The Lost Voyager: A Space Opera Novel (26 page)

The ammo boxes of the four guns in each corner were empty. The laser’s power reading on the dashboard showed it depleted of energy. Mach scanned the scene outside again. It seemed that Felix had been surrounded by thousands of creatures and went down in a blaze of glory, taking out as many as he could before he ran out of ammo and they forced their way in.
 

Mach hoped it had been a quick end. Felix struck him as a decent and genuine man. He looked at Adira and shook his head.
 

She rushed over and climbed inside.
 

“We’re at the vehicle. Felix isn’t here,” Mach said over the comm.
 

“Have you seen Squid Two?” Babcock replied. “We’ve lost contact since speaking with you.”

“We haven’t,” Adira said. “I’ll let you know if we do.”

Mach hit the manual start button and held his breath. The scimitar’s engine roared to life. Its four front headlights stabbed into the dark, brightening the pile of corpses in front of the vehicle and the tree line beyond.

“It’s been a few years since I’ve driven one of these,” he said as he eased both levers forward.
 

The tracks groaned, but the vehicle didn’t move. Mach increased the power, and they jerked forward, grinding over the closest phane bodies. He steered toward the track they initially came down and accelerated, crunching over more dead arachnids until they hit open ground and powered toward a gap in the forest.
 

Adira looked across and smiled. “You look like you enjoyed that.”

“I can’t say it didn’t have a small level of satisfaction,” Mach said. “I suppose you get yours from your new man?”

“Who said it’s a man?”

Mach was about to reply, but he caught a sign of movement through the reinforced windshield. He turned the vehicle right and its beams flashed over the rock-strewn surface. Thousands of small phanes, like the ones carrying eggs in the tunnel, snaked across the land in an extended line.
 

A big slice of revenge was waiting for the phanes if they managed to get clear of the planet and Sanchez set the bomb off, but Mach couldn’t resist getting a small slice now an opportunity presented itself. He thrust both levers toward the head of the phane line, taking them slightly off course, but not significantly.
 

The scimitar’s engines increased in pitch. It surged forward, crushing over small rocks. Adira jerked back in her seat. “Just leave them. We don’t want to attract any attention from the larger ones. You saw Felix’s likely fate.”

Mach remained focused on the ground ahead. “I’m doing this for Felix, and for Sanchez, and goodness knows who else they slaughtered.”

The front of the phane line split and scuttled in multiple directions. The ones behind remained in formation and didn’t have enough time to move. The scimitar’s body vibrated as its tracks squashed hundreds of arachnids into the dirt.
 

Mach turned the APC back on course and they hit the trail back to the bunker.
 

***

Mach maintained the scimitar’s speed as they reached within half a klick of the
Intrepid
. Dense dark forest hugged either side of the trail, but they hadn’t come across any more phanes. During the quiet journey, he thought about Sanchez. The big man would be spending his final moments in a mine, trying to guess if the team had escaped before detonating the bomb.
 

If they collectively pulled it off, Mach promised himself that Sanchez would not be forgotten. Too many brave human and alien freelancers in the Salus Sphere had given their lives, only to be quickly erased from history. The only names that echoed through the centuries were the famous CWDF officers celebrated in the official Sphere history. Most hadn’t achieved half as much as Ernie Sanchez.
 

Babcock and Sereva had boarded the
Intrepid
. The ship was only half a klick away and Tulula had the engines primed, ready for an immediate takeoff. They had fifteen minutes before Sanchez hit the switch. Easily enough time to escape.

“What are you going to say to Tulula?” Adira asked.
 

“A wise old lactern once told me that if I concentrated on accepting responsibility and avoided assigning blame, I’d never have a problem with a crew,” Mach replied. He omitted mentioning that the crazy old alien then attacked him with a sabre and he was forced to kill him.
 

“You’re taking the blame for Sanchez’s decision?”

“If I have to. If she needs somebody to focus her anger on.”

Adira slowly nodded.
 

“How far away are you?” Lassea asked through the comm.

