Counterstrike (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 3) (18 page)

“Unhook from the safety lines! NOW!” Jackson bellowed into his helmet, making his own ears ring. “Hook onto each other, as many as can be reached!” He hooked his own line to Major Ortiz even as the other Marines hooked in, creating a cluster of bouncing EVA suits. Two from the science team also made it before the thrusters fired and hauled the shuttle up and away from the Alpha, the safety lines snapping taut before breaking. Jackson watched helplessly as two more of Commander Owens’s people were blown off the hull from the downwash and the crew chief was yanked away so violently that it was doubtful he’d survived.

“
Ares
, this is Wolfe,” Jackson keyed his external com. “What’s your status?” His call was met with only silence. He tried a few more times before he realized that the ship was either not receiving him or his hails were being blocked somehow.

“
Icarus
, this is Captain Wolfe. What is the status of the
Ares
?”

“
Captain?
” Celesta Wright’s voice came back after a moment. “
They’re just about to pull your shuttle into the hangar bay. What’s going on?
”

“We’re not on that shuttle!” Jackson said. “Tell Davis to lock down the hangar deck. That shuttle is not to be allowed to dock with the
Ares
. I want every Marine left on the ship to get their asses down there immediately.”

“
Captain, that Alpha is beginning to stir
,” Celesta said. “
Are you telling me you’re still on it?
”

“That is affirmative,” Jackson said. “We’ll activate our beacons and push off. Try to recover us, but your priority is that this Alpha
does not leave this system
. Am I clear, Lieutenant?”

“
Clear, sir
.”

“Now what, Captain?” Major Ortiz asked. He was privy to the command channel so he’d heard the entire exchange.

“Listen up, everyone,” Jackson addressed the whole group. “I have no idea what’s happening, but our immediate concern is clearing off this fucking alien ship before it takes off. I’ve ordered the
Icarus
to destroy it before it can get far and Captain Wright will do that whether we’re still on it or not.

“The
Ares
is non-responsive and we have to assume she’s been compromised. We’ll use our maneuvering thrusters to get as far clear of this thing as possible and then wait for the
Icarus
to send someone to get us. Is everyone clear?”

“Clear, sir!” The chorus of affirmatives came from the usual source. Jackson had a strong affinity for the Marines that served aboard his ships. They didn’t quibble about the details. Tell them it’s time to go and they go. Give them an enemy, point them in the right direction and turn ‘em loose. Fleet spacers, on the other hand, seemed to think most orders were open to debate if they didn’t agree or understand them.

“Okay, there are eight of us, so we’ll fire two suits at a time to conserve propellant and maximize our potential distance,” Jackson said. “Everyone activate their emergency locators and then the major and I will fire first.”

The leap-frog technique worked well and each blast from the compressed-gas thrusters added to their total velocity as they shot away from the Alpha. One thing about deep space, even just the gaps between the planets, is that there is far less light than people expect. It wasn’t long before the Alpha was swallowed up by the blackness and even the faint flare of starship engines and winking navigation lights blended in with the countless stars. Jackson thought about ordering their suit lights on just for the psychological comfort it would provide to be able to see each other, but the battery power was better spent on keeping their locator beacons squawking.

He was debating on contacting the
Icarus
again for another status update when a light source from behind him illuminated Major Ortiz and one of his Marines. He turned his head but all he could see was a blinding point of light that seemed to be coming closer.

“
Stand by, Senior Captain
,” a voice came over the open channel. “
I have all of you on thermals. I’m going to slide up above your cluster and the rescue crew will begin to reel you in. We’ll have you back aboard the Ares in time for dinner, sir
.”

The rescue operation was executed completely by the book, and by the time the shuttle crew was pulling the last spacer in and securing him to a jump seat barely fifteen minutes had elapsed. The crew chief closed and secured the aft hatch while the rescue team efficiently checked the health of their charges and made sure all of the EVA suits were still providing heat and atmosphere.

“Word just came in from the
Icarus
!” the call came over the shuttle’s open channel. “Stand by for a nuclear detonation!” Protective covers slammed into place over all the portholes and all side chatter stopped, everyone holding their collective breath as they waited on additional information from the
Icarus
.

“Senior Captain Wolfe, Captain Wright has asked me to inform you that the target Alpha has been completely destroyed,” the pilot said after another ten minutes. “We’ll be taking you back to the
Ares
now.”

“Thank you, Pilot,” Jackson keyed his mic. “Let’s not spare any fuel on the way back, shall we?”

“Of course not, sir,” the pilot chuckled.

****

“We’ve made contact with the flight crew,” Davis said as Jackson rushed onto the bridge like a madman, parts of his EVA suit still hanging off his thin frame. “They’re alive in their own suits, but they can’t reassert control over the shuttle.”

“Where is it?” Jackson demanded.

“Stationary relative to our position, five hundred meters off the bow and ten degrees to starboard,” Davis said. “The Vruahn cube is not answering any of our hails but it must be receiving. I threatened to open fire if it continued its approach and it stopped there.”

“Coms! Patch me through.”

“You’re on a live channel, sir.” Jackson noticed in passing that Lieutenant Keller was back at his station with a large bandage on the left side of his head.

“This is Captain Wolfe back aboard the
Ares
,” he said, trying to reign in his rage. “You have ten seconds to convince me not to turn you to slag.”

“Primary protocols dictated the protection of the communication node,” the cube’s voice came over the bridge speakers.

“At the cost of more lives?” Jackson seethed. “You’ll have to do better. I am not allowing you back on this ship while you’re operating under unknown protocols that are a clear danger to my ship and my crew.”

“If you do not allow the cube back aboard your vessel, Captain, your mission will have been for nothing,” the cube said. “Is that really what you want?”

