Star Force 12 Demon Star (29 page)

“Great. Standing by. Hansen out.”

I knew how he felt. Helpless, constrained by my orders and the need to get our tiny two-ship squadron back in shape. I wondered how many Raptors Kreel had lost in the battle and when lack of crew would begin to degrade
Stalker
’s effectiveness.

We were being ground down more and more. Just one more battle, I told myself. Then we could rebuild, maybe recruit some Elladans…

And then try to make it home.

“They’re coming,” Galen said.

I consulted the sensor arrays. We’d repaired a few of them, just enough to look around at what was going on out on the surface of this rock.

The dust had cleared, left behind as the rock spun and orbited Ellada. Adjusting the crude instruments, I saw that the enemy ships would be here in a few minutes.

“Galen, use the station’s repeller to get this rock spinning faster.” As a defensive measure, it was best to have the base moving at a higher rate of speed. With luck it would be impossible to land on. Moving around on the base would, however, become more difficult.

“Edging up the rotation—it will take time.”

“Do what you can. Please alter the direction of spin to make the shafts they drilled hard to access.”

“We’ll set up a complex motion that will create two poles at the ends of the axis of rotation,” Galen replied. “I’ll work to adjust those poles to armored areas. That way the current airlocks and breaches will remain under heavy spin.”

I followed that with a model on my screen. Tapping at it, I was soon satisfied.

“Good idea. I’m going to detonate any grenades that swing under the Demon ships as they approach. Kwon, get ready to plant some more. How many do we have?”

“Eleven.”

“Do we have anything else big?”

“Four heavy lasers and four heavy rocket launchers. Those are emplaced to cover the main tunnels.”

“How heavy?”

Kwon shrugged. “Heavy for marines, but nothing that would hurt an armored ship.”

“Okay. Tactical nukes will have to do it. Here they come.”

The lead vessel, a battleship, began firing. Its rolling broadsides dug a dozen shallow trenches in the surface rock. They wised up about two minutes later and began concentrating their firepower onto one spot. A trench appeared in its wake as the station spun gently beneath the concentration of glowing beams. The vaporized rock spewed gas and dust, but the debris dissipated quickly because of the movement of the surface.

The size of the chunks of rock that flew off increased. Centrifugal force grew on our bodies as the station turned faster and faster. The other Demon vessels joined the first, and soon more than thirty lasers blasted at us as they unloaded with their broadsides.

“They don’t seem to be short on fuel, boss,” Kwon said.

“Guess not. Take half a squad with one grenade each and get to airlock six. It’s off the line of their drilling but close enough to plant grenades. Get moving.”

I watched Kwon and his guys move through the base to the airlock. As soon as it had rotated out of sight of the enemy, I told Galen to pop the hatch and sent Kwon out to plant two grenades, separated as widely as possible, just off the predicted line of bombardment.

“You got two minutes to get out, plant those bombs and get back,” I told him.

“No problem, Captain.” He grabbed one grenade and a sidekick Raptor grabbed another. I didn’t bother to argue about him doing it himself.

A few minutes passed, and I began to get antsy.

“Kwon? Drop it and get back,” I insisted.

“The nuke wants to zoom into space. I’m trying to wedge it, but I can’t.”

I realized what he meant. Everything on the spinning surface now wanted to fly upward. “My bad. I should have thought of that before I sent you. Come back in. You can try again in a few minutes.”

Kwon didn’t answer. On camera, I saw his Raptor sidekick turn and bound back toward the airlock, undoubtedly using his suit repeller to stay near the surface, but Kwon stayed where he was as the rotating station carried him inexorably toward the horizon…and the enemy.

“Kwon!”

Still no answer.

“Kwon! They’re going to see you in a few seconds!”

He was standing on the surface. I wasn’t sure how. Maybe he’d found something magnetic to stick his boots to, or he was using repellers for down-force. Widening his stance, he took the grenade he carried by the handle and held it low to the ground near his back foot.

“Kwon! Dammit, man!”

When the Demon ships came into view, he gave a mighty heave and flung the grenade straight toward them. It skimmed along the surface for a moment then, as the station was curved, it left the asteroid and moved to meet the enemy.