“We’ll be less than a minute,” Mach said. “Do we have a problem?”

“We’ve got twenty problems on the tracking screen. Ten klicks away and closing on our position.”

Mach turned to Adira. “Buckle up.”

He strapped his seatbelt across his chest and thrust both levers fully forward. The scimitar’s engines whined to their maximum. It crashed along the trail, bashing small pieces of rock and fallen trees out of the way. Mach and Adira bounced in their seats and he knew at this speed the APC could easily roll, but they were close enough to risk it.

The top of the
Intrepid
appeared above the trees, set down in the clearing close to the bunker. Mach steered for the airlock side entrance and cut through a thin patch of undergrowth. Vines and plants whipped against the windshield as they plowed through and burst into an open space next to the ship.
 

Adira unbuckled, scrambled back into the cabin, and hauled open the scimitar’s damaged door. Mach immediately followed and glanced up at the clear night sky. Nothing was immediately on top of them, but he realized that might change in the blink of an eye.
 

Intrepid
’s airlock door punched open with a pneumatic hiss. Sereva stepped out in an armored suit and swept a rifle around the surrounding forest.
 

Mach followed Adira past the stern-faced captain and headed straight for the bridge along the ship’s brightly lit white corridors. He checked his countdown timer. Twelve minutes before the bomb was due to detonate.
 

Lassea and Babcock turned in their seats when Mach entered. Tulula remained focused on her controls. He sat in the captain’s chair and gazed at the viewscreens. “What’s the situation?”

“Five klicks and closing in every second,” Lassea said. “Deflector shields raised and weapons ready to fire when they come around the mountains.”

“Break the atmosphere and L-jump,” Mach said. “We’re not hanging around to find out what’s approaching.”

Babcock cleared his throat. Mach looked at him and slowly shook his head. The scientist turned back toward the ion cannon controls and his shoulders slumped.
 

The
Intrepid
’s engines built to a thunderous roar. The ship lifted from the ground and thrust into the dark sky. Mach kept his focus on the tracking and viewscreens. Dim lights appeared over the dark shadow of the mountain range.
 

Lines of static interference fizzed across the tracker.
 

“I can’t get a fix in the dark,” Tulula said. “Their distortion tech’s too good.”

“Fire at the damned lights,” Mach ordered.
 

All four lasers speared toward the mountain. A single ball of fire flashed in the sky. The
Intrepid
continued to ascend and quickly built speed.
 

Nineteen bolts of white energy raced through the darkness toward the ship. Mach gripped the arms of his chair and braced. He knew the shield could take multiple hits and maintain its structure, but this amount was pushing it.
 

Ten of the bolts smashed against the ship’s defenses in quick succession, forcing energy against the side of the
Intrepid
. Mach was rocked around as each bolt battered the shield.
 

“Approaching the atmosphere,” Lassea said. “We need to drop the shields to get through and L-Jump.”

“Wait for it,” Mach said. “A moment too early and we’re toast.”

Tulula continued to return fire and scored another hit.

The chasing phane ships closed to within two klicks and fired a second volley. Energy sources raced across the tracking screen and blasted against the shield, throwing Mach out of his chair. He checked the countdown time showed less than five minutes.
 

“Now!” Mach said.
 

The blue outline disappeared from around the ship on the holocontrols. Lassea increased the power of the fusion motors and the ship vibrated through Noven Alpha’s atmosphere.
 

“They’ve fired again,” Adira shouted. “Evasive.”

Lassea immediately thrust left to change the angle of their ascent.
 

Mach held his breath. The first few bolts zipped underneath. A few shot either side of the ship. Three smashed into its starboard side.
 

Lights flashed on the console. An alarm blared.
 

“We’ve still got structural integrity,” Babcock said. He mopped his brow and peered down at the diagnostic reports streaming across his monitor.
 

“Engaging L-drive,” Lassea said.
 

The phane ships closed to within a click, their dark swallow-like shapes now visible as they pursued in an arrow formation.
 

