The Guardian (Coranite Chronicles) (10 page)

“I mean, it looks like a small thing but—”

“Shut up and open it!” Kite snarled.

“Okay, okay,” said Berik. “Sheesh. I just thought you’d want to open it.”

Berik placed his hand upon a blue panel at the center of the door. It quickly scanned his hand and flashed red. “Oh, would you look at that? The door won’t open. That’s too bad. I guess we won’t get to see the bridge. I bet there’s nothing important inside anyway.”

“Berik,” said Kite, scowling. “I’m warning you—”

Berik gestured to himself. “You think I’m purposely trying not to open the door? Captain, how could you accuse me of such a thing? Why don’t you go ahead and open it then? See for yourself.”

Kite sighed. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” Kite also placed his hand on the blue panel, but it flashed red for him too. “That’s…odd.”

“See?” said Berik. “The door won’t open. But that didn’t stop you from throwing accusations. Sure, blame Berik for everything! Just because you’re the captain, you think you can just push everyone around. But I’m still human. I still have feelings, you know?”

“Berik,” said Kite.

“Hmm?”

“
Shut
up.”

Berik nodded, pointing to his closed mouth.

“Anyway,” said Kite, “it looks like they restricted access. Something must’ve given them quite a fright—enough for them to seal off the bridge.”

Berik looked over his shoulder, glaring at Vincent, the lizard. He still had suspicions about the Cyzoms. If the A.I. had developed enough intelligence to operate without human supervision, the Cyzoms may be able to lie to humans. It was possible the Cyzoms could’ve killed everyone and now were acting innocent for some ulterior motive.

Kite saw the unwelcoming stares from Berik. Vincent didn’t seem to really care.

Kite searched by the panel and removed a small cover to reveal a simple communications terminal. He pressed the button and spoke into it. “This is Captain Kite Ruthers of the
Protector
-class
Hercules
. I have come in response to your call for help. If there is anyone inside, please answer me.”

Kite released the button and waited a few seconds for a reply. Berik shot a dubious look at Kite. Kite ignored him and pressed the button again.

“Is anyone inside the bridge able to hear my voice? Please respond.”

Everyone quietly stared at the communications terminal. Kite breathed slowly, not allowing the sound of his breath to drown out any possible sudden whispers. He wasn’t sure what to expect. Before, when they had hailed the bridge from the
Hercules
, there was no response. But now, seeing that the door was tightly sealed, he could only hope that the crew on the bridge had survived the ruthless assault from the Guardians.

After a long period of silence, which felt like minutes, Kite shook his head. He turned to Berik and said, “All right, there’s no way we’ll—”

Berik silenced Kite with a wave of his hand. “Listen.”

Kite turned to face the terminal again. He drew his ear closer to the speaker of the terminal and focused deeply on the sound. He swallowed so loudly that even Berik heard it. But Kite soon shrugged and shot a skeptical glance at Berik.

“I don’t hear anything—”

“No,” said Berik. “Listen closer.”

Kite grunted lowly, “We don’t have time for this.”

“Can’t you hear that static?”

“Static? This is a wired terminal, Ensign. There’s not going to be static.”

“But there is!” insisted Berik.

Surely enough, after Kite listened closer, he heard a slight crackle.

The door to the bridge split apart, showing the way to the bridge. Everyone apprehensively gazed upon the open doorway. Kite and Berik raised their guns, carefully watching for any signs of immediate danger. A man tumbled over beside the entrance. Berik continued to keep watch while Kite knelt down and held the dying man in his arms.

Kite examined his own hands and saw blood on his wrists. Then Kite briefly inspected the man’s wounds. There were several tiny punctures in his chest. He was not critically injured but, without medical attention, he had been slowly bleeding to death. The man had lost a lot of blood and was barely able to stay conscious.

The man began, “Guardians…”

Kite nodded. “Yes, we know. We received your message. Guardians attacked you.”