As soon as he released the mini-nuke, Kwon turned to leap backward, skimming the ground as he accelerated on his repeller. It took a few seconds for him to overcome the forward motion the ground had imparted, and then he gained distance.

I tore my perception away from him to watch the grenade. The thing must be too small, or maybe it got lost in the clutter of small rocks and gravel constantly cascading off the accelerating station like pinwheel sparks. Seconds ticked by…

I sent the code to blow it as soon as it entered maximum blast radius, afraid that one of the enemy ships would see it and pick it off with a point defense laser. It whited out my vision. When it cleared, several of the Demon vessels showed damage.

They backed up then, which they should have done in the first place, standing off at several miles distance but still close enough to fire lasers with easy accuracy. I guided Kwon back to the open airlock as it came around.

“That was a crazy thing to do,” I told him.

“Yeah, wasn’t it great?”

“If they’d seen you, one ship laser would have left nothing but your boots.”

Kwon only laughed. “Nobody lives forever.”

The Demons resumed their blasting, and now we had nothing that could touch them. “Galen, how long until that trench gets deep enough to hurt?”

After he ran some calculations, the Elladan reported to me with a frown. “In about six hours, the station will begin to come apart from tidal stress due to the damage. I may be able to extend that another two hours by judicious variations in our motion.”

I rubbed my jaw through my faceplate. “I hope they run out of fuel.”

“Hope ain’t a plan, boss. Don’t you always got a plan?” Kwon had been with my dad and me long enough to know that sometimes we didn’t, but never admitted it.

“I do. A piece of one, at least. Just let me think.”

“While you think, I’m gonna sleep, and the Pigs too. Let me know if you need a nap.” Kwon moved to an empty area and lay down on the deck, his suit becoming his bed. I didn’t blame him. We’d been up for more than thirty hours straight, and it was a good time to do it, with nothing but those incessant lasers to threaten us. I noticed two of the Elladans slumped in their chairs as well, and I fought off a wave of sympathetic fatigue.

Stepping out of my suit, I did a few light calisthenics to get my blood pumping and began to pace. What could I do? Assuming Galen got us those eight hours, we were still about two short of when I predicted they would send off their carriers and set up to engage the whales. I sure wished Elladans had shield technology, but even if we’d given it to them when we had first made contact two weeks ago, they wouldn’t have been able to deploy it.

Somehow, I needed to buy us at least two hours, preferably more, as I might be way off in my estimates.

I had no idea how to do it, except by using my ships.

I got back in my suit and was just about to contact them when, finally, I heard a tinny voice in my ear. “Captain Marvin to Cody Riggs.”

“That’s Captain Riggs to you, robot,” I said with an involuntary grin. “Are you monitoring my situation?”

“Yes. My sensor suite is very effective.”

“Then you know we have six to eight hours before the station breaks up, and I have only a few shaky ideas on how to live through it, so if you can think of anything, I’d appreciate your input.”

“You want me to save your life?” he asked.

“Yes, if it’s not too damn much trouble.”

“If I do, I believe a Star Force citation would be in order.”

“You want a medal? I already explained I’m not empowered to give medals, but I can put you in for all sorts of them once we get home. And to do that, I have to be alive.”

Marvin’s voice turned pensive. “Perhaps Lieutenant Commander Hansen will fill out the necessary paperwork if you don’t survive…”

“Hansen hates you, Marvin.”

“I consider ‘hate’ to be a strong, often offensive term—”

My voice rose. He was getting to me. “Marvin, with the possible exception of Hoon and me,
nobody
likes you. If you want to be appreciated, you need to keep helping, and maybe display some emulation of positive human emotion, such as empathy for your fellow Star Force personnel. Being an officer isn’t about making rank, it’s about stepping up and contributing, even if you’re faking the feeling behind your actions.”

“I thought faking is akin to lying, which is usually perceived negatively. Also, I have contributed many positive things to this expedition.”

“And negative things too, Marvin. As far as I’m concerned, you’re not even out of the hole you dug by getting Valiant’s original officers eaten.”

