  “No, pull back, inside with the rest of us.  The control center is large enough to hold us all we’ve got a few hostages that the good wolf won’t want to risk hurting.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              “They’re pulling back!” Corajen noted.  Grabbing her last flash grenade, taken off one of the dead mercs, she leveled the rifle, popped the spoon on the explosive and hurled it down the corridor.  She raced forward and the others were just behind.  She clamped her eyes shut and ducked her head, her ears folding flat against her head, though she knew that this was going to hurt.  She squeezed the trigger firing at what she hoped was the last position the soldiers were in before she closed her eyes, though she could easily hear them just ahead.  One of them shouted something half a second before the grenade went off.

              It felt like a metal plate had slammed her into the top of her head, since she had put her chin down.  A searing pain ripped through her ears and she could feel something trickling out of them.  But she ignored that.  Opening her eyes, she brought the gun around and fired.  With a roar that she knew she couldn’t hear, though she could feel her vocal cords straining, she closed the distance incredibly fast.  She looks of disorientation turned quickly to terror as they recognized the lupusan bearing down on them, weapon firing, and her free hand swiping at them with her claws.

              “Ah!” Glacis cried, wincing and turning away from the grenade.  He clapped a hand to his left ear, which had been on the side of the door.  His right one hurt slightly less but the pain in general was immense.  He turned to face the hatch, and through his squinted and streaming eyes he saw the lupusan tearing the throat out of his lieutenant Verone.  Her own body armor was scratched and torn through in two places, blood was streaming down her arm but in that same instant, two of his other soldiers were gunned down by the two deputies coming up behind their chief.  The others were trying to respond, but it was clear they were completely out of it and their resistance was token at best.

              He raised his weapon, sighted and fired.

              Korqath saw the lupusan take a shot in the neck and spin, then another in a chink in her side armor and she staggered.  Bi’yan screeched and ran forward and the others followed just behind.  The leader of the Aploras staggered a bit as he saw the invincible security chief bleed like the rest of the mortals.  She did manage to tear a chunk out of one of the zheen fighters, ripping through his thorax as though it was made of slushy snow, something that made him wince in empathy.  The pilots and their two security deputies crashed into the fray, shooting wildly.  It was a wonder that the remainder of Chief Nymeria’s didn’t get shot by accident.  His pilots and the Delphon had plenty of enthusiasm, he saw, but he also could see that he would have to increase the amount of time they all spent on the gun range.  Their marksmanship in the cockpit was good, but with a hand weapon or a rifle, it left much to be desired.

              But what they lacked in skill, they made up for in volume.  The soldiers were riddled with bullets and needles and stunner bolts and in a wave of violence they were down.  The others rushed on, into Operations, taking the three soldiers inside prisoner.  They all three were holding up their hands in surrender, their weapons tossed to the deck.  Hukriss had moved forward with Deputies Jenelle and Bi’yan, looking to take care of the wounded Tiyaana.

              But Korqath didn’t go forward so far.  He stopped and knelt by the lupusan’s crumpled form.  She was gasping for breath, blood gurgling in the wound in her throat.  “Medkit!” Korqath bellowed.  An instant later, one of the Delphon pressed one into his hand.  He tore it open, grabbed the vial of Combat Heal and jabbed it into the security chief’s jugular on the unwounded side.  Then he pulled out a patch and slapped it against the wound, the sterile pad bonding with her torn flesh, sealing the wound.  He then set to work on her other injuries. 

              Her strong hand closed weakly over his forearm.  Korqath nodded to her, as he worked to get at the wound in her side.  “Don’t worry, Chief.  You’re going to be fine.  You’ve got some pilots to teach how to shoot.  My people are rubbish at firearms.”

              She gulped a few more times and then her eyes closed and she went limp.  Alarmed, he checked, but she was still breathing.  Her pulse was thready and weak, but she was holding on.  “No, Chief,” he buzzed, “You’ve still got too much work to do.”

              Tamara was slumped in her chair in her closet like cabin when a call from the bridge came through.  “Captain, we have a communication from the Kutok station.  It’s Leader Korqath of Aplora Squadron.”

              She sat bolt upright and cleared her throat.  It had been a few hours of pure agony, waiting for some kind of report from the station.  There had been no response to hails for a long while and other than seeing life form readings moving in various sections, which didn’t really help.  Finally, Tamara retreated from the bridge, going to her cabin to hide her feelings from the rest of the crew. 

              Two more of the crew had died in the boarding.  One of the wounded didn’t survive his wounds and died on the deckplating of the
Kara
a few minutes later, and the fourth died on the surgery table in sickbay and couldn’t be revived.  This whole encounter had been just a catastrophe.  So many dead on the station, so many of those who were trying to board from the freighter that she’d killed.  Why hadn’t she seen it?  Why hadn’t she figured out that the freighter was actually a troop transport? 

