A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (10 page)

Another hit and the bridge just exploded around them.  One second, things were holding together, if dire, the next the bridge was in shambles and in flames. 

“Abandon ship!” Nazan rasped.  “We need to get the crew… off…”  And he slumped into the chair.

“Captain!” Alys Flynn cried, releasing her restraints.  She slammed her hand down on the abandon ship button on the bulkhead and a klaxon started wailing.  A klaxon she’d never hoped to hear.  Then she rushed over to Nazan and then gasped in dismay.

He was clutching weakly at his stomach and blood was seeping through his fingers, staining his uniform.  He was still conscious, but only barely.  “Get the crew… off… Alys…” Nazan ground out through gritted teeth.  He was obviously in great pain.

“Get over here!” she shouted to one of the bridge officers.  “Help me with the Captain.  We need to get him to the escape pod.”  He was bleeding out and there was nothing she could do to stop it.  She put her hand over his, trying to apply more pressure to the wound.

“What about the rest of the ship?” the man demanded.

“We can’t help them now.”  Alys released his restraining harness and started to pull him out of the command seat.  “We need to evacuate before the ship comes apart.”  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the
Cavalier
bucked from another hit, her frame and hull groaning with the sound of tortured metal.  “Help me!”  The comms officer rushed over and helped her drag the man out of his seat. 

The three other bridge watch hustled over to help, one of them pressing the control on the bulkhead to open the bridge door.  There was an escape pod in the corridor just outside the bridge and that’s where they were heading.  Alys and the comms officer dragged the now unconscious captain into the pod and the others piled in just behind. 

Another terrifying groan of metal and flames ignited down the corridor as a plasma conduit burst.  “Let’s go!” Alys said, putting her arms around the captain and holding his back against her, holding him tight with one hand over his gut wound.  There was no time to play with restraining harnesses.

The comms officer palmed the lock closed and the door hissed shut.  “Hang on!” he called and the pod jerked as the rockets fired, sending the pod away from the
Cavalier
.

“Yes!” Bek said, clenching one fist.  “One of the corvettes is breaking apart.  They’re launching escape pods.  I’m showing four pods accelerating away from that ship.”

“And the other?”

“Dead in space,” Bek replied.  “They’re adrift.”

Typhon nodded.  “Bring us around.  Helm, set a course back to the assault transport.  We’re going to render what assistance we can.”

“Aye, sir,” the wolf at the helm replied, changing the ship’s course.

As
Illuyanka
slewed around, her main propulsion units fired, slowing the cruiser.  Typhon checked the sensors and saw that the cargo ships were on approach.  Another half hour and they would be alongside with the very nice and tasty tank farm that was in geosync orbit over their gas mining station.  There were a pair of defensive turrets nearby to the He3 tanks, but
Illuyanka
was now too far away to properly engage them. 

The general settled himself back in his command seat.  “Comms, open a channel to the
Ganges
, tell them we’re moving to assist HT-626.  They need to clear the way for the cargo ships.”

“Aye, sir.”  The wolf started speaking into the mic, sending the message to the other light cruiser.

Typhon scowled. 
At least we managed the two kills. 
Even the thought of his assault transport and his wolves in trouble wasn’t enough to dampen his spirits. 

“Is he all right?” Alys Flynn demanded, grabbing the other officer by the sleeve.

They were aboard the escape pod, floating free and on a course away from the gas giant.  There were six of them, all bridge officers and none of them were free of injury.  Alys had a long cut running down her forearm.  The comms officer had medical training and was doing his best to treat the captain’s belly wound.  A piece of the Operations console had exploded, and a chunk had hit him in the midsection, impaling him.  Alys, as ranking officer, had assessed the damage and ordered the crew to abandon ship.  The officers had grabbed Nazan Tariq, stuffed him and themselves into the nearest escape pod and launched.

The captain’s head was resting on her lap while the comms officer injected the man with a vial of combat heal from the medkit and wrapped the wound with gauze.  The chunk of metal from the Ops console was still there. 

“He’s really hurt, Alys,” the comms officer snarled, running a scanner over the captain’s terrible wound.

“Tony, can’t you get that thing out of him?” one of the others asked, pointing.

Tony, the comms officer, glared at the other man.  “Yes, Darby, I can.  I can just yank that chunk of metal out of the man, but then he’ll bleed out in minutes.  It’s unsightly, I know, but for the moment, it’s the best thing we can do, just leave it in there until we can get him to a proper sickbay, either on the mine, or on one of the other ships.”  Finally, he sat back and wiped his forehead.  “That’s the best I can do for now.  He’s stable, but we really need to hope we get picked up soon.”  He gestured at Alys’s arm.  “Let me take a look at that cut.”

She shook her head, more concerned with the unconscious captain.  “It’s fine.”

But Tony was insistent.  “It’s not fine.  You’re losing blood.”  She started to argue further, but gave up at the glower on his face.

Alys sighed and nodded.  “Fine.  Just be quick about it.”  She grimaced as he swabbed out the wound with a cleaning salve from the kit, then jabbed her in the arm with another vial of the nanite healing solution.  He slapped a patch over the wound, sealing it. 

“There, that should be good until we can get you to hospital.”

“Beacon’s active,” one of the others reported.  “Now we wait.  And hope that the pirates don’t decide to use us for target practice.”

“Don’t tempt fate,” Alys told him.  She leaned her head against the metal hull of the pod.  “Last thing we need is for one of those pirate ships to get any ideas.”

“Do we know if any other pods made it off of
Cavalier
?” Tony asked, checking on the injuries of the others.