“My intentions were good,” he said after a moment’s hesitation.

“Welcome to the road to hell, Marvin.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Look up the reference in your database.”

A pause. “I see. So how many positive acts do I need to perform before I am ‘out of the hole’?”

“A bunch, Marvin. A whole big, frigging bunch. Now get on it, would you?”

“Roger. Captain Marvin out.”

I couldn’t tell from those few words whether Marvin was motivated or pissed off. He was a machine, after all.

“God, I need some sleep,” I said, rubbing my face. I caught Galen and Cybele staring at me. “Okay, I could have handled that better. But it’s Marvin.”

Galen looked dismissive. He didn’t know who Marvin was. Cybele smiled, and that smile that made my loins twitch. My body had a mind of its own. Damn, I needed to get laid, too, which meant I had get back to
Valiant
and Adrienne soon.

A headache pounded behind my eyes, so I dialed up a stim and a painkiller.

The rumbling and groaning of the station didn’t help. It was a spinning lumpy ball four hundred yards across and largely made of rock. The asteroid was under two dramatic stresses. The repeller that Galen used to constantly vary its motion and the massed laser fire from the demons. Chunks of it kept breaking off and flying away into space.

I’d be pleasantly amazed if this rock held together as long as we’d estimated.

-24-

Six hours later, things were becoming grim.

The laser-bombardment had never even paused. All my hopes and dreams they’d run out of power were fruitless. Whatever these Demon ships were made of, it seemed like they had limitless firepower.

Our once-spherical battle station looked more like a starfish with extra limbs. They’d dug holes so deep they weren’t holes anymore—they were more like chasms.

The fortress’ main sector tunnels now protruded like hundred-yard high towers beyond the remaining rock surface, and many of the subterranean structures stood exposed. The external walls of the cargo bays, for example, showed like half-buried domes, many of them ruptured by the lasers as they continued their relentless cutting and drilling. I had Kwon pull everything and everyone back to the central area.

“It’s time to make some hard calls, troops,” I said to everyone crowded inside the command center. I didn’t expect to hear anything from the stoic Raptors, but I figured it was nice to include them as I laid out our doom.

Turning to Galen, I asked the question in my mind without hesitation. “How long until they fry us?”

“Approximately one hour. If we get inside the armored vault, we may last another hour.”

“But if we do that, we’ll be worms in a can with no options.”

“Yes.”

“Forget the vault. Have you made any changes in your estimate of their carriers’ optimum departure time?”

Galen shook his head, which wobbled a little as if it was full of jelly. I’d become familiar with these small variations from the human norm over time. Really, their disguise, or whatever it was, could only be impressive if you didn’t look at it too closely.

“The math has not changed,” he said.

“I see two possibilities then. We can abandon the station and try to sneak away to be picked up later, hoping they don’t see us. Or,
Valiant
and
Stalker
can launch an all-out attack on these six ships and try to swoop in and rescue us.”

Kwon threw his big paw in the air. I pointed to him.

“How ‘bout we use the surfboards to escape? Fly toward
Valiant
until they can pick us up later.”

Galen cleared his throat. “I believe remaining here is the wiser course. They may break off early. In that case, these riskier plans would be counterproductive.”

“But soon we’ll be out of options,” I pointed out.

Kwon jumped in again, sounding angry. “Riggs, there’s no way I want to die in here, smelling this chicken’s guts as they fry him. Let me try my plan. Sure, I’ll probably die—but at least it will be in open space, doing something.”

I listened to him and nodded thoughtfully. “So we’re pretty much down to two choices. Risk everything now with a low probability of survival, or wait for the end with a zero likelihood of survival.”

Everyone stared at me, wondering what I would do. Except for Kwon, that is. He gave me a knowing grin.

“We’re going to take a chance,” I said with certainty. “We’re going to escape this trap. I like Kwon’s plan. The odds are good that a few of us will slip away in the confusion.”

“Shit-yeah!” Kwon said.

Galen looked sick.

“Galen,” I ordered, “crank the fortress’ rate of spin up to maximum. I want this base twirling like a puke-inducing amusement park ride. We’re going to need all the velocity we can get when we go.”