A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (82 page)

              The hull shredded under the stress.  It actually broke into three distinct parts, one hundred meters from the bow, and then another eighty meters back from that.  From there, the sections ripped apart into even smaller pieces, with huge chunks of shrapnel spalling off into the void.  The drive section, still on full, slammed the after section into the broken forward sections which bounced off and were flung off into the void.  Internals were ravaged first by the maneuver and then the push, and then finally the hits by the chunks of battlecruiser.  Anyone in those sections was instantly killed due to the inertial dampener failure, though those sections were cleared of the living only moments after the
Leytonstone
went into its crazy corkscrew flight, pressed against the bulkheads enduring an insane amount of g’s until they were finally, mercifully dead.

              Fuel lines and control lines throughout the forward sections, the severed sections, were ruptured, interrupted, incomplete and sometimes garbled commands were sent to any still functioning systems in those sections of the ship.  Reactor One went into full shutdown when the fuel was cut, but Reactor Three at the very edge of the drive section was smashed by tumbling chunk of the battlecruiser and breached.  A titanic explosion engulfed the forward edge of the drive section and all but one of the main propulsion units flared out.  Thrusters began firing at random, powered only by Reactor Four at thirty percent power.  The drive section tumbled, completely out of control, heading in the general direction of deep space.

              General Typhon nodded in satisfaction.  “Job well done.  Our people do excellent work.  Collect the shuttles and then let us depart this system.”  He paused for a moment.  “Comms, set to record.  Once I’m done, you’re to transfer the message to a chip and then put it on a communication probe.  It is to be set to broadcast once we have retrieved the shuttles.”

              “Ready, sir.”

              “Focus in tight on my face, I don’t want them to know we’re in one of their destroyers, not until we have to.”

              “Understood.”  The specialist pressed a control, then nodded.  “Ready to record, General.”

              “People of the Seylonique Star System, I am General Typhon, commander of the forces who have now twice invaded this system and now have destroyed your strongest Naval asset.  I want all of you to know that you are not alone out here in the Argos Cluster.  You intrigue me and now that I know you exist, I will be focusing my attention here.  And no amount of battlecruisers will keep you safe from me.  I will leave you to think about things for a while.  But when I return, you will show me the respect that I am due and you will wonder whether the next ship that enters the system is going to be one of mine.”

              He chuckled.  “Sleep well.”  And the message ended.

Epilogue

              Tamara Samair sat in the cockpit of
Moxie-2
with her pilot, with the guards in the aft section of the small ship.  They were keeping things under control, but everyone on the ship was just stunned.  Minutes before, the Seylonique Navy had command of the strongest ship in the Cluster, now, that ship was nothing but a spreading cloud of debris.  There would be all sorts of political, military and even economic ramifications that would come from the fallout, but for now, she and everyone else was just stunned.  There was a new player in local space now.  A General Typhon, a lupusan pirate.  He clearly was skilled and experienced and most importantly, dangerous.

              But so many aboard the battlecruiser were dead now. 
Moxie-2
was detecting a cluster of life signs in the now unpowered drive section of the derelict, so there was some small good news to take from this terrible day.  They were also picking up emergency beacons from almost a hundred escape pods.

              She didn’t know what to say, what to think.  So many dead, and the great sword of the Navy torn asunder.  They would need to be on alert more than ever now, because when Verrikoth discovered this latest development, he would inevitably capitalize on this.

              Malachai Gants, if he was still alive out there in one of those escape pods, or in the drive section of the ship, would be beside himself.  But it wouldn’t last long, because there was a one hundred percent certainty that the admin council would crucify him over this incident.  His career was certainly over; he’d be extremely lucky to escape execution or prison.

              Tamara’s own involvement in this affair would come under scrutiny, but she wasn’t a military officer in the Seylonique Navy.  She could ride this out.  What was important was to keep moving forward, to make this system ready when the pirates decided to come back here.  They would have to.  The people of this system, and possibly their allies in Ulla-tran and Heb as well, would need to have strong spines to get past this terrible day.  They would have to stand strong and work together.

              She let her head fall back against the headrest and closed her eyes. 
Hell of a day.

Author’s Note

              This book was such a long but fun ride.  Life certainly got in the way with this story, but I don’t regret the telling.  Wanted to make sure it was right.  I hope you liked it.

But wait! I hear you wail.  There are so many loose ends!

Of course there are.  This is the continuing saga of Tamara Samair in the Argos Cluster, along with the other peoples here.  There’s lots of things to do, lots of stories to continue and new ones to find.

Some of you might be wondering, “Mike, what’s the deal with the gas giant aliens?  They just show up, start sucking up essence and don’t really do anything.  I need satisfaction!”  This was deliberate.  These are alien creatures with their own agenda who believe that they are superior to the “vermin” races of the Argos Cluster in every way.  Their tech advantage, at least, certainly makes this part at least true.  They don’t care about the other races, they aren’t interested in politics or fighting or even observing them.  I wanted a new, strange, …alien perspective to show up and have their own thoughts, problems and agendas to work with.  Torinal-Winged-Harmony and the others on the vessel will be back, but they’ve come a long way, paving the way for colonization efforts for their fellows back home.  The gas giant in Bimawae is a pit stop to refuel, reprovision and repair the vessel.  It really isn’t compatible for long-term needs.  And the vessel took a lot of damage in the flight from the stresses and radiation of hyperspace, and such a HUGE vessel takes a lot of time and resources to patch up.  They’re going to be in there for a while.  I wanted them to be a literal immovable object, since the “vermin” races would have an extremely difficult time trying to affect or even hurt the vessel.

[Amused EM pulse.]

Verrikoth and Typhon have plans of their own, though not necessarily compatible with one another.  They each have their strengths and weaknesses.  Typhon has been at this for two and a half centuries, so he’s a very good pirate, but he has little interest in empire building.  Verrikoth, by comparison, has only been doing this for a few years and he very much IS interested in building his empire. 

I tried to save Gants.  I really did.  I couldn’t think of a way to get him off the ship, the bastard is stubborn and he loves that ship.  And I do think it is possible that he learned from the trouncing
Leytonstone
received at the beginning of First Principles (Book 3) and tried to become a better man, a better leader for it. 

Thank you all so much for reading, I hope that you will continue to join me for more adventures.   If you’re not there already, join us on the Facebook group page,
Samair in Argos .