The man shook his head slightly. “Guardians…th-they…” He panted for air before continuing. “Th-they were…fighting to… We didn’t know. It was all…”

“Out with it, man!” Berik shouted impatiently, but Kite turned to him and gave him a reproving scowl. Kite faced the bleeding soldier again and said, “Please tell us.”

“Commodore. We…didn’t…know…” He gasped his last breath and slumped down, his head lolled to one side. Kite closed the man’s eyes and laid the body on the floor.

“Rest in peace,” said Kite.

“What do you think he was trying to say?” asked Berik.

“I don’t know. Maybe it was just gibberish.” Kite went to the central database and inserted a card in the slot. “I’m going to extract as much information as I can. Check the rest of the bodies. See if anyone is still alive.”

Berik saluted. “Yes, sir. Right away.”

Berik began examining the other bodies on the bridge. As he went around, he checked for breathing and pulses. By the time he reached the sixth body, it seemed hopeless. Even if they had not been fatally wounded, they may have ended up like the other soldier. Kite and Berik had arrived too late.

And after reaching the tenth body, Berik did not want to continue examining them. Some of the men and women had been horribly disfigured and dismembered. Berik could not stomach the sight of the massacre. He was a pilot, an ace pilot. For him, wars were fought behind computers and inside cockpits. Battles involved no more than a quick destruction—a fast death for the loser. Out in space, you could not see the faces of your victim or your allies. You could not see their fear, their pain, their wounds or even their torn limbs. But here in this place, he could see everything. Berik couldn’t take it anymore. He clasped his hand over his mouth and threw up in the corner.

Vincent crawled up on Berik’s back and began patting him on the shoulder. “There, there. Let it all out. It’ll feel better.” Berik cleaned off his mouth with the back of his hand, looking confused.

A beep alerted Kite to an open communications channel with his own ship.

“Captain, do you read me?”

Kite replied to the voice. “Yes, I hear you, Lieutenant. What is it?”

“Sir, as you’ve ordered, we’ve had most of the crew watching for objects in space and we’ve spotted several unknowns. They don’t show up on radar and sensors can’t identify.”

Kite broke into a cold sweat. “What do they look like?”

“Little black—I don’t know—eyeballs…I guess.”

“Gargoyles, so soon,” Kite muttered. “Of all the rotten luck.”

“Captain?” The person over the comlink wondered what Kite was mumbling to himself about. “What are your orders?”

Kite shouted, “Launch the spark dust, then fire several rounds of missiles.”

The voice replied, “But we can’t get a lock—”

“Fire blind! Fire and flee to Federation space!”

“Captain, what about you? If we leave now, you won’t—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kite replied darkly. “Get out of here! That’s an order!”

“Yes, sir,” the voice replied. “Good luck, sir.”

Kite disabled the comlink on his suit and took a moment to catch his breath.

“Have you gone crazy?” Berik asked. “Why’d you tell them to leave? What are we supposed to do now?”

“There are gargoyles out there,” said Kite.

“Gargoyles?”

“The gargoyles are the round black ships of the Anarchists. Even though they’re about the size of a Federation fighter, you’d need a fleet of battleships to stand up to a mere handful of gargoyles. The
Hercules
wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“So you’re going to have the
Hercules
run away and come back for us later?”

“Of course not,” said Kite, scoffing. “Are you kidding? The
Hercules
won’t be able to simply outrun them and come back. They’ll have to head all the way back to Federation space to get reinforcements. I don’t think our life support will last that long.”

“Then? What do we do?”

Kite told Berik, “See if you can locate some escape pods. We’ll have to land on a planet and find a way back later.” Berik nodded and walked over to the nearest computer terminal to begin his search.