Alys shrugged, putting her hand on the captain’s shoulder.  The man would have despaired at the utter destruction of his ship.  He might yet, once he woke up.  The wrecked chunks of
Cavalier
had been on a collision course with the gas giant, most likely to be burned up in the atmosphere.  “I think at least two others did.  But I don’t have any idea.  The pod doesn’t have very good sensors.”  She closed her eyes.  “I will miss that ship.”

“First one I ever served on,” Tony admitted. 

“Think the company will build another?”

Alys closed her eyes.  “Don’t be an idiot.  Of course they’ll build another ship.  Several.  I’m going to petition that one of the ships gets named
Cavalier
.”

After that they continued floating off into the Deep Dark, no one really having anything more to say.

Commander Hestian smiled, well pleased. 
Ganges
was romping around the tank farm, weapons blazing as the light cruiser tore apart the defensive weapon turrets.  Missiles impacted against the cruiser’s shields, but
Ganges
managed to shrug off most of them and shoot down most of the rest.  Two missiles exploded against the shields, but the fire wasn’t concentrated; one missile hit each side of the ship.  The cruiser rocked under the blows, but kept on going.

“Minor spotting on the shields after that last hit,” Gorgen, the lupusan in charge of tactical reported.  “Down to fifty-eight percent.”  He pressed another control, letting loose with another salvo of heavy lasers.  The strike shredded one of the automated defensive turrets. 

“Two down, four to go,” Hestian grunted.  His first battle with his first command of the
Ganges
was going swimmingly so far.  Thankfully, Lord Verrikoth had given Hestian his head and allowed him to chase after those corvettes and now to clear up the defensive turrets around the gas mine and the tank farm.  There was the pride of the Lord’s flag to consider as well, of course.  If General Typhon was going to race after them and get to the goods, he couldn’t be allowed to do so on his own.  Lord Verrikoth had brought this fleet here to load up on goods and to make a statement here in Seylonique and had brought Typhon and his Dog Soldiers along as a hammer to his own forces’ anvil.  But that didn’t mean that the pirate lord trusted him.  Nor did Hestian, a fellow lupusan.

Besides, it felt good to run
Ganges
through her paces.  The ship had been in several engagements already, but this was the first with Hestian in command.  Jensen Tyler had been in command of the ship since its commission and had done a good job of running things.  This had been the only of the trio of light cruisers to have survived the fight with the Republic in Byra-Kae and among the most powerful units in Lord Verrikoth’s fleet.  Hestian had managed to convince Verrikoth to give him command of
Ganges
and he wanted to be sure that he had what it took.

“Helm, bring us to two-seven-three, keep us on the same plane,” he ordered in his gravelly voice.  “Target the next platform and roll the ship.  Shields!”

              The zheen at the shields station turned, his antennae curling and uncurling.  “I have shunted emergency reserves into the shields; they are now coming up to seventy-five percent.”

              “Good, make sure our hull is protected as we go back in.”  Hestian nodded.  “We have more of those turrets to take out.  I want to make sure the way is clear for the cargo ships when they get here.”

              “Yes, Commander,” the zheen replied, turning back to his console.

              This was proving to be costly, and yet, Hestian was surprised at the defenders’ response.  The corvettes and the fighters had done a good job of engaging and handling the light forces, though their own numbers were dwindling.  They had the punch to handle the fleet’s corvettes and starfighters, but they didn’t have much that could challenge the cruisers. 

              Just then, the comms operator turned to Hestian.  “Commander!  There’s an incoming message coming through in the clear.”

              Hestian gestured for the man to get on with it.  The operator pressed a control and the sound of a zheen voice came over the speakers.  “One vision!” 

He looked to the comms operator.  “That’s it?” he asked.

The man looked confused.  He checked his console.  “Yes, sir, that’s it.  Nothing more.”

“Commander! 
Nemesis
is under attack!”

A few minutes earlier…

              “That cruiser is going to mess things up in a hurry,” Korqath mused.  The battle had been going fairly well, up to this point, but after the pirate heavy cruiser trashed the
Angara
and then one of the light cruisers destroyed
Eridain
and
Cavalier
, he knew that the tide had turned.  There was nothing more than fighters (and the
Maitland
) left to stop the pirates from taking the Kutok mine.

              “That’s what I was saying, Lead,” Hukriss agreed.  “That big goliath blitzer is going to burn all of our real estate out here and clearly the big ships aren’t up to stopping it.”

              Korqath keyed his comms to the squadron channel.  “All ships, this is Korqath.  Anyone who has a clear shot at the pirate’s heavy cruiser, lock on to my telemetry now.”  He brought up his targeting and locked onto the center of the large warship.  The tone turned solid and the reticule changed from yellow to red.  He waited another ten seconds while the rest of the pilots lined up.  The acknowledgements came back, he heard nine voices and then decided he couldn’t wait any longer.  “Ready and… fire!”  He pressed the triggers and two missiles dropped off the wings of his fighter and raced for the cruiser. 

              First five, then eight, then twelve and then sixteen, then more and more pairs of missiles joined his, all streaking toward their target as fast as their rocket motors could carry them. 

              Korqath, unable to control a triumphant impulse, keyed his comms to broadcast in the open, no encryption, for all to hear.  “One vision!” he screamed into his mic, putting all the rage and hate he could into that cry.  A few seconds later, the remaining Aploras and Twin Novas echoed his call.

              “Incoming fire!” the sensor officer called out.  Commander Tyler was at his side in an instant, looking over the young man’s shoulder. 

              “He’s right, my Lord,” Jensen Tyler reported.  “Sixty plus inbound.”

              “Point defensse,” Verrikoth ordered.  “Shoot them down.”  The zheen pirate lord’s voice was utterly calm, as though a hail storm of missiles wasn’t just bearing down on his flagship.