“Ah … the handlers,” Jackson recognized the shift in the cube’s speech patterns. “Now we’re getting somewhere. My ultimatum stands. Get someone on the channel that can offer assurances or I vaporize the cube with the node in it.”

“Your officers are also inside the shuttle,” the cube pointed out.

“You’re wasting time,” Jackson ignored the barb. The channel fell silent for a few minutes before he felt they needed another prod.

“Tactical, lock forward battery onto the shuttle,” he said. “Maximum power.”

“Aye, sir,” Barrett said without hesitation. “Forward laser battery coming online. Targeting sweep initiated.”

“Captain, there’s a private com channel request coming in for you from the shuttle,” Keller said. “The header tag says it’s from a ‘Setsi?’ Am I saying that right?”

“Send it to my office, Mr. Keller,” Jackson turned to walk off the bridge. “And it’s good to see you back on duty.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

****

“Captain, I thought we were past all this needless posturing.” Setsi’s expressionless face appeared on Jackson’s terminal screen.

“Your animated stasis pod just fucking killed another three of my crew!” Jackson raged, not caring that the hatch wasn’t soundproof. “What kind of bullshit alliance is this? We are not expendable beasts of burden and I am not posturing. I
will
destroy that cube.”

“That
cube
was designed, built, and delivered at your request.” Setsi actually seemed exasperated. “Did you think that you would win your little war without any more bloodshed?”

“I did not,” Jackson said. “But I also didn’t expect said blood to be spilled because of Vruahn arrogance or incompetence … I haven’t decided which.”

“You dare to accuse
us
of such things?” Setsi’s face morphed through a few unreadable expressions before settling back down again. “Captain … we have worked with humans for nearly two of your centuries and never had we come up against such inexplicable hostility or obtuseness.”

“You’ve kept human pets that you’ve trained to be attack dogs,” Jackson shot back. “Don’t bullshit me, Setsi … you had no intention of helping us until your own little corner of the galaxy was threatened. There is so much about this that stinks to high heaven, but right now I only care about one thing: are you going to give me
all
of the information on this machine that’s been carving a bloody swath through my crew? Or am I going to give the order to fire and end this ridiculous one-sided alliance?”

Setsi stared blankly at him through the monitor in what could have been interpreted as an attempt at intimidation, but Jackson knew to mean that whoever was controlling the avatar had stepped away for something.

“We will be sending the entire technical specifications for both the stasis pod and the proposed mission parameters as well as updating the primary protocols to make the machine more … forthcoming and flexible,” Setsi said. “We regret the deaths of your crewmembers, Captain. We hope they will not have been in vain. Stand by for data transmission.”

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Jackson said to a blank screen as the channel had been terminated remotely from the other side.

“
Captain, we have an incoming channel request from the cube
,” Davis broke in over the intercom. “
Data only
.”

“Let it through,” Jackson said. “Tell Barrett to power down the forward batteries and then get me a channel to Captain Wright. I need to be briefed on the particulars of the Alpha.”

“Aye, sir.”

During Celesta’s debrief about how she had made the call to fire two Shrikes into the hole they’d cut through the Alpha’s hull, Jackson was preoccupied with the odd shift in their arrangement with the Vruahn. He wasn’t sure if the sudden acquiescence made him feel any more secure about his allies or not.

“I ordered Jillian to have the
Ares
ready to move but to stand fast,” Celesta was saying. “Your standing order to kill the Alpha had technically been to me, and I didn’t want her taking any heat if somehow it had been the wrong move while you were out of contact.”

“Hmm?” Jackson murmured. “Oh, yes. You did exactly as you should have, Captain. Thank you for confirming we were aboard the shuttle before firing. Two months of radiation treatment isn’t my idea of a good time.”

“Of course, sir,” Celesta said. “Will there be anything else?”

“No, Captain, this mission is concluded,” Jackson sighed. “At great cost we managed to pull it off and now it’s time to get back to New Sierra. I’ll bet the political powers that be have shaken off their initial shock and are coming at the admiral in full force. Be ready to depart the system within the day. If the
Ares
isn’t ready to make the transition then the stasis cube will be transferred to the
Icarus
and you will fly the flag back to Terran space.”

“Yes, sir,” Celesta nodded. “
Icarus
out.”

Jackson stayed in his office a bit longer, not wanting to go out on the bridge just yet after the debacle that was the EVA mission. He swung his chair around, pulled his utility pant leg up, and detached his prosthetic to allow the skin around the socket a chance to breathe a bit while he read the latest report that had come in from the
Hyperion
.

From what Captain Walton was implying it was good that they arrived when they did. There was almost a full-blown mutiny ready to erupt on the
Atlas
when they made contact, two separate factions fighting over whether to abandon ship or not. Disaster was barely averted there, and the
Hyperion
was able to drag the powerless
Atlas
up to a higher orbit so that engineering teams could get the stricken ship’s powerplant back up and running. As of the timestamp on the report they had fully charged the batteries and starter banks on the
Atlas
and were ready to begin priming Reactor One for a restart. The emergency backup fuel cells still would not engage, and they couldn’t figure out why, so for the time being they were ignoring that problem.

With a grunt of pain Jackson reattached his leg with a snap, waiting as the nerve sensations evened out from the prosthetic, and then fixed his uniform. He desperately wanted to sit down and enjoy a hot meal and he would seriously consider doing great bodily harm to someone if it meant he could lie down and sleep uninterrupted for at least five hours, but that wasn’t in the cards. The
Ares
was in a bad way and the crew had been beaten up plenty. He had to see to them and he wouldn’t be able to rest until the shuttle was back aboard and he talked to the cube again to see just what changes had been made when the Vruahn shifted the protocols around.