Kite activated the central hologram projector and set it to display the current situation in space. The hologram immediately depicted the
Hercules
sitting in space. Kite could now watch as the skirmish took place. Several shells of spark dust were rocketed from the tubes on the bottom of the ship. Upon approaching the black objects, the shells exploded into millions of tiny glittering particles. Then, after a few seconds, the spark dust flared up brilliantly, creating a massive white sheet of light that blanketed the black objects in a cascading radiance. The image was so vivid that the bridge was suffused in the blinding glow. The flash forced Kite and Berik to close their eyes. Once the flare had vanished the hologram was no longer showing anything.

“What happened? Are they gone?” Berik watched the holographic projection carefully.

“I don’t know,” said Kite nervously. Kite made adjustments to the hologram, panning frantically around the area where the spark dust had lit up just moments before. “The
Hercules
is gone. They must’ve made the jump. I don’t see any gargoyles either. Now, did you locate the escape pods? Or—”

Boom!
A loud explosion violently jostled the bridge. Losing his balance, Kite toppled over a chair; Berik was thrown back by the force and fell into the wall.

Kite asked, “What just happened? Did a power generator burst?”

Feeling groggy, Berik hopped to his feet and rubbed the fresh bruise on the back of his head. “Let me check.” He accessed the computer and the monitor gave him the reports of damage. Berik said nothing, but gaped at the screen with a dumbfounded expression. He said slowly, “We…we’ve been separated. They cut us off…”

“What? Tell me what happened.”

“The ship’s been severed,” replied Berik. “The bridge isn’t connected with the rest of the ship anymore. We’re standing on a heap of junk…the severed head.”

“How’d that happen?”

“It says we were hit by an unidentified object.”

“A gargoyle must have run straight through,” said Kite. “This changes things. We can’t reach the escape pods.”

“No…we can’t…” Berik mumbled softly, his eyes widening in horror. Staring at the screen, Berik felt a sense of dread rising in his chest. His breaths became short and fast, pulsating his lungs with a rapid beat. He was speechless and motionless for a while; then, when everything had finally sunk in, he fell to his knees and panicked. Screaming unintelligibly, he wrapped his fingers over his head and fell prostrate, slamming his face into the ground. Tears and blood dripped from his red eyes.

Berik shrilled hoarsely, “WE’RE DEAD! WE’RE DEAD! WE CAN’T REACH THE PODS! WE’RE DEAD!” He mumbled, “Why did I ever agree to come on this stupid mission? What was I thinking? This is stupid! I’m just gonna die!” He shouted, “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”

Kite winced from Berik’s startling shouts. “This kid is pathetic.” Kite sighed, walked over to him. “Get up!”

“No!” Berik shouted. “What’s the point? There’s nothing we can do!”

“GET UP!”

“NO!”

“You idiot! Panicking is not going to help!” Kite grabbed Berik and hauled him to his feet. “Listen to me! Listen to me! I have a—”

Berik shook his head. “There’s no point! It’s all over! WE’RE DEAD!”

Kite slugged him across the jaw. Stunned, Berik lay sprawled on the cold hard floor.

“Listen to me,” said Kite. “If you’d just take a moment to think, we might be able to get through this. We haven’t even considered our options yet. You can panic after we’ve made sure there’s absolutely nothing we can do.” Kite extended an open hand. “Okay?”

Berik nodded slowly. He grabbed Kite’s hand and got to his feet.

Berik massaged the pain in his cheek. “Yeah, sorry. Just kind of…lost it. I’m okay now. I’m sorry. I’ll try not to let that happen again.”

“Good,” Kite said. “As I was trying to tell you, we still have one escape route left.”

“We do?”

Kite pointed to a hatch below the holographic projector. “Do you know what that is?”

Berik shook his head.

“It’s the captain’s escape pod. It’s built right into the bridge.” Kite gestured for Berik to follow. “Come on.”

They stumbled down into the cramped area where the pod was located. Kite forcibly pulled the lever to unlock the hatch. The cover of the pod swung open, revealing a small compartment inside. It looked rather cozy inside. The interior was upholstered with plump red cushions and had a single computer screen.

In spite of its rather comfortable look, Berik frowned. “It’s a little tight for the two of us.”