At least we had a warning. Lousy timing, of course, but there couldn't be better given the circumstances. We stood ready when the airlock door popped open, and a were tumbled out.
We were not ready for him to be dead. Nor the next two. Their helmets had been punctured.
By the time a woman showed her face, I had enough curiosity not to shoot her.
"We found a wreck," she said without prompting. "Human ship, but it turned out those bastards had already taken her. They took over the Sailfor, killed our Captain and a few others, and held our children hostages against mutiny. We took our chances here. We have seven more dead aliens. All we ask is that you take our five children and try to keep them safe."
"There is a were mother ship out there," I said with a wave of my hand. "We're not exactly a safe location."
"Any port in a storm," she replied. She was pale, thin, and had a few too many bruises. "They still have a better chance of survival with you than on the ship. Hell, we hoped when the fight got going between the crew and the station people that you'd take the ship."
"Get the kids," I said. She gave me a brighter smile than I expected. "And all the crew, too. Brick here will take you to the core. They'll need to be watched, Brick. Just to be safe. Go! Get them! The core is the only place even marginally safe now."
She turned and shouted to the others. Lisel dragged the were bodies off to the side and somewhat out of sight. I couldn't imagine why until the first of the children appeared. The youngest was barely old enough to walk. They froze at the edge of the airlock, looking equally terrified and amazed. The first woman made her way past them. I counted five more crew besides her.
Brick and Lisel herded the children into a group. One small girl seemed intrigued by the Catchin fur, so he sat and let her and the others pet him. That helped to stem the panic, I thought. I was glad when he handed the last child to another man.
"What's your name?" I asked of the woman in charge.
"Sima. I was assistant engineer until they killed Trey. Since then, I've kept us running."
From the way she said those words, I knew she'd considered blowing the ship to hell, and she still wasn't sure she'd made the right choice. I couldn't blame her, given the situation.
"I'm Tana. I was on the fighter that attacked your craft. I'm sorry. We had no way --"
Sima put a hand on my arm and nodded. "You did what needed to be done."
"I think we might need to do more with your ship."
"Do it. None of us will ever want to go back to her. The codes are all open. We had to do that for the were. She's yours."
Sima walked away with the others, taking that youngest child in her arms. Lisel watched with me for a moment, but that's all the time we had.
"We will save them," Lisel said. "We will save them all."
I looked back at the screens and nodded. I scanned positions and realized it was not going to get any better.
"Showtime," I said.
"Well, I hope it is entertaining," Lisel replied. He took out another were fighter. They'd gotten a bit careless since we hadn't been shooting for a while.
I took one last moment to go over my program and make a slight adjustment. I double-checked my links as well. I couldn't say that I thought it would really work, but hell -- they trusted me with all this power, I might as well make good use of it.
"And here we go," I mumbled and typed in the sequence I'd set up.
The robo ships came to life, engines firing at full power, all of them turning in one direction -- and surging straight at the mother ship.
"That is a joy to see," Lisel admitted with a true purr. "One of those rare moments you can only hope to experience once before you die. And we are going to die, you know."
"Maybe not today. The fighters are a bit slow to respond."
It felt like an hour, watching those little ships head as fast as they could for the mother ship while the enemy dithered. By the time they did turn their attention to the unmanned craft, I had adjusted their flight, and they were heading straight for the nearest were bay. Other fighters were coming out and starting to shoot -- but I'd made plans for that, too. My little ships began to move in an intricate braiding pattern that took them in wide swings, back and forth. We lost four.
The rest went straight into the bay and impacted somewhere in the interior.
For one brief moment, a light like a star blazed. In the next, pieces of the enormous ship broke off. More fighters tumbled out as well, and Lisel was taking out more than his share that came back at us.
I had the feeling I'd made them angry.
Then, from one heartbeat to the next, the were fighters suddenly spun and sped away straight for the larger ship. She was turning as well, in an awkward jerking sort of motion that I'd never seen in any kind of ship. They were trying to pull out.
And for one moment, I thought I would let them go. Then I looked at the still open airlock to the Sailfor and glanced at Lisel.
He nodded.
"Krisin? You still there? I think we're going to need you --"
"Already -- on -- my -way," he answered, breathless as he ran. "Don't leave without me."
I went to the airlock and looked in, thinking it might have been better if I hadn't already shot the ship full of holes...
No comments:
Post a Comment