              “Put him through,” she ordered, her voice hoarse.  There was a click.  “Mister Korqath?  Report.”

              “Captain Samair?  Oh, good, we got you.”  The zheen pilot sounded somber, something she wasn’t used to hearing from him.  “We have secured the station.  Hostiles accounted for, either dead or captured.”

              Tamara felt a huge knot in her chest loosen.  “Excellent work, Mister Korqath.  Well done.”

              “Thank you, Captain,” he replied, sounding tired.  “We have a number of casualties, mostly in the security division.”  He made a buzzing sound.  “Actually damn near all of them.  There were a
lot
of boarders, Captain.”

              “Can you put Corajen on?” Tamara asked.  “I’d like to get a full report from her.”

              “I’m afraid not, Captain.  The Chief is one of the casualties.”

              Tamara felt her heart turn to ice.  “Corajen’s dead?”

              A pause.  “No ma’am,” he replied.  “She got shot a few times but I managed to take care of the worst of the wounds before the medics got there.  She’s in the infirmary and the doctor is looking after her.”

              “I’ll contact the
Grania Estelle
and see if Doctor Turan can lend a hand.”  Tamara typed in a command and opened a channel to the bridge.  “Wait one.”  Once the bridge responded, she relayed her request which would be transmitted to the big bulk freighter, which thankfully hadn’t departed the system yet.  She also requested a boarding party be sent over to the
Kara
so she could get her ship’s crew back.
  She cut the connection and switched back to the pilot, who was still waiting.  “Now, what’s the status of the systems over there?  Is the station running all right?”

              “Tiyaana got hit in the face by one of the attackers, so she’s in sickbay,” Korqath reported.  “But the rest of the Ops people are handling things for now.  That domak, Hidreth is acting commander in her absence.”

              Tamara nodded, though again, he couldn’t see her.  “Good.  He’s got a good head on his shoulders.  I’ll expect regular reports.”

              Her comm panel beeped and another channel opened, this one on the display in front of her.  “Captain, it’s the bridge.  Sorry to interrupt, but we just got a really big return on our active sensors.”

              “What kind of return?” she demanded.  “We have ships all over this part of the system.”

              “Yes, ma’am, we do, but this one is coming from the direction of the planet,” the Ykzann reported.  “Sensors ID it as a warship and her size and signature indicate it’s the
Leytonstone
.  She’s heading this way.”

              The blood drained from Tamara’s face.  “Korqath, are you still there?”

              The zheen replied instantly.  “Yes, ma’am, I am.”

              “Saddle up.  Get everyone who can fly a fighter strapped into a ship.  And make sure you’re flying with a full fuel and ordnance load.”  She squared her shoulders.  “We have a serious problem coming our way.”

              “Yes, Captain, I heard.  The battlecruiser has come out to play.”

              “Time to intercept, Ykzann?”

              “They’ll be in range of the station within three hours.”

              “You heard him, Korqath,” she ordered.  “Get moving.”  The zheen signed off.  “Get Captain Eamonn back on the line, Ykzann.  Tell him he needs to expedite that boarding party.  We need to get our people back on board but I’m not willing to let that ship just wander off without someone I trust in charge over there.”

              “I’ve already got him, ma’am.”

              “Tamara, what’s going on?” Eamonn asked, his image replacing Ykzann’s on the display.  “George is going crazy over here, saying that the
Leytonstone
is almost on top of us.”

              “He’s right, Vincent,” she replied.  “I need you to get Saiphirelle and a security team along with a few crewmembers you can trust over to the
Kara
and make sure they stay out of trouble.  I need to get my own boarding party off of there and get the
Cavalier
ready for a fight.”

              “You can’t possibly think that a corvette can take on a battlecruiser,” he stated flatly.  “How many times did we have that discussion?”

              “I’ll be bringing as many of the fighters from the station as I can,” she replied.  “We won’t be able to use any of the new Delphon ships Xar and his team built, they haven’t had enough training on them yet.  We’ll just have to make do with what we have.”

              “Saiphirelle’s already moving.  The shuttle will launch in ten minutes.”

              “Thank you, Captain,” Tamara said with relief.  “I know a lot of problems have been going on today, but I think the trouble only just started.  That was just the first wave.”

              “I believe it.”  He looked very worried.  “What should we do once the cruiser gets here?”

              Tamara shook her head.  “Don’t even think about trying to fight them.  Get with Galina on the
Samarkand
.  If things go badly, I want you to get both of those ships away from the station.  Just run.  I don’t know what kind of capabilities that ship has got, but even if her weapons and shields are barely functioning, neither of our ships can have a hope in hell of standing up to them.”

              He squared his shoulders.  “I understand.  Go get them, Moxie.  I’m sorry.” 

              She gave a sad smile.  “So am I, Captain.  Now, get that shuttle moving.  I have things to see to.”  And with a last nod, Tamara cut the connection.