Multiple energy readings flashed on the tracking screen. Eighteen bolts headed directly for the
Intrepid
’s hull.
 

A split second later the stars in space turned to long white streaks as the ship accelerated to a smooth light cruising speed.
 

Mach puffed his cheeks, slumped back in his chair, and turned to Adira. “Remind me never to go back there again.”

“I don’t think anyone will,” Adira replied, but kept her eyes fixed on the space scanner. “Take a look.”

A huge energy field covered an area five times bigger than the planet. Sanchez had managed to set off the bomb.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Mach lay on a single bunk in the temporary accommodation block of Livia Beta’s capital city. Bright sunshine radiated through cracks in the blinds, creating a uniform pattern on the plain white wall above him. It had been five days since they escaped from Noven Alpha. He had set a course to the closest system in the Salus Sphere and docked at the shipyards of Livia Beta for repairs. They still had another day of waiting around while Tulula worked with the local engineers to patch and tweak the
Intrepid
. Sereva had already left in a company ship, having been given a position on the OreCorp board after all.
 

Mach smiled, thinking the stuffy board members would have their work cut out for them with Sereva. He had briefly considered offering her a position on the
Intrepid
, but there was that small slither of friction between her and Adira that he knew would only turn into a bigger problem down the line—assuming Adira would stay on.
 

No official word had come out yet from the CWDF regarding the detonation, but that was about to change. Rumors already swirled around the Salusnet about what happened outside the frontier in the Noven System.
 

President Morgan’s stern face glared through Mach’s smart-screen. “Are you listening to a word I’ve said?”
 

“Your dirty little secret’s safe with me—on two conditions.”

Morgan frowned and leaned forward. “OreCorp confirmed they paid you. What else do you want from me?”

“I want the slate wiped clean for all of the crew: my fines across the system, Adira’s sentence, everything. If you don’t clear her name, I can’t guarantee what she’ll do.”

Morgan took a quick breath, considered the proposal and waved a hand as though it were nothing. “That can be arranged,” he said, looking unreadable in his stiff dark blue uniform dripping with medals—many of which he had earned alongside Mach in the war. “And your second condition?”

“I’d like somebody to dig into Sanchez’s history. Find out if he has any extended family still alive that he never told me about. We owe it to him to at least let them know what happened and pay them his cut for the mission.”

“That might be difficult. The only records we have on gunrunners are the criminal kind.”

Mach rolled his eyes. “You’re forgetting I’ve got Babcock here. He thinks Beringer’s the best man for the job. Give him a break from his museum research and see what he can dig up.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t give you a firm promise.” Morgan glanced at his wrist. “The press conference starts in five minutes. After that I’ll see to your requirements.”

“Thanks, Qwerty.”

Morgan grimaced. “Don’t push it. You know as well as I that you’ll be needing my help in the not-too-distant future.”

The feed cut. Mach smiled to himself. Morgan’s nickname came from their time serving together in the CWDF during the Century War. Back then, as a captain of a destroyer, Morgan ran a tight ship and gave supposedly inspirational speeches harking back to historical victories back on Earth. A lot of the crew thought him old fashioned and one joker named him after the first five letters of an antique keyboard. It stuck, much to Morgan’s annoyance.
 

Mach tapped a message for the crew to meet him in the mess in five minutes. He rolled off the bed, zipped up his weighted graphite atmosphere suit, and headed outside.
 

Four huge, open hangars ran along the side of the klick-wide landing zone. Ships of different sizes dotted the concrete. The
Intrepid
was being repaired in the first hangar. The rest had destroyers under construction. Small figures of livians stood on the scaffolding around them, welding the frames. The Commonwealth and the Axis Combine were good at using peacetime to become more powerful and dangerous, which always made future skirmishes and threats that little bit more fun.

His smart-screen chirped: Adira sent a message back saying that she and Lassea were already in the mess. It didn’t surprise Mach for a moment. Those two had taken a shine to the local sludge that masqueraded as coffee.